How the Trumpet is Helping Me Survive Winter

One evening a couple weeks ago, I was driving home and listening to the classical radio station. Amidst the chatter of my boys, my attention was captured by a piece I'd never heard before. The melody was haunting and melancholy. It was performed on a muted trumpet, which gave it more of a reed-like timbre, almost like an oboe. It sounded somewhat contemporary with a bit of a jazz edge.

"This is beautiful," I told the boys, and for just a moment, they stopped to listen, too.

As the piece drew to a close, I begged the boys not to talk for just one minute more. I knew I'd only have one chance to hear (and try to remember) the name of the piece and the composer or performer. And I knew I absolutely had to remember it so I could listen to it again. And then it came:

"We have just been listening to 'Oblivion' ["Oblivion"...at least it's in English] by Astor ---------------------. [Astor...isn't their a flower called an aster?] That was Tina ---------------------------- performing. Tina is from Norway, and her name is spelled T-I-N-E. [Unusual spelling. I can remember that. How kind of him to spell it.]

I pulled up to our house, hurried to unbuckle the boys, and then rushed inside, all the time repeating the key facts I knew: Oblivion. Astor. Tine. Oblivion. Astor. Tine.

It was enough. I typed "Oblivion Tine" into the search field, and a video immediately popped up. (Sometimes I love the internet.) 

The trumpet soloist's name is Tine Thing Helseth. (The composer's name is Ástor Piazzolla.) This piece was not originally written for the trumpet. I think it was an orchestral work first for maybe solo cello. Or possibly oboe. The other versions I heard were slower with less jazz.

I spent the rest of the evening listening to any other videos of Tine Thing Helseth I could find.  I hate to sound immediately disloyal to "Oblivion," but when I heard her play "In the Bleak Midwinter," I couldn't help but love it even more. I have always loved that song, and for some reason, probably because I am in the "bleak midwinter" right now, it spoke to my soul. Gorgeous.

And then, what do you think? Of course I checked out her most recent CD from the library.

To think that a month ago, I'd never even heard of Helseth, and now I can't stop talking about her. It makes me excited to see what other discoveries are just around the corner.