November 2009

Cycles

November 14, 2009 06:04

Season cycles. Orchestral cycles. Bicycles. All moving too fast.

Last Sunday was our Fall Concert, the first of the season. I hadn't thought of it this way before, but the Holiday Concert has holiday music, the Family Concert is targeted at kids (and is free of charge), the Sponsors' Concert invites the sponsors, and the POPS Concert has POPS music. We usually get a respectable-to-good audience for all of them. But the Fall Concert is the least well-attended, and it doesn't have a "hook" to draw people in.

Still, I did my part. I provided the section with bowings by email and by xerox. I fixed the measure where I didn't noodle long enough and dropped a beat (and at first was managing to lead the whole section astray), and did it right in performance. I learned to think in 1 and didn't die. I bought a magnetic mute that doesn't rattle and doesn't fall off, and got it on and off smoothly for the muted 4-measure violin solo. My husband came to the performance, and he brought a coworker. I also invited fellow v.commer, Karin Lin, who recently moved to the area, and she came too. I announced it on Facebook. I listened to the music on the T, and even on my bike, and I practiced it (almost) every day.

All of which adds up to something of a letdown when the concert is over.

The rehearsal schedule marches on, too, and a whole new set of music, some of it copied by hand with the E-naturals written lower than the E-flats (Bavicchi 3 Psalms), some of it with a virtual forest of 8th notes that goes on for pages (Schubert Messe) lands on my stand. While I've still got Schumann in my head, trailing clouds of glory.

I've always said that I'm an orchestral player, not a solo player. I feel an almost obsessive need to announce this whenever the opportunity presents itself. But now I think I finally am coming around to understanding the need to balance the two. I found the music for the concert program challenging enough that it occupied most of my lessons and virtually all of my practice time for 2 months. It was time well-spent, and I learned a great deal. But I had been working on the 4th movement of the Franck sonata, and I had to set it aside entirely.

And, I missed it.

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November 2009

Cycles

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