I am so excited - I just heard from Christopher Dungey, the cello maker whose waiting list I've been on for a few years. I'm next on his list!!!!
To be fair, I've been waiting on his list because I wanted to improve my playing enough to be ready for a better instrument. I have a fine student cello that Chris set up for me. My current cello also has some of his inventions on it. One is a cable hanger assembly (attaches tailpiece to endpin). The other, and more dramatic improvement in tone quality, came from the ChrisP'IN endpin that Chris designed. I used a few prototypes of both the ChrisCABLE and ChrisP'IN on my cello before getting the final versions. Maybe sometime I'll write about what it was like to replace the cable hanger (I switched out a prototype to the final version myself, a process that included having to reset the bridge and tailpin in the right relationship). The most amazing change in tone was when we would switch endpins, old and new, and literally hear the improvement in tone. Even my husband, who doesn't normally notice changes in tone, could hear the difference. I did the same switching endpin thing with my cello and my teacher's cello during a lesson, and the change in tone with both cellos was remarkable (my teacher didn't want to give the new endpin back to me). Okay, how was that for a shameless product endorsement? If only improvements in tone could be so easy all of the time!
I really like the fact that Chris is experimenting with different technologies and inventing things to try to make cellos sound better. That really appeals to the geek in me. The engineer in me has been fascinated with the process of making a cello and I've had a lot of fun learning about cello making from Chris.
I'll be writing more about the making of my next cello - right now I have lots of questions, and the one burning question is how do I tell him what I want from a cello? I feel like such a novice in so many ways - I've only really played a few cellos (a couple of rentals and my current student cello) so I don't even know what I should ask for!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Work Wins, This Week
This was not a good week for work-life balance. Work won this week. Between the late night meeting with a team in India on Tuesday, flight delays on Wednesday, and work on a project this weekend, my cello has suffered from neglect. The balance thing is really pretty hard. I am looking forward to the day when I can balance retirement activities with cello! Although, if my dad and other retired people I know are any model, I know that even that balance won't be easy.
My lesson this week was good, despite the lack of practice time. My bowing has gotten straighter - after the previous week's video session I was able to straighten out my bow even more, based on this week's video. I'm now working on varying my vibrato speed during long notes, plus working on crescendos and decrescrendos during long notes (it's really hard to do a crescendo while getting towards the tip of the bow!). It was pretty fun during my lesson; my teacher played bits of a Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso and had me dissect what Starker was doing from an expressive standpoint and had me play the same passage, trying to emulate Starker's playing. It was fun - doesn't mean that I can't do my own thing - and enlightening to think about the range of things I could do with one phrase. It was really interesting to hear how Starker did something slightly different each time he played the first theme.
Saturday chamber group was fun - our other pianist was there so I got to be on cello the whole time. We played 2 Schumann piano trios, #1 (the d minor, for our pianist who was dying to play it - I'm not sure the rest of us were) and #3. He is such a good pianist - wish I could sight read on the piano as well as he does. We played through the Franck Piano Trio Op 1 #1 in F# minor. I really liked it but sightreading 6 sharps in tenor clef was pretty challenging. It's on our list to play again sometime. We finished with 2 movements of Novak's Piano Trio Op.1 and ran out of time. We liked it enough to want to finish playing through it another time.
Unfortunately I had to cancel out of my Sunday chamber group to work. I hate missing opportunities to play. I did get some practice time in this evening after finishing up work.
My lesson this week was good, despite the lack of practice time. My bowing has gotten straighter - after the previous week's video session I was able to straighten out my bow even more, based on this week's video. I'm now working on varying my vibrato speed during long notes, plus working on crescendos and decrescrendos during long notes (it's really hard to do a crescendo while getting towards the tip of the bow!). It was pretty fun during my lesson; my teacher played bits of a Janos Starker recording of Bach's Arioso and had me dissect what Starker was doing from an expressive standpoint and had me play the same passage, trying to emulate Starker's playing. It was fun - doesn't mean that I can't do my own thing - and enlightening to think about the range of things I could do with one phrase. It was really interesting to hear how Starker did something slightly different each time he played the first theme.
