Hoboe and Beethoven

-sigh- I realize it's been three months since I contributed an article to this blog, but I have a very fine excuse for it. I have been neck-deep in rehearsals for a project that is the epitome of tne intent of this very blog. You see, my band Hoboe, in which I play amplified oboe, has undertaken a most ambitious goal of playing rock renditions of movements of Beethoven's 5th Symphony--more specifically, movements 2, 4 and 1 (in that order) in celebration of his 241st birthday. The show is on Saturday, December 17, 2011 at Slainte Wine Bar and Lounge in Portland, Maine.

The exciting this about this concert is that nobody has ever done anything like this. First off, there really aren't any proper alternative versions of the first movement. Sure, there's the "disco" version, the "metal" version, "electronica/techno", etc., etc.... but none of them bother to even play the whole movement, instead simply remixing and repeating the popular opening melody. Hoboe may have made some reductions vertically (as in, we may have reduced chords to their most basic elements and not have been able to get ALL the notes in our version--after all, we are only one guitar, one bass, one oboe and one drumkit), but we made absolutely no reductions horizontally (as in, we are playing every measure from beginning to end, not skipping any parts or sections of the form).

In addition, has anybody heard of any alternative-genre artists even bothering to try to get beyond the first movement? We haven't been able to find any rock, jazz, bluegrass, disco, you name it versions of any other movement.

Alas, Beethoven is too great to be glossed over like that. So in honor of the great legendary composer's 241st birthday, Hoboe is going to play these movements in their entirety, live, a one shot deal.

It's going to be a lot of fun, and as you can see, it's a first-hand example of the kind of crossing over of classical-to-contemporary that I strive to bring out in this blog. So there's my excuse... I've been "living the dream".

But expect more articles in 2012, about contemporary "classical" music happenings occurring here in Maine... and... thanks for allowing me this vacation to "walk the talk."

yours,
Zen Ben Meiklejohn