Hello.

I'm Roger, Roger Rhythm.

Hello, I'm Violetta Vibrato But you can call me Vi, hi.

And now we get a chance to meet an ensemble, a woodwind ensemble on our symphonic safari adventure.

Let's go.

Let's go.

So who do we have here?

My name is Sam Peliska I play the clarinet.

My name is Leslie Bell.

I play the French horn.

I'm Jeff Keesecker I play the bassoon.

I'm Margaret Cracchiolo and I play the oboe.

I'm Karen Large and I play the flute.

I'm noticing that there's more than just woodwinds here in this group.

Why is there a French horn?

So in the woodwind quintet started many, many, many years ago.

The saxophone wasn't an instrument, and so the horn filled in for that voice that was needed.

That is notable.

Hmm.

So what makes all of these woodwinds part of the woodwind family?

Yes.

Well, at one point, all of our instruments were made out of wood.

The clarinet is still made of out of wood, bassoon and oboe.

And also they have reeds, single reeds, a double reeds and the saxophone.

Though it's not made of wood, it also has a reed and cork.

And though my instrument is no longer made out of wood as it once was, it still has a cork in the top.

So that's the wood we still have.

Hmmm, So your flute is woodless and reedless.

Hmm.

Tell me more about what makes your instrument alike and different from each other.

Well, they're all alike in that we all blow air through the instrument to produce a sound, but they're all very different in terms of their construction.

Like Karen mentioned, the bassoon, the oboe and the clarinet are all made out of wood, but they're obviously, you know, have very different designs, the clarinet has a single reed.

Whereas the oboes have double reeds and the flute and the horn are both made out of metal.

So they're alike and in some ways, but different in many other ways.

That's fascinating.

I wonder, I would love if you all would play a piece for us.

Would you do that?

Of course, sure.

Marvelous!

Bravo.

That was amazing.

Wonderful.

So who actually wrote that piece?

I know it wasn't me.

It was written by Dmitri Shostakovich, 20th century Russian composer.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Now every piece of classical music has a mood to it.

How would you describe this one?

The mood.

Somber, elegantly somber, elegantly somber with a lot of motion to it, very much wants to dance in this waltz time.

Yes, what I heard.

You know, sometimes I get in a very bad mood, but I find that music helps me feel happy again.

How does that happen?

Is it like that?

When, you heard all the dancing in it, even in those somber moments that you've heard the little dancing like, it's things like that that make me happy.

Does a lot of music have things like that in it?

Absolutely.

Music touches people in ways we can't describe.

And it moves us on the inside and we can express all these thoughts and feelings and emotions that can't be expressed any other way.

That's how I feel, and that's exactly what music does to me.

So it was so nice looking at all of you play as an ensemble.

Tell me what was the most fun about playing as an ensemble?

Just the communication between us as we are playing the way we listen across the group to one another and react to what the others are doing, It's very fun to do.

So what's the hardest thing about playing in an ensemble?

I think the hardest thing is playing in tune.

There are so many things that can change the pitch of an instrument.

And so that's one of the things that you notice in a really high level ensemble is that they are quite in tune And the fact that we're all playing different instruments with different tendencies in that regard adds another layer of challenge to it.

Hmm.

I know that even the temperature in a room can change the way the instrument responds, and that's fascinating.

Amazing.

And I'm more fascinated by there wasn't a conductor.

How did you do it?

How did you do it?

Well we listen to one another and we're all conductors in a way, and we just communicate with one another.

So it really is like being a team.

I really, really like that that you're all conductors in your own way.

And it's a lot of listening to one another.

Thank you all so much for being a part of our symphonic safari adventure.

We had so much fun and you all are marvelous.

Simply marvelous.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Bye bye.