Saturday chamber group was fun - our other pianist was there so I got to be on cello the whole time. We played 2 Schumann piano trios, #1 (the d minor, for our pianist who was dying to play it - I'm not sure the rest of us were) and #3. He is such a good pianist - wish I could sight read on the piano as well as he does. We played through the Franck Piano Trio Op 1 #1 in F# minor. I really liked it but sightreading 6 sharps in tenor clef was pretty challenging. It's on our list to play again sometime. We finished with 2 movements of Novak's Piano Trio Op.1 and ran out of time. We liked it enough to want to finish playing through it another time.
Unfortunately I had to cancel out of my Sunday chamber group to work. I hate missing opportunities to play. I did get some practice time in this evening after finishing up work.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Dangerous Moon Cakes
I'm stuck at my home away from home, the Alaska Airlines gate in the San Jose airport, waiting for a flight that is now 2 hours late. Sigh. This happens far too frequently.
I did get a laugh going through security. My backpack (dutifully emptied of laptop and 1-quart bag of 100ml or less liquids/gels) got searched. The TSA person went straight to the box of moon cakes that were in my bag. The look on his face when he opened up the box was priceless. The inspector saw some suspicious dense blobs in the X-ray image, which triggered the search. Those dense blobs were the egg yolks in the moon cakes!
This wasn't as funny as the time I got the full luggage search in the airport in Paris - that time I had found a gag gift that I was bringing home. I'll never forget the look on his face and the way he said with his wonderful French-accented English, "Cat Butt Magnets????"
I did get a laugh going through security. My backpack (dutifully emptied of laptop and 1-quart bag of 100ml or less liquids/gels) got searched. The TSA person went straight to the box of moon cakes that were in my bag. The look on his face when he opened up the box was priceless. The inspector saw some suspicious dense blobs in the X-ray image, which triggered the search. Those dense blobs were the egg yolks in the moon cakes!
This wasn't as funny as the time I got the full luggage search in the airport in Paris - that time I had found a gag gift that I was bringing home. I'll never forget the look on his face and the way he said with his wonderful French-accented English, "Cat Butt Magnets????"
Monday, August 20, 2007
Lesson and Chamber Group Notes
I had a good lesson on Friday. My teacher put the video camera on me to let me take a good look at my bowing, and it has definitely straightened out. It isn't good enough yet; I could see that my up bows were at a slightly different angle than my down bows, but at least they were straight going in one direction and within a fairly narrow range on the string. I can hear the difference in sound. I played "The Swan" at the end so that I could see and hear what I sounded like playing something other than scales or exercises. After pointing out some other things I need to work on, my teacher said that my playing was the most consistent it's ever been! So, progress! Yay! And so much more to work on! He has been reading Daniel Levitan's This is Your Brain on Music which I read a few months ago, so we had a good time joking about how many hours I had left to go on my 10,000 hours to become an expert.
I got to play cello this weekend with my Saturday chamber group. With people still out we were still only a piano trio. We played through a Raff trio (can't remember which opus) and the Clara Schumann trio (so that our other pianist could play/hear it). I think it was the first time I got to play the cello part for her trio - all of the other times we've played it I've been on the piano. We finished up with a Spohr trio. Hope next week one of our violas can come - and our other violinist - so we can get back to piano quintets (or some configuration other than piano trios, which are nice, but we were getting quite a bit of variety for a while).
