Gut Stretching and Other Musical Works
Day 2 and the gut strings are still stabilizing. I tuned them one whole note above pitch the other night, and tonight they were about 1 whole note below pitch. I wonder how long they will take to settle in? Once they do, I've decided to move them over to the 16" viola for a trial run.
The last few months have been busy ones musically (and will be for several months ahead):
Monday nights is orchestra practice (concert is this Friday... check out the v-com calendar!). We strings are playing Haydn's 101st Symphony, Anderson's Bell of the Ball, a miliary march by Sain-Saens, intro to Lohengrin by Wagner, and Bach's Fugue in G Minor (viola solo!!!).
Wednesday nights are lessons: focusing on vibrato, shifting and Bruch's Romanze. I'm now on page 2, practice marks C to E + 3 measures. D to E are especially challenging. There is a jump from 3rd to 5th postion on the G string mid-bow stroke, back down to 3rd on the D, then 2nd on the A, and 1st on the A. I find myself playing on the wrong strings sometimes. Vibrato is coming along well. I have "graduated" to practicing vibrato while bowing at the same time. Not so bad! I can hold a vibrato now on one note for a whole up-bow. For my next trick, I will do 2 notes on the up-bow! :)
Thursday nights is with my trio group. We are working through Beethoven's Trio in C Major, OP 87, Bach's 15 Terzetti, and Dvorak's Terzetto. The 4th movement, Tema Con Variazioni is a challenging but typicall viola part in the molto allegro section - string crossings from open C to an increasing scale on D with 1/16 notes going from 3rd position down to first at fff. We're debating performing in this summer's farmer's market in town.
Who needs a gym?!?!
I'm looking forward to tomorrow night. Instead of practicing/playing, I'm hosting two of my colleagues (day job) from China/Singapore for dinner - home-made curry chicken served with rice adn greens seasoned with belechan (sp.).I've got this feeling however that they are going to ask for a viola recital. They've seen me tromp in and out of the office with my viola in-tow for the past two weeks, asked to see it, and showed a great interest in what pieces I was playing.
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Parmeeta - you simply take some garlic, maybe some onion and ginger, and stir fry it until tender and fragrant in a little oil, then add the greens (I use mustard or spinach out here in the NW - if you can find kangkong its really good), then add the belachan when the greens are mostly cooked. Add some salt and serve!
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March 9, 2007 at 09:28 AM · Mandy, please send me your recipe for the greens with belachan (I usually use it to season some "meen or nasi" dishes only), if it is not too much trouble.