Show 212: Flutes with Coral

I am interviewing a talented undergraduate, Coral, from Ashland, PA.  She's a mathematics major, also minoring in Computer Science, and an accomplished flutist.  In the interview we discover that she's also trying to teach herself the oboe and the clarinet.

The interview segments are self-explanatory, and serve as a springboard for a number of woodwind-related tracks we play.  We also listen to some 90s-style rock, because that's what Coral likes to listen to when she's off duty!

Part A

Part B

Part C

Part D


Part A:

Following up on the fact that Coral is a serious flutist, I played for her the famous Poulenc Flute Sonata, the first movement.  Carol said that it was lovely, but added that it sounded a lot more difficult to play to her than it did to me.  (Obviously, to a non-flutist, everything played well sounds effortless.)

Next, I was reminded of the fact that Coral was also the designated piccolo player, and played piccolo both in the Lyco band, as well as in the Flute Choir, which played some rather difficult pieces one time, at a recital.  (That's something to remember for next time; we've gotta have some Flute Choir music.)  So I played  Sousa: The Stars and Stripes forever.

As I reported earlier, Coral has borrowed an oboe, and is teaching herself how to play it, and we got to talking about woodwind instruments generally.  I played a movement from Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin, which she also was hearing for the first time.  Quite apart from Coral, it seems very much that, at least in Central Pennsylvania, high school students only hear classical music that they actually play, in band or orchestra.  Coral actually prefers to play band music to orchestral music.  Maybe she likes the big sound, in contrast to the more delicate sounds of the small ensembles.  I for one don't blame her; at her age, I delighted in Wagner.

We followed up with some Bach: Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor, the Rondeau.  I didn't play this one while we were seated together, so I can't report on her reaction to it!

The music Coral listens to at home is, as she describes it, 90's Punk.  The CDs she had with her, which were not necessarily her absolute favorites, included one by a group called Blink 182.  I mentioned this group to my daughter, who is my reference to all things in modern non-classical music, and we were talking about the genre generally.  Harmonically, their songs resemble the music of Green Day, a 90's band which made Punk more accessible to the general public, and Blink 182 has taken this even further.  I found out that Carol actually liked Green Day better, and so I found a song by them: Good Riddance (Time of your Life).

Part B

When I mentioned that Green Day seemed to sing "three chord songs," Coral informed me about a group (Axis of Awesome) that had made a medley of four chord songs, and released it as 4 Chord.

As a proud Dad, I just had to play Coral some music by Sock!Fight, Uma's band (in which Uma plays keyboard, and sings) and because Coral seemed favorably impressed by them, I play two cuts from their demo album: Kick Doubt, and Five Day Fire Drill.

At this point, I abandoned any pretense of playing songs that Coral and I had discussed, and played a sequence of pieces that featured flute prominently.  They were:

Mozart: Serenade K 388 -- ii - Andante,

Part C

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5, -- ii - Affetuoso,
Mozart: Concerto for Flute No. 1 in G, K 313 (complete)

Part D

I'm not sure this was Coral, but one of the students I had interviewed said they hadn't heard of They Might Be Giants, so I had to include something.  One of my favorites is Istanbul, not Constantinople.

Then I played a couple of pieces performed by people from Lycoming.  The first was a movement from the Bolling Suite, followed by two pieces from the Parent's Weekend Concert, The Entrance of the Boyars, and a medley of Michael Jackson tunes.

Finally, in celebration of the fact that Coral was a Mathematics major, we had Tom Lehrer singing about the New Math!

That was a lot of fun.  My next interview will be Bethany, from Montgomery, PA, who sings in the choir, and who likes musical theatre.

Archie