My Sunday group was a hoot. Our other cellist, who has been playing the cello for over 60 years (I kid you not) was there after an absence of 3 weeks. I love playing with her. We played the Vivaldi G minor double cello concerto and had a blast. We're trying to get it gig-ready, which means that I probably ought to spend some time practicing it on my own...I only seem to play it when I'm with this group. We played through the first 3 movements of Dvorak's "American" quartet, which really gives the 1st violin a workout! The 2nd movement gives the cello some lovely parts to play, but pretty high - hate that false treble - and even playing an octave down it was getting way up the fingerboard. We finished by reading through Mendelssohn's 3rd string quartet (Op. 44, No. 1) - lots of fun - and not quite as tricky on rhythm as the Dvorak. What was encouraging (to me, at least!) was that I could hear that the bowing exercises are paying off - I could hold the volume of long notes much more consistently (not dying off when close to the tip of the bow!!!).
We got a note from our conductor! Orchestra rehearsal starts September 10th!
I got to play cello this weekend with my Saturday chamber group. With people still out we were still only a piano trio. We played through a Raff trio (can't remember which opus) and the Clara Schumann trio (so that our other pianist could play/hear it). I think it was the first time I got to play the cello part for her trio - all of the other times we've played it I've been on the piano. We finished up with a Spohr trio. Hope next week one of our violas can come - and our other violinist - so we can get back to piano quintets (or some configuration other than piano trios, which are nice, but we were getting quite a bit of variety for a while).
My Sunday group was a hoot. Our other cellist, who has been playing the cello for over 60 years (I kid you not) was there after an absence of 3 weeks. I love playing with her. We played the Vivaldi G minor double cello concerto and had a blast. We're trying to get it gig-ready, which means that I probably ought to spend some time practicing it on my own...I only seem to play it when I'm with this group. We played through the first 3 movements of Dvorak's "American" quartet, which really gives the 1st violin a workout! The 2nd movement gives the cello some lovely parts to play, but pretty high - hate that false treble - and even playing an octave down it was getting way up the fingerboard. We finished by reading through Mendelssohn's 3rd string quartet (Op. 44, No. 1) - lots of fun - and not quite as tricky on rhythm as the Dvorak. What was encouraging (to me, at least!) was that I could hear that the bowing exercises are paying off - I could hold the volume of long notes much more consistently (not dying off when close to the tip of the bow!!!).
We got a note from our conductor! Orchestra rehearsal starts September 10th!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Getting a Little Bit Smarter, Perhaps?
Last night I was inspired by Cellodonna's comment on my previous post that she warms up with Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca (last movement of sonata no. 11 in A major kv331). I stopped midway through playing the Mozart sonata I warm up with to switch to the Rondo. I had to drag out the music for the Rondo because I only have bits and pieces of it memorized. Since I had my collection of Mozart piano sonatas out, I decided to play the next sonata KV332, No. 12 in F major, all of KV333 (my warmup sonata, No. 13 in B flat major), and KV283, No. 5 in G major. It's been a long time since I've played any Mozart sonata other than the one I warm up with and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I could feel the effect of the rhythm practice too, I was having a much easier time with the ornaments, and I even added extra ones and improvised for fun. My last piano teacher was really big on improvising within the context of the music - a common practice of the period - but I digress.
I figure that since I played Mozart last night I must be a teeny bit smarter! I've always wondered if listening to Mozart really does make a difference in kids' performance in other school subjects.
It's been so nice to be home and play the cello every day. I've continued to work on bowing straight - mixing in exercises to try to burn the feeling of the changes I've made in wrist position and bow angle into muscle memory. I've spent time playing through pieces, making them progressively harder, trying to concentrate on bowing straight, to see at what point I start losing it. Once I notice that I've lost control I step back and try to bow straight again with just simple rhythms and bowing patterns.
I figure that since I played Mozart last night I must be a teeny bit smarter! I've always wondered if listening to Mozart really does make a difference in kids' performance in other school subjects.
It's been so nice to be home and play the cello every day. I've continued to work on bowing straight - mixing in exercises to try to burn the feeling of the changes I've made in wrist position and bow angle into muscle memory. I've spent time playing through pieces, making them progressively harder, trying to concentrate on bowing straight, to see at what point I start losing it. Once I notice that I've lost control I step back and try to bow straight again with just simple rhythms and bowing patterns.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Warmup Routines
I read Guanaco's post about his warmup routine and it got me thinking about the warmup routines I have for cello, piano, and swimming. I definitely have developed routines - they are comforting. Plus I really need them now as I've gotten older.
