M&D 670

[davemarc]

Was Re: Modern Music 
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> From: Alan Westrope <awestrop at crl.com>
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> Another jazz-tinged nanospoiler for pp. 669-70:
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> Euphrenia describes being "oblig'd to keep Starvation off my Sill, by
> pretending to be an Automaton Oboe player."  The technique she used
> is clearly "circular breathing" as employed by numerous jazz horn
> players -- a few who come to mind are Harry Carney, Clark Terry, Phil
> Woods, Roland Kirk, and Bruce Fowler.  It's not used by "classical"
> wind instrument players, to my knowledge, and was certainly unknown
> in the days of Euphrenia and her beloved Hautbois.
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I strongly doubt that circular breathing was unknown back then.  It's true
that it's widely associated nowadays with jazz musicianship, but I don't
see any reason why it wouldn't've existed in Euphrenia's day.  The
mechanical principles were evident in devices like the bagpipe, which she
cites.  

A definition of circular breathing from The New Harvard Dictionary of
Music:

"A technique employed in the playing of wind instruments, especially
Western and non-Western woodwinds.  The mouth is used to maintain a
continuous stream of air through the instrument in such a way as to permit
the player to draw breath through the nose."

davemarc