Phoenix?

Miss this creative outlet....maybe a return is necessary.

Modulation

It's been a great two weeks. For various reasons. And I hardly touched the viola!

I went for many walks.
I played a lot of Scrabulous (and still terrible at it).
I listened to many non-classical recordings.
I threw many virtual snowballs on Facebook. And updated incessantly.
And communicated with old friends again...

It was all splendid fun. All the snowstorms seemed to make the entire month festive since all routines were tossed aside. And it will continue throughout the next week for the holidays. Wonderful...

And yet my mind turns to the new task(s) at hand. Today I added the Janacek to my mp3 player so that I can listen to it while walking. (For some reason Windows Media Player with my player puts all track ones together, twos and so on. Janacek choral music makes an interesting mix with Erasure, BNL, and Queen. Hmmm.)

And the upcoming project is taking shape. Maybe I will give just a tiny hint. I have been feeling lately that my technique is shallow. That when I learned pieces in the past, I would learn the techniques along with the piece. I've really never studied something other than pieces in great detail. I want to approach things a little differently this coming year. To give some depth and security. And fill in the gaps.

See you in the new year! All will be revealed then...

Apologies

Facebook has eaten me.

Will be back next week probably on Sunday when the snow storm arrives. We are expecting at least 2 feet.

Day 11-part 1

Various people have been recommending this over the other recorder I was hankering for.

Still haven't decided which one to buy. The new one is much more expensive. But the sound quality has to be the important deciding factor. And I have to keep up the recording routine first.

Still haven't recorded yet today. I do plan to in about an hour (using that loophole) when the husband is watching football and the kids are finally asleep. Something about the time changes that make them hyper. I guess that's the reason to call them "monkey bears"....

More later!

Soon

...I will blog again.

Probably on Thursday.

The weather has been unbelievably beautiful here for the last two weeks. The best time for weather in New England is the fall-but this has to be the best I've seen since moving here five years ago.

So I have been walking every day to get my Vitamin D dose for the year 2007. Because soon the bad weather will return.

Soon the rain will come back. Tomorrow maybe? And then I will write again....

Though I have been practicing a lot as well. There's a big concert next month and an even bigger one in six months. Will tell you soon...

Fun Time!

In case you have already done the quiz, head over here and check out these fabulous vids starring the wonderful Darkwood Consort!

(Disclaimer: It's a little string-centric....;) )

Soho the Dog quiz!

Well that Internet vacation didn't really work.

Life intervened in a big way and now I have to postpone this for a week or two while I deal with massive paperwork.

But now onto the positive...

If I was offline, I would have missed Soho the Dog's delightful quiz. Been hoping that he would do one again. It should be *every week*. Hint, hint.

Okay here goes...


1. What's the best quotation of a piece of music within another piece of music?
In Britten's Lachrymae for viola and piano (or orchestra), the very end, the John Dowland song "Flow, my tears". It's absolutely heartbreaking.


2. Name the best classical crossover album ever made.
Easy. Anything by Yo Yo Ma.

3. Great piece with a terrible title.
I'll give you two-both by Barber.
School for Scandal. Adagio for Strings (did he actually name this one?)


4. If you had to choose: Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett?
Benjamin Britten. See answer to question #1.


5. Who's your favorite spouse of a composer/performer? (Besides your own.)
Nela Rubinstein. For her wonderful cookbook with the many pressure cooker recipes. And for putting up with her husband.


6. Terrible piece with a great title.
I think will stay mum on this one...unless we can include some compositions performed from my student years. Let's protect the not so innocent here...


7. What's the best use of a classical warhorse in a Hollywood movie?
Aw, do I have to pick just one? (The whole film "Amadeus" is just so great). Really just one? Okay here's two- toss up between Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barber's Adagio for Strings in the Elephant Man.


8. Name the worst classical crossover album ever made.
I'm not really an expert on the crossover/classical thing. In fact it makes me run screaming from the room. Although I have vague memories of seeing Engelbert Humperdinck singing "Ave Maria" a few months ago. Which version? I don't know...memory suppressed.


9. If you had to choose: Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye?
Marvin Gaye all the way. I'm allergic to Cooke's "Wonderful World."


10. Name a creative type in a non-musical medium who would have been a great composer.
Pablo Picasso. It would have been fascinating to see how he would have gone through his phases in music. And can you imagine Guernica in Sound?


EXTRA CREDIT:For opera nerds: If you had to choose:a) Lawrence Tibbett or Robert Merrill? b) Amelita Galli-Curci or Lily Pons?
Uh, no.

For early-music nerds: Name a completely and hopelessly historically uninformed recording that you nevertheless love.

That's too easy...in the Bell Telephone Hour. The Oistrakhs playing the second movement of the Bach Double Violin Concerto. It's heaven on earth.

Sisyphus

It will be ten days before school starts for the kids. Then life will have a little breathing room.

Case in point....typing with one hand right now since little guy is hanging on right arm.