I've been doing a very similar piano warmup (when I actually sit down to play, which seems to be rather infrequent these days) since high school, I think. I start with an exercise that I got from the teacher I had from age 9 until age 18. It is 2 hands, in unison, playing a simple pattern (C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C) repeated 4 times, then doing that pattern 4 times with the minor third (C-D-Eflat-F-G-F-Eflat-D-C); then 4 times diminished (C-D-Eflat-F-Gflat-F-Eflat-D-C); then 4 times with an augmented 5th (C-D-E-F-G#-F-E-D-C). When I'm done I move the whole thing up a half step. I keep going until I've done all 12 notes, checking for evenness of sound (volume and rhythm), how precisely in unison every note is, and checking how stiff my fingers feel. Next I move to arpeggios, doing major and minor, every key, 4 octaves or so. Then I do a major and minor scales in octaves, thirds, sixths, and tenths (I just keep cycling around the keys - c major/c minor one day, Dflat maj/C# minor the next, and so forth). I've just added in doing some 7th chord progressions. The last thing I do for warmup is play the first movement of Mozart's sonata KV333, no pedal, just to see how my fingers feel and to get a feeling for how well I'm playing that day. I'm not sure why that piece - I studied on 2 different period instruments while in college and usually think about how different a modern piano sounds compared to a piano built when Mozart was playing/composing.
My cello warmup is not yet as ritualized or elaborate. I warm up with bowing on open strings, then bowing a cross string pattern, then follow with scales and arpeggios (random keys, 2 or 3 octaves). Usually I try different bowing patterns. It takes me about 15 minutes or so before I feel loosened up. I've been trying to incorporate some of the exercises Emily Wright posted on her blog.
For swimming, I usually swim with a group (great cross-training for cello playing!!! develops arm strength!), and I'll do whatever warmup set we are doing that morning. We usually start off with some easy swimming, then kick or pull (or do some of both) and/or do drills. I can't just jump in and go full blast any more - I have to warm up (and at the end, do some easy swimming to loosen up). I don't usually feel good in the water until I've been swimming for a while - lately it's takes a mile before I feel good - I must have a lot of slow twitch muscles.
I've been doing a very similar piano warmup (when I actually sit down to play, which seems to be rather infrequent these days) since high school, I think. I start with an exercise that I got from the teacher I had from age 9 until age 18. It is 2 hands, in unison, playing a simple pattern (C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C) repeated 4 times, then doing that pattern 4 times with the minor third (C-D-Eflat-F-G-F-Eflat-D-C); then 4 times diminished (C-D-Eflat-F-Gflat-F-Eflat-D-C); then 4 times with an augmented 5th (C-D-E-F-G#-F-E-D-C). When I'm done I move the whole thing up a half step. I keep going until I've done all 12 notes, checking for evenness of sound (volume and rhythm), how precisely in unison every note is, and checking how stiff my fingers feel. Next I move to arpeggios, doing major and minor, every key, 4 octaves or so. Then I do a major and minor scales in octaves, thirds, sixths, and tenths (I just keep cycling around the keys - c major/c minor one day, Dflat maj/C# minor the next, and so forth). I've just added in doing some 7th chord progressions. The last thing I do for warmup is play the first movement of Mozart's sonata KV333, no pedal, just to see how my fingers feel and to get a feeling for how well I'm playing that day. I'm not sure why that piece - I studied on 2 different period instruments while in college and usually think about how different a modern piano sounds compared to a piano built when Mozart was playing/composing.
My cello warmup is not yet as ritualized or elaborate. I warm up with bowing on open strings, then bowing a cross string pattern, then follow with scales and arpeggios (random keys, 2 or 3 octaves). Usually I try different bowing patterns. It takes me about 15 minutes or so before I feel loosened up. I've been trying to incorporate some of the exercises Emily Wright posted on her blog.
