Sonata No. 4 in E minor for Flute and Oboe - recording

Well, after parting with a bit of money, I now have recordings of two of the six duets I've written (and posted here over the years) for flute and oboe, courtesy of the company Supreme Tracks.  I've done a preliminary mix of this one and still have to do that with the other.

Some of the duet is a bit technically challenging, and this is by no means a very polished performance, especially in the third movement.  But given that I was only paying for one short rehearsal and the recording session, that's not a surprise.  I touched up a few of the flubbed notes but didn't want to edit too heavily. 

I'm not 100% sure about the level of reverb I've used or about the stereo panning, and I'd appreciate any thoughts on that.  Or, of course, any other comments.  Thanks!

HI,

What a lovely work ....There is a measure with an High F moving/slurring to an octave C ... however, with a good player it shouldn't be great problem.

Mark

Thanks!  Yeah, I feel confident in my knowledge of the flute's technical abilities but no the oboe's.  I can tell some of this was a bit of a challenge for the players, but for the most part they pulled it off.

Hi @Aiwendil,

 I like this Baroque style sonata when the two instruments work well together with energy. B.12 is very nice invertible counterpoint, but I feel like b.23 feels like random haha! Great impetus throughout the piece and like how you create harmonic fullness with just two line by Baroque treatment of having multiple voices in just one line. I love the melancholic swinging siciliano when you are alternating the even notes and dotted notes line between the two instruments. The third movement is very lovely with the vivacity which reminds me of the Badinerie of Bach’s suite. The chromatic passage in the beginning of the second half is funny, but I feel like the F double sharp not needed in b.53. However this is my favourite movement!

Thx for sharing your work and this lovely recording even if it burns your money! It definitely worths it when you find your music beautifully performed!

Henry

Thanks for listening, Henry!  I'm really pleased that you like the last movement, because that's the one I was least sure about.

M. 23 wasn't performed quite the way I wanted - it should be more rubato, with a bigger rit., like the flute is saying, "What if we tried this in the major mode?"  But it's my fault for not indicating that more clearly in the score.

They also played a lot things a lot more staccato in the first movement than what I had in mind, but I kind of like it.  But I probably should have written tenutos over the quarter notes starting at m. 26.

All in all, I'm very pleased with it, though!  Don't regret spending the money at all.

Wonderful.  There is no need to do a hard stereo pan in a mix.  You can bring it more center. If it's protools , you can put on 40L and the other 40R to give it more space.

Who are these wonderful performers?   I want to recognize their greatness!!

Thanks!  I don't know the names of the performers - I asked, but the Supreme Tracks representative just said, "We're work-for-hire, so you don't need to credit us.  If you want to, you can just say 'woodwinds by Supreme Tracks'."

Awesome music, and the performers did a great job!

So the big question... would you use them again? Is the pricing reasonable? Do they play it together or record their tracks separately to a click?

Hopefully you gained some knowledge for the flute and oboe working with them. Did you change anything based on their feedback or rehearsal notes?

This isn't the style of music I usually listen to, but hearing your notes come to life with the performers kept me engaged all the way through. You should be proud of this piece!

Thanks for sharing

Thanks!  Glad you enjoyed it.

I would consider using them again, though I think I'd look at other options next time as well.  The pricing was about what I was expecting - the total for rehearsal and the session (for the two performers plus an engineer) was $1000.  I don't really have a framework to judge whether that's "normal", but it's about what I estimated it would probably be based on typical hourly wages for musicians and a guess at how long it would take.  They played it together, which was a must for me - for this kind of music, the interplay between the performers is critical, and I didn't want the tempo locked in to a click track.  So I was happy with that.

My main criticism is that I couldn't interact with the performers at all, and didn't get any feedback between the rehearsal and the session.  I figured this was just standard practice in a work-for-hire situation like this, but have since heard that most people will set it up so that the composer can join remotely and give feedback or talk to the players.  If I had been able to talk to them, I would've suggested taking the fast movements at a slightly slower tempo if it meant a technically cleaner performance, and I also would've asked for a few changes in their interpretation (e.g. there are places where they play things very staccato where I didn't want staccato).

I used to play flute, so I have a good idea of its technical abilities, but - even without speaking with the performers - I feel like I've learned a bit about the oboe.  The other piece of feedback I'm sure they would have given me, because I can hear them struggling with it in the recording, is to allow better for breathing.  This is something I obviously know about, as a former woodwind player, but I still often forget it when I'm writing.  For the most part, I think they did a good job of finding places to breathe, but if I'd interacted with them, I feel like I could have added breath marks to the score in places that would least interrupt the flow of the music.