June 2006

June 27, 2006 15:14

The highlight of yesterday for me was the masterclass with Robert Spano. Each of the four quartets played a Bach Chorale. My quartet sight-read "Christ lag in Todesbanden." The other three quartets sight-read "Es ist genug: Herr, wenn es dir gefallt," "Mach's mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Gut," and "Herzlich thut mich verlangen."

I learned a lot about how to play Bach from Mr. Spano. I also learned how to read soprano and tenor clefs. Believe it or not, the masterclass really showed me how we must compromise to make the music sound as good as possible. There is also a lot of dissonance between the first and second violins in "Christ lag in Todesbanden," so I had to work with the second violinist to try to bring out the tension.

Franklin Pond is going to be a good experience for me. Although, playing violin all day could be a bit stressful. Yesterday morning, I started off sight-reading Ravel and a few quartets from Beethoven Op. 18. That was a lot of fun. Then, Mr. Hancock worked on the Schubert with us a little, but we mainly focused on The Bartok piece. The bartok piece is actually an arrangement by Tibor Sedley of one of the Mikrokosmos etudes. It is the 142nd study of 153 and is entitled "From the Diary of a Fly." It was a lot of weird things. There are double stop glissandos that go up an octave, not to mention that there is almost always someone playing sustained ponticello notes and two of us in dialogue with sautille whole tone scales. But, I really love the Agitato section. It is a wonderful clash.

In the afternoon after the masterclass, we went upstairs and worked with our coach, Daniel Laufer, who is the second chair cellist in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (http://www.atlantasymphony.org/meetthemusicians/orchestra.aspx)

Then, around 5:00, I met my mom and we went home. What was really cool is that Ronda Respess made binders for all sixteen of us that contains all of the scores to the music that every quartet plays as well as all four of the Bach Chorales plus some articles from Arnold Steinhardt called "Zone of Magic" and one from a magazine with an article on preventing injuries.

I am glad that this camp only meets every Monday. Otherwise, I would be so tired.

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June 26, 2006 15:50

I am really naive. But, I am only a kid.

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June 23, 2006 14:14

There are some really good videos of Henryk Szeryng on youtube that a friend of mine put up. There are a total of four so far.

Driver's Ed ended today. I hated it. I did learn a lot though... enough to realize that a bunch of hicks in Georgia don't know how to drive.

Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to practice lately. The fingrboard of my violin started to come off earlier this week. My luthier fixed it. She also reconmended some strings. They are Vision Titanium orchestra. I like them. I think they are better than Evahs, but that is just me. Some of you wouldn't agree. Try them out if you have the money. They are about the same price as Evahs anyways.

If the hour or so that I've been able to practice each day for the past couple of days, I've practiced scales. I need to work on Schubert and Bartok for my camp. There are just a few arpeggios in Schubert and a few slides in Bartok to work on. Thankfully, my quartet got easy music.

Sunday afternoon, I am meeting with my quartet for the first time. Hopefully we will get along. I want to like them.

I don't have much experience being in a quartet which is the main reason why I wanted to participate in the program. I'm sure it will be a good learning experience.

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June 10, 2006 10:33

I finally got my music for Franklin Pond. I am first violin of my quartet and we are playing Schubert String Quartet No. 13 in a minor, D. 804 - "Rosamunde" II. Andante and Bartok/Serley Mikrokosmos, Ss. 107: No. 142 from the Diary of a Fly.

Other quartets are playing the first movement from Smetana's String Quartet in e, Stravinsky's Three Pieces, Shostakovich's fourth movement from String Quartet No. 1 in C, Puccini's Crisantemi Elegy, Dvorak's third movement from Terzetto in C for Two violins and viola, and the fourth movement from Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18.

Sorry for any typos, but I went about this rather quickly.

Anyways, our first meeting is on the 26th, and that is also the date when we have a masterclass with Mr. Robert Spano. We'll be playing Bach Chorales with him teaching/conducting us.

This is going to be so much fun. We also have publicity pictures for some local newspapers.

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June 7, 2006 08:48

I bought a CD yesterday: "Fritz Kreisler: Original Compositions & Arrangements."

I really like it.

I also picked up my summer reading books for school. I am reading "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry.

See the evils of school? It even takes up my precious time in summer with "reading."

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June 2, 2006 14:45

I had my senior picture taken today. Boy, was that a waste of time. Then, I came home and reviewed a little for the SATs. I'm taking the SAT tomorrow morning. I have to wake up early, which will kill me since I woke up at 11:00 today. I'm not too worried, though, because I can alwasy retake the SATs if I do poorly (and how would that happen, right?).

lol...

oh, Bruch. I don't really like his first violin concerto. Technique is easy to practice. I don't even have to think. All I do is turn on my metronome and practice. However, phrasings are different. You actually have to plan out your sound, which is too much work for me.

I have no music lesson this week because my teacher is teaching. Who would have thought? Ugh, he is teaching music history and listening to the people who signed up for the Kennesaw State University music camp.

The poor guy. haha

He's probably enjoying every moment of it.

So, I should practice. I've been so busy today with life's trivial matters that I haven't focused on the big things.

So, how about the Montreal Competition? I was disappointed in the results. Of course, I was listening to the competition over the internet, so I could not actually see anything.

I think that it would be a lot of fun to participate in a competition. I'm sure the competitors think otherwise, since they are the ones who spend long hours in the practice room.

But don't listen to me; I've never participated in a competition before.

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More entries: July 2006 • May 2006