(Okay I just gave him two peeled clementines-that will hold him off for maybe 4 minutes.)

I have not "Pendereckied" much. In fact I have barely touched the viola except when teaching a couple lessons last week.

The culprits? Refereeing the children in their twice hourly fights. Facebook. Sleep. Writing emails. Changing some facets of my life.

The Sisyphus part comes from trying to keep the house neat and tidy everyday when there's still many disorganized bits to it. This hasn't been addressed since we've moved here two and a half years ago. I would like it to be better organized since I teach at home and it seems like every autism specialist in Central Vermont visits every day.

So I've decided starting this Thursday morning to the next Wednesday to take a virtual vacation so I can deal with the first life. The computer will go in the closet for the week. It's not going to be fun. Much of my life revolves around reading the newspapers online, reading my favorite blogs, reconnecting with some of my favorite people via Facebook. However this is the way it has to be.

What's distracting me right now is....

three excellent blog posts:

hellafrisch discussing in great detail his audition for Calgary.

Jason Heath's whole series of posts detailing the perils of being a freelance musician.

Jen's post about the last chair violinist having a solo in his final high school concert. (This really moved me. Totally relate....I started violin in a public school program too.)

Enjoy the day. Will blog more now that my energy has returned. (It took a unexpected vacation last week ;) )

Customized Radio

I was wondering if this was ever going to happen.....because life needs a soundtrack.

Pandora

You just put in a song and artist you like and they create a personalized station based on those preferences and give you other songs you may like. Though I haven't tried for classical yet because I'm indulging my silly passion for 80s/90s electronica :).

Thanks to Cellomania.

Will write more tonight....(sun's out!)

American Idol Prediction

Okay it's 9:35....and my husband told me to do this. He thinks that no one will be kicked off this week. I'm not so sure. Anyway it's a good show...I actually like Josh Groban's singing today. (shocker-my FIL would be surprised)

Well goodnight.

The nice thing about viola studies....

is that you don't have to play them in public. :)

(Does that sound like a viola joke?)

Still working on the Mazas' Rapidity and liking it. But I figured I needed *another* study (yes, a sucker for self-punishment). So I went to my storage boxes and looked for something else.
Pulled out the Lillian Fuchs 15 Characteristic Studies. Sight read three of them. Decided I didn't like any of them. And finally realized why. (Short answer...I find them boring...even for studies. Long answer....well maybe later.)

So I went back to the box and pulled out the Gavinnes 24 studies. I had never worked on any of them. Could tell this by the lack of pencil markings. (I had bought the book probably around 1993....I hadn't been to this particular violin shop since then.)

After reading through a couple of them and decided I could benefit from them. First, they're really difficult. For some reason that's a plus for me. Second, there's a lot of fast shifting in the upper register. This is also a plus. So I decided to work on No. 4.

I think teaching violin and viola has changed my view on studies. For many years I thought that studies were something only to endure for the inevitable annual RCM exam. So naturally I balked when my grad school teacher not only wanted me to relearn the first twelve Kreutzer studies, but also analyze them. He believed that every study had a particular left hand and right hand technical focus. Of course I didn't do it-I was a rebellious student. (BTW-now I realize that he was right about everything. Maybe I need to write more about this....hmmm.)

Now fifteen years later after seeing new students come to me for lessons and seeing how they had treated their pieces as studies (with the resulting frustration that comes with that), I realize the true importance of studies. Granted they are boring. But better them than the repertoire the student will be studying. A study is a perfect vehicle to work on a technical focus without worrying about the musical ramifications. It's the bridge between technique and concert repertoire. And you do not have to perform it. Well maybe for your teacher, he he...

Now for something different.

Some enjoyable reading.....

The finale of Charles' audition story.... won't spoil it.

the Heifetz vs. Cher Gershwin contest.

and Jen is an amazing teacher!

Have a great day everyone...

Mystery in Serial Form....

I can't help it...keep going back to see what the outcome will be:

daily observations

It's a fabulous account of an audition preparation. Totally understand his post-concert slump. [After my concert last month, I proceeded to get a really nasty bug which sidelined me (and my family) for three weeks.] It's so cool that Charles was able to put together his audition in less than a week. Well maybe the fact he was preparing his concert played a role in his success (so far) in the audition. He was thinking more like a soloist than a orchestral player and playing at an high level.....How cool!


So will Charles win the audition?

[Not a betting woman in general....but me thinks so.]


Anyway I asked Jen's favorite oracle-and it gave me *exactly* the same answer it gave her. [Same eight ball amused me for an hour.]

So go read his blog! It's much more interesting than mine! That's all.........

P.S. I did ask the Eight Ball just now:

Should I practice today?
-Very doubtful.

[So I asked again not believing my eyes...]

Should I practice today?
-You just asked me that! Now ask me something else.

Okay Eight Ball...well it is going to be 85 today. And sunny....okay!

