Category Archives: Cello

Oh Look, Ten A.M. And My Patience Is Non-Existent

This is already a bad, bad day.

It started yesterday afternoon with me feeling ill. This morning, still ill, I’m running into scheduling problems as well. As a result I have zero patience and am very close to throwing all my scheduled activities into other people’s faces and telling them to handle everything, because I’m really tired of being the one who co-ordinates.

It doesn’t help that the only thing I got done on my list of things to do yesterday afternoon was the cello. I worked for almost two hours straight on three different songs, which is a good thing because I wanted to finalise a couple of bits I’d been developing and some of it sounds beautiful, but not so good in that it’s the only thing I ended up doing. Also in that a disproportionate amount of time was spent trying to fix something that seemed broken, thanks to a tabber’s idiocy in not correctly identifying the source of the tab I was using as a basis for constructing a bassline.

On the good side of things, however, Liam had another awesome day at daycare yesterday. This time he got to play with two other children, a boy only a couple of months older than he is and a girl of four and a half. This was very okay in his books, as he likes to watch older children playing. He’s going to get more of it today, because we’re headed over to the ADZO homestead so that HRH can indulge in some well-earned playtime with the guys, and thus Liam and I get to play with other mummies and babies. And he’ll get a bit of it tomorrow before he goes to bed as well, because there are children coming to the neighbours’ housewarming.

In Which She Admits How Much Of A Fraidy-Cat She Truly Is

Thank you everyone for your expressions of support and sympathy for the tree massacre. We’ll be planting the crabapple this fall, and in the meantime we’ll be putting up eight-foot strips of lattice and planting fast-growing vines to screen our yard from the one behind us, and to provide some sort of shade so that Liam and I can play in the yard again. If the lilacs don’t die, they’ll take about four years to come back properly, and provide privacy and shade.

Liam is off at daycare again today. He woke up four times last night after we got home around 11.30, one time enough to need to be picked up and cuddled back to sleep. Oddly enough, the loud electrical storm we had didn’t seem to bother him when things were crashing and flashing right above the house for a good half hour. But he woke up roughly every couple of hours, which meant that we did too, to lie in bed and wait to see if he’d wake up completely or just half-awaken and cry a bit before self-soothing back to sleep. As a result we didn’t sleep that well, either. Good thing we had an excellent evening out relaxing beforehand.

We think his molars are coming in, because the random biting has started up again and he sticks anything and everything into the back of mouth to gnaw. That might be one of the reasons he woke up so often, too.

I ran around and did errands this morning after dropping Liam off, and one of them involved going to the Chapters on the West Island to kick around for an hour until the shop I needed to visit in Fairview mall opened at 10:00. (And the only thing I’m going to say about the second shop is that I seem to have reached a pants size that’s smaller than I wore before I was pregnant. Smaller than I’ve ever worn, actually. I’m not sure how that happened.) And while I was in the bookstore, I did something that absolutely terrified me: I asked a clerk about their policy on authors signing shelf stock.

I am incredibly shy. To admit in person, in real-life public, that I wrote not only one book but three is a huge thing. A huge, terrifying thing. I have been in dozens and dozens of shops that carry my books, and I just kind of see them there on the shelf, then smile a bit and look away quickly, because heaven forbid anyone sees me and somehow intuits that those books were written by me, because then people will make a fuss and look at me, and I will melt from confusion and embarrassment. Not because I’m ashamed of my books, you understand. I’m very proud of them. Just not in a loud “look what I did!” sort of way. (Journal completely aside, of course. Writing about it is different. And even here I tend to worry about the flaws and the challenges more than anything else.) This is the main reason why I still haven’t done an event or a signing.

I managed to not ask this question of the five friendly staff members who paused to wish me a good day and ask if I needed any help while I wandered around. There was just something so calm and kind about Jessica (nametags are so helpful) when she was scanning the books I was purchasing, so I asked her. And she said that often they had authors in for events, or they dropped off consignment copies, and was I looking for a signed copy of something in particular? And then I had to say that no, I was, um, an author, and they had three copies of my books on the shelf, and did they want them signed? She said then that she was pretty sure the store would love me to sign them, took my name, and called the manager to verify. The manager was indeed thrilled, and said yes yes yes, and so off I went to fetch the two copies of Solitary Wicca and the single copy of Spellcraft (no Green Witch, alas), and I signed them.