For swimming, I usually swim with a group (great cross-training for cello playing!!! develops arm strength!), and I'll do whatever warmup set we are doing that morning. We usually start off with some easy swimming, then kick or pull (or do some of both) and/or do drills. I can't just jump in and go full blast any more - I have to warm up (and at the end, do some easy swimming to loosen up). I don't usually feel good in the water until I've been swimming for a while - lately it's takes a mile before I feel good - I must have a lot of slow twitch muscles.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Cat-atouille and Cat-atonic
We went to see Ratatouille today and I really enjoyed it. Animated movies seem to be the only films we go to see these days (with an exception for Lord of the Rings). When we got home our cats were being their usual selves - we decided that Marley (our crazy black cat) was really Cat-atouille and Ziggy (the Queen of Comfy) was really Cat-atonic (she does spend most of her day in bed).
My lesson yesterday went well. It really helped to have a mirror so I could see whether I was bowing straight. I may have to break down and buy one. I could hear a marked improvement in tone (yay!); I've spent most of the week concentrating on keeping my wrist in a neutral position and it is starting to pay off. Hopefully within a few weeks I won't have to think about it so much--after practice makes something permanent (thanks Cellodonna for that insight!), I can focus on some other aspect of my playing. Using the mirror I could see how much my bow wandered up and down over the string, and by the end of the lesson I could see it traversing the same spot much more tightly. So that's this week's task - practicing bowing in a straight line!
My chamber group was small today, just a piano trio. I was on piano today, and boy did I get a workout. I haven't really played the piano much in the past few weeks - too much travel, work, and focusing practice time on cello - so when I started warming up this morning I could feel how stiff my fingers were. Actually I'm not really playing the piano much now other than playing for groups. We started out with Clara Schumann's piano trio. I've also been reading through some of her solo piano music (thank you Dover!) as well as music from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Both composers have been sadly neglected - women weren't really 'allowed' to be composers in their day, a major loss to music. I am looking for Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio which I have heard is really wonderful. Clara Schumann's trio was a good warmup for the rest of the morning.
We then moved on to Robert Schumann's piano trios, playing the first 2 trios (No. 1 Op 63 and No.2 Op 80). The first movement of No.1 is a killer rhythm-wise (but all of the rhythm work I've been doing is helping immensely!). The last movement of No. 1 was the most playable, and No. 2, while not easy, was easier to play than No. 1. I like No. 1 better but, wow, I nearly died trying to play the first movement - like always, wish I had more time to practice.... After those 2 trios we were Schumann-ed out and switched to Lalo's third piano trio (op. 26). We've played this one a few times before, and we did the first movement pretty close to tempo, and managed to hang together while killing me on the piano. The 3rd movement is beautiful. We all nearly died on the 4th movement, which we again took close to tempo (why, I don't know...maybe it was because we were running out of time.) I have to admit that it is sounding better; the first time we played it months ago, especially the 2nd movement, it didn't sound much like music. I was ready to toss in the towel after the Schumann; after the Lalo we were done and I was definitely Cat-atonic.....
My lesson yesterday went well. It really helped to have a mirror so I could see whether I was bowing straight. I may have to break down and buy one. I could hear a marked improvement in tone (yay!); I've spent most of the week concentrating on keeping my wrist in a neutral position and it is starting to pay off. Hopefully within a few weeks I won't have to think about it so much--after practice makes something permanent (thanks Cellodonna for that insight!), I can focus on some other aspect of my playing. Using the mirror I could see how much my bow wandered up and down over the string, and by the end of the lesson I could see it traversing the same spot much more tightly. So that's this week's task - practicing bowing in a straight line!