Networking for Musicians

For a long time I was wondering if/when there would be a Myspace clone for classical musicians.

Well, just found it.....

Classical Lounge

The kids will love this....

I didn't know this blog existed. It's about cute things (mostly animals). I didn't know this *type* of blog existed. Cool.

Cute Overload! :)

Thanks to Oh For Fun! for pointing me in that direction....

Time to settle in for the afternoon.....

Quiz time!

Okay it's been a crazy week.

A few things have happened.

A. My youngest son decided to be "two". [This is to be expected since he will be two in 6 weeks] Much climbing and jumping on high surfaces as a result. More gray hairs for his mom. And not much sitting down. Actually none during the day.

B. We're all battling a low grade virus. Which makes A. more difficult......and emails, and eating etc. etc.

now for good...

C. I have found a solution for the problem that broadsided me last month. Thanks to everyone for all your support.

D. Spring is finally here. Hello Mud Season!

E. I've been tagged by the amazing Jen of Adventures of an Idaho Violist for this cool quiz from Soho the Dog.

Not sure if I can tag anyone....well maybe in the First Life. Maybe everyone can just go over to Soho the Dog and post in his comments....

Now on to the quiz!

1. Name an opera you love for the libretto, even though you don't particularly like the music.

I'm actually embarrassed to say this....when I listen to music even pop songs, I don't really listen to lyrics. Have to think about that one....

Actually an easier question would be to name an opera you love for the music, although the libretto is cheesy. And I would say....most of them!

2. Name a piece you wish Glenn Gould had played.

Prokofiev's Third Concerto.

(You know he's Canadian so I'm biased. I was very sad when he died and I was eleven years old). Like the eccentricity!

3. If you had to choose: Charles Ives or Carl Ruggles?

Ives.

4. Name a piece you're glad Glenn Gould never played.

None....wish he played much more. (You know he's Canadian?)

5. What's your favorite unlikely solo passage in the repertoire?

For me it's the *tiny* viola solo in Gershwin's "American in Paris". It is *eight* notes (after the English horn solo) but I love it. Although my violin-centric husband never seems to notice.....

6. What's a Euro-trash high-concept opera production you'd love to see? (No Mortier-haters get to duck this one, either—be creative.)

Can't answer this one. Not my expertise. Sorry.

7. Name an instance of non-standard concert dress you wish you hadn't seen.

Chains and piercings in an early music concert.

8. What aging rock-and-roll star do you wish had tried composing large-scale chorus and orchestra works instead of Paul McCartney?

I prefer none. However, Mick Jagger could prove interesting. For chorus works.

9. If you had to choose: Carl Nielsen or Jean Sibelius?

Sibelius.

10. If it was scientifically proven that Beethoven's 9th Symphony caused irreversible brain damage, would you still listen to it?

Yes, yes, yes.....but maybe when I'm eighty.

Next week I will....

-spring clean.
-make my home less like a toy store.
-start to workout again.
-learn to use my new pressure cooker.
-start a second blog (don't worry, this one will continue).
-watch Pride and Prejudice for the fourth time (BBC version-the best by far if only for the music).
-hopefully avoid being caught in a flood in Montpelier.

Tomorrow....

I have a concert and maybe due to nerves, today I'm looking towards the future. Although when all's said and done, when the concert starts it will be a lot of fun and I will concentrate on the music......

Rachmaninov had big Hands

Learning How to Blog...my way

Well it's been a while since the last posting. I think it was due to the Christmas break and being at the computer for very short periods of time. Since the kids were not in school I ironically had less vacation time. Always high energy in this household.

Now they're back in school-life should calm down a bit.

Just thinking there must be a better way to write posts, emails etc. Last week (replying to an email of a friend) it took me three days of writing one sentence at a time. The kids were so hyper (all the sugar!!!) that there would be an interruption literally every two minutes.

A few days ago I read this post from the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/books/review/Powers2.t.html

So I brought this today (on clearance):

http://www.amazon.com/ScanSoft-H109A-G00-10-0-VIAVOICE-Standard-v-10/dp/B0000A58IV/ref=pd_ybh_a_1/002-0447378-7680860

Thought about buying this but my computer doesn't have enough memory:

http://www.amazon.com/Nuance-Communications-Inc-A309A-G01-9-0-NaturallySpeaking/dp/B000GUDDXA/ref=pd_ybh_a_5/002-0447378-7680860


It should come next week.

Blogging will become easier. Right now my typing is so slow that I edit while writing. It's better to write first then edit. Kind of like playing the viola....need the raw materials first....then edit/practice with what you have instead of second guessing.

Spring Fever in December

Right now it's 50 F and there is green grass everywhere.

Don't feel like practicing.....
Don't feel like shopping.....
Don't feel like Christmas decorating....

Just want to frolic outside and enjoy the sun.

Time to play hooky.....

15 minutes later: The sun's even brighter! Too bizarre.