The Indigo chain puts stickers that indicate signed books on autographed copies.

So there; that was today’s terribly big adventure. Hurrah to Jessica. I hope she has an excellent day.

Now I have fourish hours in which to work on Swan Sister, do a draft outline of a table of contents for a book I proposed in case someone asks me for it, and practice the cello for a bit in prep for this weekend’s rehearsal.

Cellists Don’t Count

Last night I went out with some other Band People (TM) to the Montreal Musician and Musical Instrument Show. Since three quarters of the exhibitors were luthiers, I was looking forward to seeing, if not actually playtesting, some electric cellos. In particular, Vector Instruments, a Nova Scotian maker of electric instruments of the violin family, was going to be there. I’d been researching their stuff recently, and if no one else had anything, at least they would. And I was in the mood to mess about with one. This is a big thing — it takes me a while to psych myself up to test instruments, particularly in public places.

There were a grand total of — wait for it — zero cellos there. Anywhere, in any of the rooms or halls. Traditional or otherwise. There were violins (trad and electric), basses (ditto), but if you’re a cellist, you apparently have no place anywhere in or around the jazz festival.

I wasn’t as bothered about it there as I was by the time I got home. Thinking about it on the metro made it worse, for some reason.

On the other hand, there were a surprising number of saxophones, flutes, clarinets, and accordions among the other expected string instruments. There were bassoons, for heaven’s sake. And drum kits being played by four and five year olds who had better coordination than I could demonstrate in the same situation. I had fun watching them, and looking at the beautiful beautiful work-of-art guitars, and watching Jan and the Baron play pretty things, and hanging out with everyone’s mother’s favourite guitarist and Ceri until the show closed.

The one piece of information I gathered that was directly applicable to my instrument was from the reps for Schatten Design, Canadian makers of pickups for various acoustic instruments, specifically the cello pickup. The reps were informative and friendly, and promised me a money-back guarantee if I tried it out and didn’t like it. They also told me that if I ordered it within the next week and mentioned that I’d talked to them at the exhibition, they’d ship it to me free of charge. It’s fifty dollars more than the ubiquitous Fishman C-100 pickup, but I’m more inclined to test it because of the support offered by the makers. Part of my resistance to the Fishman comes from the fact that it’s what the local guitar salespeople try to sell me, and they know guitars, not cellos, so when I ask them for more details they can’t tell me anything but keep trying to sell it to me irregardless. (Yes, yes, I know, it’s my birthday soon, and I’m not buying anything for myself until it’s well past, just in case someone has taken it into their head to do something extravagant. More evidence proving that I can learn.) And the Schatten is Canadian, too; I like that.

And because I’ve had several less than stellar days in a row, here is a terrific picture of Liam that makes me laugh every time I see it. I hope it brightens your afternoon as well, in the last hour before the weekend arrives!

And Then Band! Plus More Sunday Schtuff

Jan’s new guitar is awesome.

So pretty. So versatile. So rich and mellow and prettyful. It really fills in some of the songs in our repertoire.

She has a new mandolin, too.

Of course, now I want in on the second (or third) instrument bandwagon, so I’m looking at things like this and this. Of course, one never buys an instrument through an online auction because one cannot test it, and one is stuck with it, and it always ends up costing more than one thinks it will. But these aren’t the ubiquitous Yamaha or Zeta silent/electric models, and I’d be interested in trying one out in order to get an idea of what they sound like. Not that I’ve tried the Yamahas or Zetas. There’s not much point in creating the opportunity for falling in love if I can’t buy one. It’s more sensible to avoid the potential altogether.

