Feature
Musician
Guitarist
Tony
Smotherman
Middleburg,
FL USA
tonysmotherman@aol.com
www.tonysmotherman.com
Providing audiences with a
world of melodic phrases and over-the-top guitar master techniques, Tony
Smotherman is a 25-year-old virtuoso musician who has gained recognition
from all over the world. He combines techniques used on instruments
from across the globe (such as the sitar) with highly melodic phrasing and
insane chops.
His unique playing, which
blends the styles of rock, blues, jazz, classical, and new age along with
sounds from around the world (including India, Ireland, Africa, and Brazil),
creates one huge musical package. Tony's peers are left wondering in
confusion about the wonderful sounds they just heard and his fans pack clubs
to get a glimpse of this gifted artist that has performed with the
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Jacksonville, FL USA and even for Queen
Elizabeth II.
Check iD out and come meet
Tony Smotherman, an artist and a very spiritual person. Read the
interview below and get an expert guitar lesson. Sound clips of Tony's
playing will be offered soon. Thanks, Tony, for all your hard work
with iD 2002's first interview.
Read iD's interview
with Tony Smotherman by
clicking here
Get a guitar
lesson with
Tony Smotherman by
clicking here
You can now listen to
clips from the upcoming "Live Release" from April 29,
2005
on the Media page of
www.tonysmotherman.com.
Feature
Symphonic Composer
Richard Englefield
symphonycomposer@aol.com
www.symphonybyenglefield.com
Composer Richard Englefield resides
near Gainesville, Florida. He began composition at the age of 55 during
serious illness believing his first symphony would be his last and serve
as a legacy for his adult children and others in the family. Miraculously after four surgeries he recovered to compose nine
symphonies, twelve piano sonatas, and various chamber works including a
majestic oratorio for full orchestra, pipe organ, and massed choirs.
His
music has been featured on various NPR Radio stations and the Voice of
America beaming to over 150,000,000 people in 48 different languages
throughout the world. The London Symphony, Slovak Radio Symphony, and
Martinu Philharmonic (Czech Republic) Orchestras have recorded his music
for CDs. Simon James, principal violinist for the Seattle Symphony
Orchestra has performed Mr. Englefield's Violin Concerto.
The music of Richard Englefield
has been referred to by professionals most favorably as "fun,"
"gifted," "accessible," "enjoyably
different," "joyful," and "not to be ignored."
The composer began to dream of symphony composition following a sixth
grade book report on the life of Tchaikovsky. His paradigm was from the
20th Century and therefore included Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Duke
Ellington, Count Basie, and the famous Montevani Strings. As a child,
Richard Englefield was an improvising tenor in a boys quartet that
earned numerous awards in the area surrounding his hometown of
Springfield, Ohio.
He explains that his music is guided by a melodist
theory, rhythmic dynamics, and variegated transitions. The contemporary
style atonal and unharmonious music will not be heard in Englefield's
symphonies. The results seem to dispel his childhood disdain for long
and boring passages which are the biggest complaints heard by those who
turn away from symphony performances. The music of Richard Englefield
has been referred to as "uniquely different."
Englefield's comprehensive Web
site introduces the visitor to professional opinions of his music, brief
streaming samples, entire repertoire, and the Synopsis and Forward to his
autobiography "Englefield's Enchanted Encore." The very
attractive Web site also boasts a nearly 100% return rate from thousands
of e-mail Introduction announcements. Interested readers of iD Magazine
may view his Web site by clicking on the link above. You can also
purchase cds from his site. Dialogue or
questions for the composer may be directed to the e-mail address also
listed above.
Listen
to Mr. Englefield's Music!
Click the link below if
you have a HIGH-SPEED
Internet connection.
http://www.symphonybyenglefield.com/music_high.html
Listen
to Mr. Englefield's Music!
Click the link below if
you have a DIAL-UP
Internet connection.
http://www.symphonybyenglefield.com/music_low.html
Musical
Organizations
Calling all
Jacksonville, FL area oboist, oboe d'amour players, English
horn players, bassoonists, and contra bassoonists! A new double reed organization
is
needed in the Jacksonville, FL USA metro area, with members from
Brunswick, GA to St. Augustine, FL. The tubists have their
Christmas gathering. Now it's time for the double reeds to speak
their voice!
All players from intermediate junior high to seasoned
professional musicians are welcomed. Area band directors will be
contacted with a request for helping spread the word to their double
reed students,
for supplying a much needed band room on rehearsal night, and with hopes of finding
a director to conduct Double Trouble.
Please
e-mail us if you
are interested in periodically playing fun and challenging (and
specially arranged) music. When you put a bunch of double reed players together, it will be
challenging alright. Please respond quickly with your preferred
rehearsal day and time and be sure to include your name, e-mail
address, and phone number.
Email
Us.
Music Information
The
Oboe
The oboe is the highest
pitched member of the double reed family. Its sound is produced by
forcing air through a thinly tapered double reed. One end of the
double reed mouthpiece has an opening that is just a slit. The other
end of the reed is tied around a tube wrapped in cork. The cork end
is inserted in the instrument, while the other is blown into by the
oboist.
The name oboe comes from
the French word hautbois, which means "loud wood." The
oboe is responsible for carrying out the steady A note to which all
other instruments of the orchestra tune. The oboe is pitched
in the key of C. Two or three oboes are
found in an orchestra, the third playing the English horn (a tenor
oboe) when required.
The range of both the
oboe and the English horn is more than two and a half octaves, but
the English horn is pitched a fifth lower than the oboe, in the key
of F. The
instrument is a little longer than oboe; has a pear-shaped bell; and
has a longer, curved metal tube at the top to which the double reed
mouthpiece is attached. The oboe d'amour (an alto oboe) looks
similar to the English horn except it is smaller in overall size and is
pitched higher, in the key of A.
Some oboists are able to
produce a sound that can be considered the most expressive
orchestral voice. The oboe has been featured in many solo works by
several different composers.
The
Bassoon
The bassoon is the bass member of the
double reed family and can be recognized in an orchestra by its bell
rising into the air near the clarinets. The bassoon has the ability
to produce comic effects and unusual noises and was even depicted as
an angry grandfather in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.
Several types of this instrument
existed in the 17th Century, but currently there is only one type of
bassoon and the contrabassoon, which is much larger and curvy and is
pitched an octave lower than the bassoon. The contrabassoon is the
lowest pitched instrument in the orchestra.
A bassoon is usually composed of wood
and is divided into five individual pieces, fitting together to form
a tube that stands almost four feet high. A bent piece of metal,
called a crook, is attached to the main body of the instrument and
holds the double reed. The player blows into the double reed to
produce the instrument's sound.
Bassoons are held away from their
players' bodies at an angle and are supported against their right
thigh. A cord on which the player sits is attached to the lower part
of the instrument and lends additional support. The bassoon
has a range of 3 1/2 octaves, and its original role was to double
the cellos and enhance the bass line. Bassoonists today play a more
independent role in the orchestra.