My chamber group was small today, just a piano trio. I was on piano today, and boy did I get a workout. I haven't really played the piano much in the past few weeks - too much travel, work, and focusing practice time on cello - so when I started warming up this morning I could feel how stiff my fingers were. Actually I'm not really playing the piano much now other than playing for groups. We started out with Clara Schumann's piano trio. I've also been reading through some of her solo piano music (thank you Dover!) as well as music from Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Both composers have been sadly neglected - women weren't really 'allowed' to be composers in their day, a major loss to music. I am looking for Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio which I have heard is really wonderful. Clara Schumann's trio was a good warmup for the rest of the morning.
We then moved on to Robert Schumann's piano trios, playing the first 2 trios (No. 1 Op 63 and No.2 Op 80). The first movement of No.1 is a killer rhythm-wise (but all of the rhythm work I've been doing is helping immensely!). The last movement of No. 1 was the most playable, and No. 2, while not easy, was easier to play than No. 1. I like No. 1 better but, wow, I nearly died trying to play the first movement - like always, wish I had more time to practice.... After those 2 trios we were Schumann-ed out and switched to Lalo's third piano trio (op. 26). We've played this one a few times before, and we did the first movement pretty close to tempo, and managed to hang together while killing me on the piano. The 3rd movement is beautiful. We all nearly died on the 4th movement, which we again took close to tempo (why, I don't know...maybe it was because we were running out of time.) I have to admit that it is sounding better; the first time we played it months ago, especially the 2nd movement, it didn't sound much like music. I was ready to toss in the towel after the Schumann; after the Lalo we were done and I was definitely Cat-atonic.....
Friday, August 10, 2007
Home for a Week!!!
I am so excited that I don't have to travel next week!!! I just looked through my calendar for the year, and there have been only 3 weeks this year when I haven't been on a plane, and 2 of those weeks were on vacation trips, where I wasn't home. And I think that the 3rd week at home was supposed to be a travel week, but I stayed home because I was sick.
I will need to take a picture from our deck.
And what joy, I will have more time to practice since I'll be home! Unfortunately I'm doing the 2 steps back, 1 step forward thing and am on the 2 steps back. At my last lesson we started tackling something that I've been doing - when changing bow direction at the frog I do a little downward hook that throws the bow off of its straight line. I think part of the problem is caused by too much wrist rotation up and down rather than side to side.
I think it was Guanaco who wrote about unlearning things and relearning - this is where I am right now. I'm having a real hard time figuring out if what I'm trying to do to fix the problem is really doing anything, because it's hard to see where my bow goes out of the straight line. I am looking forward to today's lesson so that my teacher can look at what I've been trying this week to see if it's made any difference.
And I wish it weren't so hard to unlearn and relearn - the "if only" always kicks in: "If only I could have not started doing what was wrong in the first place!" I have to keep reminding myself that practicing the same wrong thing over and over again doesn't make me a better cellist, it is being willing to change what I'm doing to make a better sound...
I will need to take a picture from our deck.
And what joy, I will have more time to practice since I'll be home! Unfortunately I'm doing the 2 steps back, 1 step forward thing and am on the 2 steps back. At my last lesson we started tackling something that I've been doing - when changing bow direction at the frog I do a little downward hook that throws the bow off of its straight line. I think part of the problem is caused by too much wrist rotation up and down rather than side to side.
I think it was Guanaco who wrote about unlearning things and relearning - this is where I am right now. I'm having a real hard time figuring out if what I'm trying to do to fix the problem is really doing anything, because it's hard to see where my bow goes out of the straight line. I am looking forward to today's lesson so that my teacher can look at what I've been trying this week to see if it's made any difference.
And I wish it weren't so hard to unlearn and relearn - the "if only" always kicks in: "If only I could have not started doing what was wrong in the first place!" I have to keep reminding myself that practicing the same wrong thing over and over again doesn't make me a better cellist, it is being willing to change what I'm doing to make a better sound...
Monday, August 6, 2007
Reticulating Splines (Helpful Status Message of the Day)
I recently signed up for an online backup service (Mozy, in case any of you were wondering) for our home PC. I had been using a free service from Streamload (or MediaMax) because it let me store 25GB for free, but I was getting frustrated with how clunky and awful the user interface was. I wanted to make sure that all of our digital photos and my growing collection of digital sheet music were backed up somewhere outside of our home.