Last week’s rehearsal was phenomenal and everyone walked away happy; we did a lot of music-only work because our vocalist was out of town, and we ended up impressing ourselves with how on the music is most of the time. When the vocals are laid over it we listen to them instead, so we tend to miss how rich the musical lines underlying the voice are. Without the vocals to distract us we heard each instrument and learned exactly what everyone’s playing at any given time. Today we didn’t leave on such a high, but we got work done. We played some songs that we haven’t played for about a month, many which require vocals for timing, and they too were better than we expected them to be after so long away from them. And we worked our first original some more too, firming up the vocal/bass/guitar lines, which in turn will form the foundation for the sax, and soon we can add the percussion beat as well.

I came home tired but looking forward to our outing this afternoon, when we took Liam out to buy more fish! We talked to a staff member about water conditioner and additives too, so hopefully these three new fishy slaves will entertain the prince for a good long time.

While we were out we stopped off to feed some cats whose people are off holidaying, and while we were there Liam grabbed the handle of a little doll stroller and toddled off with it. He took a good six or so steps with my hands positioned an inch or two behind his back to catch him should he fall, but he did quite well on his own. It was very satisfying to watch him, particularly since he’s shown almost no interest in walking up to this point. He crawls like he’s in the Grand Prix; walking holding onto someone’s hands is just too slow for him when he can drop to all fours and race off on his own.

The day began early when a nurse stopped by to do our medical interview and sample-taking for our insurance application, and it’s now very definitely bedtime.

Canada Day Concert Redux

Everyone was just a bit out of synch in our house yesterday, which was a dreadful pity because not only were my parents in town for a single day, but it was Canada Day and thus my annual July 1 concert. (Why do we call an event that happens every year ‘annual’, but a plant that comes back every year a ‘perennial’? Messed me up for years, that did. I was very confused by the plants classified as annual that died in the fall and that was it, the end. But I digress.)

There were some transport negotiations concerning baby and husband and wife and cello and stroller; in the end, because I had to be there so early I got a lift with my parents on their way to dinner. This was in the interest of giving HRH and Liam some extra time at home before they had to pack up and go, otherwise they would have been kicking around for two hours before the concert even began, and that on top of an hour and a half of music way past someone’s bedtime would have been asking too much. In the end I don’t know how much good it did, because Liam, who had been off his feed and naps and people all day, got sick at the concert and HRH ended up having to remove him from the environment to allow him to refocus and eventually fall asleep. I think things might have been different if Liam had agreed to nap in the afternoon, and if something hadn’t upset his stomach. HRH, who was in an odd mood all day, was particularly upset about not being able to enjoy the evening because he’d been looking forward to it so much. As it was, he had to take Liam out of the church almost as soon as things began because Liam was overwhelmed by the number of people and frustrated because he couldn’t see anything. They sat outside to listen and keep one another company until Liam’s tummy pushed him over the edge and they decamped to the car for cleanup, a bottle, and an escape to oblivion for the baby.

Anywhats, apart from the husband and son missing the last half of the concert we’d all been looking forward to, things went wonderfully well. The symphony selections were tight, the Broadway medleys had the two hundred people-plus audience applauding before we’d even finished playing the final notes, and the Orpheus overture programmed as the finale indeed garnered the Brahms Hungarian dance encore we’d prepared last rehearsal. My intonation was all over the place, I flubbed some different super-simple stuff while doing better at some of the tricky bits than I’d ever done before; there was some creative fingering done on the fly by many of us, as well as some imaginative counting during a couple of the Broadway pieces; but they loved us, and we had fun. It was an excellent example of the audience not seeing the metaphorical duct tape holding things together. Not that there was much duct tape this time around; everything was remarkably tight. The Beethoven certainly was more precise than we’d ever managed to make it in rehearsal, and it started the proceedings off rather nicely.

It’s always fascinating to learn what pieces the audience enjoys most and compare it to the performers’ preferences. This time I’ve received more compliments on the Mozart than anything else, which is interesting because I thought it was rather forgettable as compared to the Beethoven. The Mozart was also the last symphonic selection before the Broadway and operetta pieces, so I wonder if that might have something to do with it. But overall, everyone enjoyed the whole program. And I think Karine‘s son liked it all in general too, because he decided he wanted to dance.

