May 2004

May 17, 2004 06:11

Played a bunch of sacred music Friday and Saturday night. I shared the first violin part with one other person, whose playing is very good; yet I now get the joke "How do two violinists play in tune? Shoot one of them."

I should be nice, the music was actually very well selected, the solo soprano was excellant, and the conductor was cool.

Caved into my rising tide of estrogen and paid to see "Van Helsing" yesterday. Why can't there be a classical musician character like that? That tought yet sincere sub-for-hire with a mysterious past and a heart of gold? And turns into Scooby Doom whenever his stand partner turns the page too early?

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May 13, 2004 19:30

Again, my lesson with Valerie blew my mind. My frog changes at the tip weren't making her happy, so she broke the movement down into several parts---"elbow is still here, then moves forward here, then stays still while the forearm extends, watch the angle of your wrist...."etc. I'm thinking, how does she know this? Does she teach this to her little students?

Then I saw a third-grader of hers tonight play Bartok's Romanian Dances. With a _really_ good bow arm. In fact, all of her students, down to pre-schoolers, had solid bow arms. After seeing so many hundreds of mediocre college recitals, watching these kids was like watching water flowing upwards.

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May 11, 2004 09:12

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. This new left-hand technique is so relaxing. And makes learning orchestra music ten times slower, cuz it needs time to integrate. It's so awkward, it's like to trying to insert contact lenses with your toes.

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May 6, 2004 19:24

Woot, may have gig playing for a schnazzola jewelry store dinner party. Good thing, since none of my orchestras rehearse this month.

Made dinner with Maureen and Dr. Tepping and my husband. Sooo much chopping and peeling. Like rehearsing chamber music, Maureen requires a lot of prep time, but it's always good.

Lesson with Valerie today. Blew my mind, again. We spent most of the lesson just on bow changes. What she said is way too detailed for me to write down, it's like ciphering the communications between a divine locust swarm. Not in a doomy way, just the way prophets come away from sights-man-was-not-meant-to-behold with that blank expression, saying, "...stars....monsters...so beautiful..."

Got a fit of inspiration on the Marta train two days ago, wrote a chanson based on a scene out of Grim Fandango (what do you call a Spanish art song?). I should get Gina's friend Gerald-the-bass to sing it.

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May 2, 2004 19:55

Wow, Valentina Lisitsa is an amazing pianist, she soloed with us to do the second Shosty concerto. Wooooooo, cool.

We did Tchaik, Shosty, and the planet's slowest interpretation of Rimsky-Korsekov. I've used the third movement melody from "Scheherazade" for so many wedding processions, I think of the tempo as regal and perhaps a little brisk.

But no, the conductor took it slow. Our bride was drunk with a broken leg.

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More entries: June 2004 • April 2004