Each time I launch a backup, I get a most amusing status message, "reticulating splines..." Now I wonder if any of you can tell me what that has to do with backing up files. I think this message goes right up there with other cryptic messages that I've seen in software programs!
Each time I launch a backup, I get a most amusing status message, "reticulating splines..." Now I wonder if any of you can tell me what that has to do with backing up files. I think this message goes right up there with other cryptic messages that I've seen in software programs!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Sore Fingers
Whew! I have been playing a lot in the last few days. My fingers are sore!
Last night my Sunday chamber group had a gig at a local art festival. It was a lot of fun and one gentleman even said that he thought that he was listening to our favorite classical radio station, KING FM (yeah!, Cello Gal!! my favorite too!). I think he was being really nice but it sure was a nice compliment to hear!
We played the 3rd Brandenburg concerto, Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, a couple of Scott Joplin rag tunes, a few pieces from Handel's Watermusic, and some Scotch and Irish airs (Irish drinking songs in an arrangement by Beethoven). It was a lot of fun and many audience members came up afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it. I think we'll even get a few more gigs out of it too. In a move that I don't recommend, it was the first time I had seen the Scotch and Irish airs so I was sightreading when we performed it. The group practices twice a week, and I can't make the Friday practices since practice time is during the day when I'm at work. For some reason I had never had a chance to play those tunes until last night. Fortunately the other cellist in the group does go on Fridays, so I just followed her lead and listened to whomever was playing the melody to figure out what to do. What is really fun about this group is that we're good at listening to each other - I noticed many times when our tempo drifted a little bit that we drifted off together, and returned back into tempo together. The other fun(?) thing was that my partner cellist and I seemed to make the same mistakes! We both screwed up and missed a repeat in the Mozart and both came back in at the same time, together. Like a cat! Like we meant to do it! It was very amusing. We liked the fact that we screwed up together (that example wasn't the only time) - but that way no one could tell!
This morning my Saturday chamber group met at our other pianist's house. I was thankful that I could at last play the cello - I've been on piano for so many weeks. The group was really not balanced well, though - today we had 3 cellos (at least for a while), 1 piano, and 1 violin. We started out with the first Lalo Piano Trio and then had a real treat. Our violinist sat out (very happily, to listen) while us cellists played the Popper Requiem for 3 Cellos (I've linked to a video of it with the piano reduction of the orchestra score). What a gorgeous piece. I played the 2nd cello part. I had never heard it before, and got teased about not knowing about it - (but what would I know about about the cello repetoire - having been a solo pianist for most of my life???) Afterward we talked about playing it with our orchestra - wouldn't that be fun???? After playing the Requiem (again, the second time for 'redemption', as our pianist put it to describe the decision to take repeats when we were playing the Lalo trio), we played through Schubert's Piano Trio in E flat major (op.100) (with some opportunities for 'redemption'!). If that wasn't enough, we played though Arthur Foote's first piano trio - what fun - I had only played the piano part before and it was so much fun to play the cello part this time. And much easier since I had spent a bunch of times playing through the piano part, reading the score too (pianist's job!). Foote was a late Romantic composer who was entirely educated in the U.S., and then unjustly neglected partially because he had not studied in Europe. We've played through some of his other chamber works and they are wonderful to play and hear. I was exhausted at the end of this, and I still had my lesson to go later in the afternoon!
I have sore fingers...good thing my Sunday group is taking a break...will spend some time on Sunday on some sorely needed practice time instead. More on my lesson later...
Last night my Sunday chamber group had a gig at a local art festival. It was a lot of fun and one gentleman even said that he thought that he was listening to our favorite classical radio station, KING FM (yeah!, Cello Gal!! my favorite too!). I think he was being really nice but it sure was a nice compliment to hear!
