Heavenly!
One of the common styles of Baroque music, one that I particularly enjoy, is the musical perpetual motion machine: a piece that’s bright and peppy at the start and never loses momentum. Familiar examples include the last movement of the Third Brandenburg Concerto, the last movement of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Guitar in D, and this minor masterpiece from Handel:
It forms the introduction to Act III of the oratorio Solomon, which introduces the Queen of Sheba. Thus it has become known as The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and its insistent movement does suggest some sort of procession. Though there’s nothing remotely ancient or Middle Eastern here; it’s pure eighteenth-century English delight.Photo by Sidneiensis
Oh, lord, period double-reed instruments. As if modern double-reed instruments with all the metal bits aren’t hard enough to play.Report
I feel like we should have more reeds by now. We have a five-blade razor, why not a five-reed woodwind?Report
And oboe reeds are still stiff and difficult to reshape when we’ve had flexible reeds since 1961.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_FourReport