About Us

About

Cane Processing, Music Arranging & Publishing, and

Don Werdick - Oboe, Oboe d'amore, English horn

Oboe, Oboe d’amore, English horn

Professional Musician - Member: American Federation of Musicians, American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, International Double Reed Society, International Music Score Library Project, Associated Chamber Music Players

Cane Processing: Cane tubes are directly imported and individually prepared (tube selection & splitting, dimension verification & length cutting, pre-gouging and hardness testing, final gouging and shaping) in-house by professional Oboist Don Werdick. Cane processed is farmed in the French southern Var region countryside, from long standing heritage reed cane fields respected as among the very best for generations ... areas of Cogolin, Grimaud, Saint-Tropez, Bormes-les-Mimosas/Le Lavandou, well known for producing superior reed cane. The Mistral winds - northern winds blowing from the Alps and Cévennes mountain range - along with moisture coming from the Mediterranean Sea, soil composition and the knowledge and skills of the grower, make these canes an excellent choice for double reed players. Recommended for all climates and elevations ... both high altitude and standard cane diameters available.

Music Arranging & Publishing: The Chamber Ensemble of Minnesota, Inc. publishes full score and parts for oboe, oboe d'amore and English horn Baroque period chamber music arranged/edited by Don Werdick. The original Baroque scores and solo parts contain little (if any) information about elements like articulation, ornamentation or dynamics, so the soloists and ensemble players needed to make their own informed choices before each performance. The oboe, oboe d'amore and English horn solo arrangements by Don Werdick offers dynamics, articulations, ornamentation and nuances of tone color as to how to effectively present the composition and can help the performer to build on this to effectively communicate the sense of the music.

Biographical Information

Don Werdick is a Professional Oboe, Oboe d’amore & English horn artist; music engraver, arranger/editor, and Publisher – Chamber Ensemble of Minnesota, Inc. Publishing, ASCAP, oboemn.com/concerto, and retired owner-operator of the international double reed cane processing business Supérieure Cane Processing, Inc. oboemn.com. Member of: American Federation of Musicians & past Board/Executive Committee-Local 18, International Double Reed Society, Associated Chamber Music Players, American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, and the International Music Score Library Project. Studied with: Rhadames Angelucci, Principal Oboe, Minnesota Orchestra; Ita Loe-Vellek, Chicago Symphony, and Ruben Haugen, MacPhail Center for Music; and a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Current and past symphony and chamber orchestra performances include the River Valley Community & Chamber Orchestra, St. Croix Valley Symphony Orchestra & Ensembles, St. Croix Sounds Chamber Orchestra, North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra, Mesabi Symphony Orchestra, Mesabi Musical Theatre Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble of Minnesota, Woodland Chamber Ensemble, Northern Lights Music Festival Orchestra, Guest Performer-Duluth Symphony Orchestra-DSSYO, the Minnesota Opera, Minnetonka Symphony Orchestra, Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Wind Ensemble, University of Minnesota Orchestra, Augsburg University Orchestra, and music ministry-liturgical music oboe accompanist & arranger. Having had a dual career/vocation, he is also a retired financial institution Director & CEO; former FDIC/RTC Assistant Director; past First Federal Minneapolis management; and former U.S. Army Band Director & commissioned officer. Don, and his wife Tinka Bloedow, residence and business is located on several wooded acres overlooking the St. Croix River in southwestern Wisconsin.

Oboe

Sample Selections

Solo performed on a Loree Royal Oboe. Demonstration sample is the oboe solo from Tschaikovsky’s Swan Lake Ballet Suite. Practice session recording. Chamber demonstration sample is from an earlier rehearsal recording of Schubert’s “Octet in F Major (D.72A)”.

Swan Lake Ballet Suite - Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

The oboe sample performed is from Act 1 of Tchaikowsky’s 1875 Swan Lake Ballet Suite.

Against the sound of harps and strings, the oboe solo plays the music of the swan theme in Act 1. The three act ballet is a story of a prince who seeks and wins the queen of swans who is magically transformed into a beautiful maiden after daylight. She explains to the prince that she has been bewitched by an evil sorcerer’s spell that turns her into a swan during daylight hours unless a man swears his eternal fidelity and love for her.

Throughout the ballet, the challenges the prince and swan queen must overcome in their journey to vanquish the spell are intriguing and in the end the spell is broken.

Octet in F Major - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

The oboe and chamber ensemble sample performed is from the Allegro movement of Schubert’s 1813 octet.

In August 1813 Schubert occupied himself by working on the Octet in F major for wind instruments; however, it was abandoned before its completion. This was attributed to taking on work composing other symphonic material about the same and completion of the Octet was a matter of secondary importance.

Only two movements of the 1813 Octet in F were ever finished: the minuet and the finale. A first movement Allegro (cataloged as D.72a) is just a fragment, and there is no trace of a slow movement. It is scored for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, and two bassoons.

English horn

Sample Selections

Solo performed on a Fossati Soliste English horn. Demonstration sample is from a practice session of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture”.

William Tell Overture - Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

The English horn sample performed is from the second movement of this selection.

This is the last opera Rossini composed at age 36, although he lived to be seventy-six. Up until that time he had written thirty-seven operas, during his remaining years he continued to compose orchestral and some vocal music. This opera premiered in 1829, the composition has been called “a complete symphonic poem in miniature”. The Overture to the William Tell Operain its first section is reflective of a sunrise and mountains depicted by cellos and basses. The second section of this overture depicts a gathering fury of an Alpine storm, and, as it subsides, an Andante comes through with the shepherds’ thanksgiving – the 41 measure the beautiful English horn solo. Eventually, the trumpet announces the approach of Swiss soldiers with the full orchestra finishing with a bright and rapid pace to the end of the overture.

The William Tell Opera is founded on the well-known story of Tell and his endeavors to relieve his countrymen, the Swiss, from Austrian domination. “Tell” was written for the Grand Opera in Paris, where it was first produced in August 1829.

Oboe d’amore

Sample Selections

Solo performed on a Fossati Soliste Oboe d’amore. Demonstration sample was recorded during chamber rehearsal of Bach’s “Concerto in A Major” .

Concerto in A Major - Johann Bach (1685-1750)

The Oboe d’amore sample performed is from the third movementof this selection.

Because of Bach’s busy performing schedule in Leipzig in the 1730’s, he was often rushed and on occasion transcribed some of his violin, oboe, and oboe d’amore concerti into harpsichord concerti. The Concerto in A for harpsichord is based on the original composition started as a concerto for oboe d’amore. Though the manuscript of the harpsichord concerti arrangements survived, the original sources for this did not. Much research took place in later years to reconstruct it to the Concerto in A major for Oboe d’amore, Strings and Baso continuo version.