Whew, that's over . . . NOT!

November 25, 2008 at 12:06 PM

The Messiah has a lot of notes.

I'm not yet to the point or level of preparation where I can lose myself in the music and be transported to another place, time, and plane of existence. I'm still wandering through the forest of those !@#$% 16th-notes.

Yesterday was also a remarkable example of the "travelling dining room." Monday morning is the day I walk my son and his friend to school. They're in kindergarten. Monday morning is always kind of a zoo when we are often not quite ready on time after the weekend. So, grabbing my violin for my lesson later, I took a yogurt smoothie out the door with me to enjoy on the bus to work.

Lunchtime is time for my lesson. I have to leave my office at 12 noon, stop by the cafeteria, pick up my grilled cheese and tomato on whole wheat to go and catch the T by 12:15. I stand in the middle of the platform so that I can get off at the stairs that lead me right to the closest exit, and eat the sandwich between Kendall and Harvard. I then throw out the wrapper and my skim milk carton in the garbage can next to the turnstile and make a beeline to the Longy school, remembering to 1. wear my gloves and 2. carry the instrument in my right hand, not my left (and 3. keep the music in the music pocket and not leave it on the train!). Arrive at the school, wash my hands quickly, and ascend 3 flights of stairs to the room where my lesson is.

We are doing Messiah part 2, because I haven't had time to practice anything else this week. I explain, apologetically, about my cough (which is getting better) and my teacher is sympathetic. She's getting ready to go on tour and we won't have a lesson for 3 weeks.

There are some tricky 16th-note passages in the Messiah, and remembering Tom's comments, I open to number 14 and number 53. While the fingerings we discuss are useful, surprisingly, the most helpful thing I think I learn in the lesson is not to rest, mentally, while I'm playing. I have the tendency here, and it was also in Cappricio Italien last month, to get through a hard passage, for better or worse, and just take a mental breather: "whew, that's over!" Unfortunately what this means is that the rest of the orchestra has moved on and my bow is not ready on the string for the next set of horrific 16th notes.

In Cappricio Italien, there is in particular a set of ascending scales where you just can't stop. For the last concert I practiced this section repeatedly: getting both hands back where I needed to be immediately for the next one, no matter how the last one went, good bad or ugly, I couldn't rest on my laurels or roll my eyes about the missed notes. While Handel's Messiah is very different, musically, from Cappricio Italien, there is still something of the same fierce urgency of 16th notes in the violin part. No "oops, I screwed that up." No "whew that's over."

I have started a new work schedule in which I stay in the office late on Monday and Tuesday and work from home on Thursday. And we had our rehearsal rescheduled to Monday this week because of Thanksgiving. So, again for the third time, I got my dinner on the way to the T and ate it on the way home. This is not technically legal (at least the signs that say "no food or drink might indicate that" ;-), but I made it to rehearsal (just) on time, not hungry and not frantic.

Several people couldn't make the rescheduled rehearsal for various reasons, so there were exactly 4 of us playing 1st violin, then 3 after the break. In the small rehearsal room we had plenty of volume, we were actually the right size for a baroque orchestra. And the 16th notes came more easily this time around. I'm getting there.

From Tom Holzman
Posted via 167.176.6.8 on November 26, 2008 at 1:34 PM

The main comforting thing for violinists to remember about these passages in the Messiah is that there are no good fingerings, only less awkward ones. Therefore, as you bollox these during the rehearsals and concert, you are justified in mentally cursing Handel because it is his fault, not yours.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted via 138.88.132.111 on November 29, 2008 at 10:41 AM

Karen, just a little reminder: If you work too hard, you'll get run down, and the chances of getting well really increase. Please take good care of yourself.

I used to play the Messiah every year, and it always seemed a miracle that things worked out so well. Of course, that piece of music is all about a miracle.

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Whew, that's over . . . NOT!

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