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  4. When the Bough Breaks for Oboe and Piano

  • When the Bough Breaks for Oboe and Piano

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    Happy New Year, VSL Community!

    I'd like to share a new piece with you. It features VSL's French Oboe.

    A wistful and melancholic piece, When the Bough Breaks, is the first in an as-yet-to-be completed collection of instrumental works for oboe and piano that seeks to explore the lyrical nature of the oboe through traditional romantic harmonies, flowing melodies, and a hint of 21st century modernity.

    When the Bough Breaks for Oboe and Piano by David Carovillano - YouTube

    Thanks for listening!

    David
  • W
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    A charming composition that I'm sure a lot of oboe players would love to do!  

    On the performance I noticed the releases of the oboe sounded too long.  The oboe being a double reed cuts off almost instantly as soon as the breath stops, and has no ramp down of volume like you get with default sample release time.  But a very trivial problem solved  by turning the release slider down.  I started listening to oboe releases and notice you can hear some of the Silent Stage reverb - which is almost non-existence - on the release samples, so that may also be an issue.

    Anyway that's a beautiful composition!  
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    I should add it's great to hear some more of your outstanding works!
  • Fabio BiolcatiF
    Fabio BiolcatiF

    Very charming, David.
    As those little release issues went solved, it will also sound very good.
    Waiting for the further numbers to come.

    VI Special Edition 1-3, Reaper, MuseScore 3, Notion 3 (collecting dust), vst flotsam and jetsam
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    Well it's not really an issue. I am just obsessed with release times of double reed instruments.  Probably an indication of a deep-seated childhood trauma that needs to be psychoanalyzed.  
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    Hi David, to begin with: a happy New Year for you and your whole family! 
    I like this piece. I like the oboe. Although I heared also the release time little thing, for the rest I loved the performance very much. Very lively, warm, musical, I really enjoyed it, very "oboe" (I played the instrument for three years in a very long past, because of this sound!). Thanks for sharing.
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    Thank you, WIlliam, Fabio, and MMKA!

    William, I had to smile when I saw your comment re. the release samples for the oboe.  We have the releases cranked up to the mid-80s (I think they default in the mid 60s?)  Anyway, the oboe is what it is, and to be honest, those abrupt cut offs are less pleasant to me than a little more tail/reverb to help make the oboe sound sweeter than its raw/natural sound might provide :)  We were listening one day to a string quartet performing live in a radio talk show studio setting (PBS) and were originally thinking it sounded like a cheap late 90s midi recording.  At the end, the host introduced them as a quartet of members from a major symphony.  It is absolutely amazing how much we can change the perception of sound via the recording environment/techniques, etc.  I think, sometimes, our access to these tools does give us the possibility of moving away from true realism to idealism in sound.  In any case, for this piece, we actually were modeling the sound as close as we could to a piece by Glick, recorded in a cathedral in Toronto.  It definitely has a little more reverb than some might prefer.

    Fabio, thanks for your encouragement.  It will be a while before I do more of these, as I'm finishing a clarinet sonata's midi performance, along with some bigger Acclarion pieces for our next (last) CD.

    MMKA, that's great that you played oboe!  Did you fiddle with making your own reeds?  That seems to be the life of an oboist, and always amazes me how much time they devote to that part of their instrument.  I'm glad I'm a "pick up and play it" instrumentalist, without having to spend time on maintenance/reed making, etc.

    Dave
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    Aha! I caught you!  I thought those release times were cranked up. 

    I'm sure MMKA will have a reply concerning oboe players and reeds -  my niece Mary King who is a great oboe and English horn player spent endless amounts of time tweaking reeds, and didn't even consider herself expert at it.  It is a major part of playing the instrument just to get a note to  sound,  let alone create a good note. 
  • M
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    On "invitation" of William (but it is not a technical story about making reeds...): To begin with: I never made one reed. I bought them from my teacher. I had my oboe lessons always in the attic of my oboe teacher, where his studio was, and there he was almost always working on his reeds. He was one of the first oboists of the local symphony orchestra, and every year again with the start of the new season in september the big question was: should he have a good reed for the concerts, and preferably 2 to have a reserve? It gave often stress, because he did't know when he started a reed, how the quality turned out to be. So he made many at the same time, hoping there would be at least one very good copy. Every year he went on holiday with his family to Spain to buy a lot of Arundo Donax reed. The most stems were not useful for the reed for the oboe. And he used the unused stems to decorate the walls of his studio as a wallpaper.
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    @William said:

    Aha! I caught you! I thought those release times were cranked up.
    Haha! You're like a forensic audiologist that's solving midi production crimes. I'm guilty of oboe tampering, so throw the book at me.
  • PaulP Paul moved this topic from Orchestration & Composition on