New violin projects/composition projects in college.

Written by Joshua Iyer
Published: September 24, 2015 at 2:16 AM [UTC]

I know I haven't really been updating anything on this blog recently, so here's just a quick update for how September has been going musically at college.

In orchestra, we are playing Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony, the "Reformation", as well as Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which are two slightly different stylistic pieces of the classical era. They've both required a lot more practice for my part, but it's still been really fun to play with the full orchestra and do something I love two nights every week. Additionally, I've printed out a couple pieces to play just for fun as warm-up pieces in the practice rooms. I arranged the third movement of Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello for my violist friend that we are going to rehearse on Friday afternoons. I am also beginning a chamber piece, inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet 128 (which I like to think of the dancing fingers on wood as the ebony wood of a violin's fingerboard!), written for harp, soprano, tenor, violin, and viola. This will be a nice way for me to tackle a small obstacle of composition, since I haven't really truly dealt with harp or voice writing before.

Speaking of composition, I just finished writing a piano piece that I will be performing at a recital on October 27th, and I have begun to orchestrate it - physically by hand with a mechanical pencil, which is a slower process than by the computer, but I think will be better because I have the orchestra in my head, not based on any MIDI data.

Overall, I've been having a fantastic musical experience here, and I really enjoy the Music 111 class I've been taking. We've basically been going through a (rough) history of music, and we spent the class this morning talking about all of Bach's amazing pieces he wrote, and even analyzing one of his violin partitas (I believe the second one), which was neat. Friday will be a discussion on Handel, and then we'll be moving on to Haydn and the classical era next week.

In future, if I am able to get any recordings or videos of any of my chamber compositions, or any small violin works I play, I will be sure to update you of all my musical endeavors. I can't wait to continue through the next month of college, and to continue to have a fantastic time making music and living my passion!

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