Music

I own a Perl 661RBE flute, pictured at right, and I play mostly classical music. My main interest has always been the music of J.S. Bach. I think I could spend my entire life studying Bach's music, and still only scratch the surface of his depth, emotion and intellect. Like so many other people, I've transcribed many of his violin, cello and keyboard works so that I could play them on the flute.

Unlike violins, which have changed very little since the 1700's, flutes have been complete redesigned. Modern flutes are made of silver instead of wood, have keys instead of bored holes, and are cylindrical instead of conical. As a result, modern flutes have more tonal range, greater dynamics, consistent power and more tonal variation than their older Baroque cousins. They also take far more air to play. Baroque phrases are often too long to play on a modern flute without taking extra breaths or playing very quietly; In other words, compromising the music for the sake of the musician.

To get around these problems, flute players use extended techniques. Robert Dick has (literally) written the book on the subject. Two of the techniques he teaches are multiphonics and circular breathing. Playing more than one note at the same time is called multiphonics. By focusing the airstream a bit differently than usual, and by using some special fingerings, you can coax two or more simultaneous notes out of a flute. With multiphonics, you can play the double stops in Bach's violin and cello works when you transcribe them for flute.

Circular breathing is a technique that lets you play continuous sound without needing to pause to take breaths. Didjeridoo players have been doing it for thousands of years. Oboe players, clarinet players and saxophone players all circular breathe, too. Why not flute players? It's a bit more difficult to circular breathe on a flute, but it's not impossible. Circular breathing lets you play long Baroque phrases with full dynamic range and expression.

I got sucked into the vortex of deep house music several years ago. I love DJing, and I love records, which I suppose explains the clutter in my living room. It seems that house music is taking a bit of a popularity beating lately, and maybe that's ok. There were so many people clubbing for reasons other than the music. Now it's just the music lovers who are left. Of course, it's not as lonely and desperate as it sounds: People are still playing music, and dancing all over North America, and you don't have to go very far to find a good groove. There's great music all the way from Stereo night club in Montreal, to Lounge in Greensboro, North Carolina, to any and everything associated with imperial dub recordings in San Francisco, California.