July 2005

July 27, 2005 08:15

The past couple of days I have ben haunted by the Kreutzer Sonata. I was walking and suddenly the opening came to mind. Strangely enough it has been a while since I erformed the piece, but I was able to replay the entire first movement in my head, the only trouble I sometimes had was in remembering exactly the accompagnying motives in the right hand of the piano.
That made me realize that strangely enough I listen more to the bass line in chambermusic than the middlevoices. Somehow they always get lost, except when they have an important melody or really cool rhytmic figure. But try to imagine these pieces without the middlevoices.

I had been reading a book by Vikram Seth called "An Equal Music". It is an amzing book describing the life of a second violinist of the London based "Maggiore Quartet". Inspired by the book and thinking about the middlevoices in Beethoven, I tried imagining Schubert "Tot und das Maedchen" without middlevoices. It would loose all power.
Often they call the first violin "primarius", but I am more and more realizing that the heart of music lays in the middlevoices. It is what makes the blood flow through the vains of the quartet, the pulse necesarry to get oxygen to the organs.

In the book a comment is made to call the second violinist "the other violinist", something I am completely in favor of. Sometimes I reckon playing second fiddle is much harder than first. Because you need to have the ability to adapt in less then a second between the instruments, you are often the supporting factor and the others can not function without you. And then ll of a sudden the first violin is silent and you have a beautiful melody where you need to come out. In order to be a good second violinist you need to be a chameleon or something of that sort. I wanted to write that you need to have multiple personalities, but that is not right. Because even though your sound is different and you have many colors, the personality of some of the most amazing second violin players I know will always be recognizable.

I am thinking of Peter Salaff, former second fiddle of the Cleveland Quartet. He was my chambermusic coach during my time at the Cleveland Institute of Music. I have rarely met a more distinct personality and at the same time with the incredible gift to change according to the members of the quartet. The Cleveland Quartett had most of its time Mr. Weilerstein as a first violinist and then changed to Bill Preucil. They are both genius on their instruments (and by the way also when they teach!), but I don't think there are more different personalities on the face of the planet. And still Mr. Salaff stayed Mr. Salaff, with his sweet sound and encouraging spirit, but completely adapting to the players.

People often want to play first violin in life. There is a saying in Dutch about playing second fiddle, and it is not something positive. But I think in general people could use a little bit more second fiddle in their life and towards eachother. Funny enough most second fiddle players of professional quartets are amzing people, just think of Ron Copes of the Juilliard Quartet. Talk to any student of him and it will be clear that you will not find a single student that does not adore him. Why? Because I think these people understand the true meaning of listening, supporting, encouraging, and speak up at the right time. It is what they do most of the day during quartet rehearsals. Rests only the question of the chicken and the egg... are they this way because of the music or are they such amazing players because they are true second fiddle players?

PS: By the way, nothing against first fiddles!!!

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July 24, 2005 04:23

I guess I have to admit it; I am addicted, yes I am a junkie. I get not only nervous when I am around, my fingers start making funny movements. When I wake up my left hand is trembling, sometimes people look funny at me, I am not noticing that sound is coming from my mouth. I have gone clean for two weeks now, but I am begging people I barely met if they can give it to me.

Two weeks ago I had to go back to the hospital (not rehab, but neurology!), for a total of about 5 or 6 weeks. I did not bring my violin and CD player, or any other form of music. I needed a break. But, oh man, I am a real true addict. In my dreams I am practicing (does this have any effect on my actual playing?) and I wake noticing my left hand fingers are moving. But this is hopefully the last time I am in the clinic (I keep hoping...). The good news is, currently I am not taking any meds and when things are going well, I don't have to start the kind of meds that play around with my senses (I had some real vibrato problems,although according to some collegues were only in my head, they could not hear the difference!)

This is a good thing though. I am really experiencing what music means to me all anew. With everything I did, it had become kind of normal and I guess even a little bit of routine has slipped in. But now I am realizing again that being able to play Tchaikovsky is one of the biggest presents the universe has given me. I am even writing this with tears in my eyes. I still can not understand how it is possible to be so moved by music. There is enough information here about the brain and I have been reading about trials where they searched for the parts of the brain that are used for listening polyphonic music vs. a single melody, and so many other things (for some interesting articles go to www.pubmed.com and search for music and neurology / brain) I now have a good reachered reason why I flunked eartrainig at Juilliard. (I'll spare you the details, but maybe I will have to email them to my former teacher!)

Fait has determined that my best friend, who is a cellist, can not play for some time either. She was hiking in the mountains and a rock landed on her shoulder, which is broken now. So she has a rest too. But she takes it a lot better then I do. In that sense I am almost a true addict. I can not explain the feeling, but I am just not as balanced as normal. I have no outlet for my feelings and the result is that I am giggling all day... very irritating actually! Once again I am noticing that music is trivial to life. How often have I not asked myself if I should not become a doctor or something like that, something where I would be serving people more. But I am now noticing first hand how important art are for society. As humans we have all these emotions, God gave us a limbic system that is so complex neurologists can't phantom why we feel emotions, they might know how (with endorfines and all other kind of hormaons, neurons in connection with other parts of the brain etc. etc.), but the reason is not known. Emotions guide us, intuition and emotion are so close together. And everybody needs an outlet for their emotions. We need to do something with them. and my something is playing the violin, preferably Tchaik I think!

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July 2005

July 27, 2005 08:15

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