Feel the Burn!

April 28, 2012 at 5:33 PM

After several late night rehearsals this week, I have come to the conclusion that the 50 min long Dies Irae (from the Verdi Requiem) is equivilent to a work out at the gym. This is especially true in the last 25-ish minutes where we literally have no rests. I am a second violin, so we mostly play on the G and D strings, and having your arm at that angle for that long can be quite painful. All those people who said violin wasn't a sport were SO wrong!

From Aubrey Keimig
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 12:01 AM

I agree! There are times when I'd just kill to be able to play on the E string during those long, G/D, no rest pieces!

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 12:01 PM

Yeah, Requiems seem to be like that. I played a Schumann requiem a few years ago, and there were, literally pages of 8th notes, fast ones, without a rest. It looked like an 8th-note forest! You can only practice that so often too, without being concerned about straining the fingers on your left hand.

From Paul Deck
Posted on April 29, 2012 at 1:25 PM

"I am a second violin, so we mostly play on the G and D strings, and having your arm at that angle for that long can be quite painful."

This suggests to me that Verdi (a) did not understand the violin and (b) did not know how to balance orchestral voices between the first and second violins. Oops.

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