May 2008
Weekend vote: Where was your violin born?
May 31, 2008 21:36Where was your violin made? You only get one vote, so tell us where your main-squeeze fiddle was born. I started with an early 20th c. German factory violin, then a modern American violin by the luthier David Scroggin, and now my main violin is an Italian Gagliano, nearly 200 years old. What a gathering I have, right here in my studio, and my fiddles are better-traveled than I am!
27 replies
V.com weekend vote: So did the concert go well?
May 23, 2008 17:11It's that time of year, and we all know that in the last month or so you must have had a concert or a recital to perform, or direct, or watch your student or child in.
So how did it go?
I've had a number of all kinds listed above, but I'll talk about the one from last night, where my public school Suzuki kids showed their parents what they could do. They were awesome! The goal was to play "Twinkle" by the end of the school year, and every single one of them was able to play it in a slow version. Fully a quarter of these kids, all first-graders, were able to play Twinkle Variation 1 at full speed. That means they went from making egg carton violins to playing Twinkle, all in less then a year, all in a public school program. It can be done!
So I'm very happy, this year-end.
How was your senior recital? Or your studio recital? Or your school performance? Your child's performance? Your professional orchestra concert? Your university orchestra, or amateur orchestra's performance? Tell us all about it, the good, the bad, the amusing!
V.com weekend vote: How many times have you tried busking?
May 16, 2008 11:14Seems that everyone is taking up a street corner with a fiddle these days, and it's not just the beat-up, duct-taped old fiddle cases set out to collect donations, but also a few plush velvet-lined ones.
Journalists certainly have seemed to take an interest in the subject. Most recently, Los Angeles Times journalist Steve Lopez wrote a book about a homeless and schizophrenic busker, a Juilliard-trained musician whom he found playing on the streets in skid row with a 2inged violin. The book is called The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, and it's already being made into a movie starring Jamie Foxx.
And who can forget, a year ago, when Joshua Bell went busking during morning rush-hour
in Washington D.C. on a kind of dare from Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten, who recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his story about Josh's experiment. Our favorite 40-year-old violin hero (besides me, right? ;) made $59, plus he made everyone turn blue in the face talking about it.Yesterday Debra Wade wrote a lovely blog about the subject, which made me think even more about busking. Put simply, busking is performing at its most elemental level: get out the instrument and go. What do you play? Whatever comes to mind. Whatever comes to mind depends on everything you've ever studied and heard, not to mention what your environment asks of you. If a three-year-old toddles up to you, perhaps it's "Pop Goes the Weasel." Or perhaps someone comes up and requests "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or "Happy Birthday," and so you just play it by ear. Maybe you've been studying some solo Bach, or a virtuoso piece, so you just air it out. Maybe you just played your virtuoso piece and need some filler, so you play all of Suzuki Book 3 because it's just still there in your brain.
I love hearing live music in such a spontaneous way. My favorite rendition of the slow movement of the Bach Double was when I heard a couple of students playing it in Aspen during a summer sunset, outside an ice cream shop, their cases open for donations. No doubt they were students at the summer festival, and they were clearly enjoying playing in this informal and unofficial setting. Funny how a one-time experience can prove more indelible than a recording heard hundreds of times.
Have you ever tried busking? To be honest, I haven't. I'm thinking I should!
Vote in our poll, and tell us about your experiences: (BTW in this poll, if you busk on a regular basis, you can mark two choices, that you busk regularly and also the number of times.)
V.com weekend vote: Did/does Mom make you practice?
May 11, 2008 11:24Today in the United States is Mother's Day. but I can wish this to everyone: Happy Mother's Day!
I thought I'd try a poll that has to do with mothers, who very often have quite a lot to so with fanning our musical aspirations. Did your mother, or does your mother, make you practice?
I must admit: my mother did not make me practice, not even once. I was just this little musical freakazoid who, for no reasons that my parents understood, was dying to play the violin. It was always my thing. My hypothesis is that this is not the norm; most people's parents make them practice.
And I'll include my children in that category. When they practice, it's because I make them practice, or Robert does. Since no one ever made me practice, it feels a bit funny for me to make them practice. It's mostly a matter of making sure they establish and then maintain the habit. Once they've practiced for 21 days, it's less of a fight and more just a reminder.
Did your mother make you practice? And if you are a mom (or parent), do you make your children practice? And if you don't fall into these categories (or maybe if you do!), please tell us below about your thoughts on parents and practice!
And if you are a parent with a child or children who play instruments:
V.com weekend vote: When interpretive ideas clash, what source do you follow?
May 2, 2008 16:15There's certainly room for spontaneity and the stamp of individuality in violin playing, but anyone who's been at it very long knows that it's dicey business.
There's simply too much history and complexity involved with this art for "shooting from the hip" when learning a piece, particularly if it's part of the "canon." For example, if you are playing a Baroque piece, you need to know something about Baroque music. You don't add your decorations and trills without looking into Baroque performance practice. If you are playing Celtic music, there is a whole tradition of ornamentation which, if you follow it, it will take you deeper into that genre.
So what's the problem if you don't follow all this stuff?
Well, have you ever heard someone with a really bad fake accent? It's just so...grating and phony! It works as a joke, but you can't go around speaking in a bad fake accent and expect anyone to take you seriously.
So when learning a piece of a particular genre, one must learn that genre, understand the composer's intentions. A certain degree of following these practices is essential to becoming fluent in a genre. But when does that end, when does the performer gain the fluency to speak in his or her own way?
And once a performer gains that fluidity, how far should he or she go? Perhaps if you know the lingo, people will give you broad leeway with your interpretations. On the other hand, maybe not!.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Adhere to the score? Do your own thing? Follow tradition? Yes, I know, many will want to say all three, but cast your vote based on where you are at today. If you have an interpretation issue that pulls you differently all three ways, which do you go with? Then tell us your thoughts.
More entries: June 2008 • April 2008
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