We played the 3rd Brandenburg concerto, Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, a couple of Scott Joplin rag tunes, a few pieces from Handel's Watermusic, and some Scotch and Irish airs (Irish drinking songs in an arrangement by Beethoven). It was a lot of fun and many audience members came up afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it. I think we'll even get a few more gigs out of it too. In a move that I don't recommend, it was the first time I had seen the Scotch and Irish airs so I was sightreading when we performed it. The group practices twice a week, and I can't make the Friday practices since practice time is during the day when I'm at work. For some reason I had never had a chance to play those tunes until last night. Fortunately the other cellist in the group does go on Fridays, so I just followed her lead and listened to whomever was playing the melody to figure out what to do. What is really fun about this group is that we're good at listening to each other - I noticed many times when our tempo drifted a little bit that we drifted off together, and returned back into tempo together. The other fun(?) thing was that my partner cellist and I seemed to make the same mistakes! We both screwed up and missed a repeat in the Mozart and both came back in at the same time, together. Like a cat! Like we meant to do it! It was very amusing. We liked the fact that we screwed up together (that example wasn't the only time
This morning my Saturday chamber group met at our other pianist's house. I was thankful that I could at last play the cello - I've been on piano for so many weeks. The group was really not balanced well, though - today we had 3 cellos (at least for a while), 1 piano, and 1 violin. We started out with the first Lalo Piano Trio and then had a real treat. Our violinist sat out (very happily, to listen) while us cellists played the Popper Requiem for 3 Cellos (I've linked to a video of it with the piano reduction of the orchestra score). What a gorgeous piece. I played the 2nd cello part. I had never heard it before, and got teased about not knowing about it - (but what would I know about about the cello repetoire - having been a solo pianist for most of my life???) Afterward we talked about playing it with our orchestra - wouldn't that be fun???? After playing the Requiem (again, the second time for 'redemption', as our pianist put it to describe the decision to take repeats when we were playing the Lalo trio), we played through Schubert's Piano Trio in E flat major (op.100) (with some opportunities for 'redemption'!). If that wasn't enough, we played though Arthur Foote's first piano trio - what fun - I had only played the piano part before and it was so much fun to play the cello part this time. And much easier since I had spent a bunch of times playing through the piano part, reading the score too (pianist's job!). Foote was a late Romantic composer who was entirely educated in the U.S., and then unjustly neglected partially because he had not studied in Europe. We've played through some of his other chamber works and they are wonderful to play and hear. I was exhausted at the end of this, and I still had my lesson to go later in the afternoon!
I have sore fingers...good thing my Sunday group is taking a break...will spend some time on Sunday on some sorely needed practice time instead. More on my lesson later...
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Purple Bow Hair
Last night we went to a concert presented by the Seattle Chamber Music Society. The pre-concert recital featured Schumann's Carnaval, which I absolutely love. It was such a treat to listen to it live.
The actual concert started with a 2 violin + piano piece by Moritz Moszkowski. One of the violinists had a bow with purple hair. It was color-coordinated with the violinist's dress. I want a bow with purple hair! It looked so cool!
The last piece in the concert was Dvorak's Piano Quartet in D Major, Op. 23. I had never heard it before and was so in awe of the cellist, Robert deMaine. He sounded incredible, as did the rest of the ensemble. I was really focused on watching him play and wishing that I could play half as well.
Purple bow hair. How awesome is that??? That, to me, was the real hit of the evening!
The actual concert started with a 2 violin + piano piece by Moritz Moszkowski. One of the violinists had a bow with purple hair. It was color-coordinated with the violinist's dress. I want a bow with purple hair! It looked so cool!
The last piece in the concert was Dvorak's Piano Quartet in D Major, Op. 23. I had never heard it before and was so in awe of the cellist, Robert deMaine. He sounded incredible, as did the rest of the ensemble. I was really focused on watching him play and wishing that I could play half as well.
Purple bow hair. How awesome is that??? That, to me, was the real hit of the evening!
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