June 2008

In loving memory of my mother

June 8, 2008 14:06

An amateur has music in his/her life; a professional has his/her life in music. You see that in the blogs here on V.com. Many professionals or professional students of the violin make blogs about the whole of their lives, but mine, for example, were just about music and the things I do to improve the experience of it.
This blog is entirely different.

Yesterday we laid my mother to rest. She was a formidable, gifted, loving person who practiced loving speech as best she could, and I am very grateful that I am her son. She was 83 years old when she passed away.
Like me, she played the violin as an amateur. Well aware of the limits faced by many amateur ensembles, she was critical of herself, and occasionally of other people. She could not stand false pretense.
In our youth she was the one who kept us to our practice schedules; later, she very much enjoyed hearing my two brothers or me play.
We celebrated her life in the light of Psalm 95; Mendelssohn's music for that Psalm was played on the organ.
We all played during the memorial service. My younger brother, who is a professional bassoon player, played the slow movement from Marttinen's bassoon concerto; my twin brother and I played the Andante from Mozart's K 526 sonata.

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