As I knew I’d have to walk through the village and down to the church instead of driving past the barricades with my pass and parking in the church lot (I’m a member of the band, you see, and membership hath its privileges), I brought my small folding black music stand in the place of my big solid stand that’s a joy to use but an awkward nightmare to carry. I certainly won’t be doing that again next year. It was very convenient to be able to fold it up and tuck it in my tote bag, but the wind off the lake going through the church made me worry about the stability of my music folder. As it was, when the breeze really kicked up two-thirds of the way through the evening the principal cellist and I scrambled for paper clips to make sure that we wouldn’t lose our sheets. Sometime this year I’ll sew a proper padded gig bag to fit my heavy orchestral stand and my accessories.

I wanted to stay afterwards with family and friends (the Baron and Baroness brought sangria! — er, I mean, they brought juice) but HRH sensibly pointed out that Liam really shouldn’t be anywhere near the fireworks after such a difficult day. So I said my goodbyes, thanked everyone for coming (and yes, I’ll do it again, see below), and off we went. It was a novelty to be able to drive directly out of the village without dealing with twenty-plus minutes of traffic after the fireworks. And even though we had to leave, we caught a few moments of two different displays of fireworks on the way home, so we got a little of one of the best bits of Canada Day celebration right at the end of the day nonetheless.

The turnout this year to the concert among my friends and family alone was incredible. (Eighteen this time, including two toddlers! This could very well be a record.) I say it every year, and after every concert, but it touches me deeply that people come out to support me and my ensembles, and I appreciate it so much. I was particularly amused by the fact that my entire band was there for my orchestra performance. That would never work the other way round; organising forty people to make it out to a band gig would be like herding cats. If they were even interested in the, um, eclecticism of a double bill like Invisible and Random Colour.

I remember thinking near the end of the Beethoven that I love playing with the band, but my first love is definitely working with an orchestral ensemble. I love them for different reasons, because they ask different things of me and my instrument, and they challenge me in very different ways. But I get caught up in orchestral performance the way I never do when gigging with the band. I get satisfaction out of working through an arrangement in band, and a certain complacent gratification presenting a song to an audience who doesn’t expect to hear what we play, but it doesn’t match the sense of success I feel when we bring an orchestral piece to a close. Band is smug (as long as it comes off well); orchestra is glorious. I can appreciate the orchestral music while being in the middle of it in a way that I can’t in band. It may be the sheer mass and texture of sound that surrounds me at orchestra, I don’t know.

All in all, another successful Canada Day concert. I know the audience is swelled by the passers-by who wander in at this concert, which partially accounts for the huge audience, and the fact that it’s free doesn’t hurt either, but I can’t help wishing that our regular season concerts had this sort of turnout. A large appreciative audience goes really far towards evoking excellent performance out of the orchestra. Playing to a sparse crowd is never the same. Ah, well. And this is the end of the season: we have the summer off. I’ll miss it.

Concert News And More

This has been one of those days where you feel like it was a bad day but can’t really put your finger on why. There were things that kept it from being good, but nothing that made it bad, really. Liam was out of sorts too.

Breaking concert news: Yes, there are only eight days until the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra Canada Day concert! Go put another star on your calendar so you don’t forget! No, actually I’m just here to tell you that the time has been confirmed, and everything will begin at 20h00.

We have an encore prepared should everything go supremely well. I don’t know if we’ll be able to play it after two hours of intense music. I think, honestly, that after we pull off the kick-ass final piece on the program, our bows will fall from limp hands. Wednesday night’s rehearsal saw me aceing the stuff I’d been messing up till then, and messing up other stuff I could play before. After a night like that I never know if I should be impressed or find something blunt with which to bludgeon myself.

I got an email from a fellow Daughter of the Flame today telling me how much she’d enjoyed my books. I didn’t realise how much I needed to hear something like that. Every now and again I get an unsolicited email from a stranger sharing this with me, and it surprises me every single time.

Writing tomorrow. A date with an old friend who still hasn’t met Liam on Saturday. Band on Sunday this weekend. Two Solstice rituals, one on Sunday, the other on Monday. I wish I had more energy to look forward to it all, let alone work up the energy to do it.

And Suddenly It Was The End Of June

Well, not exactly, but awfully close. And if it’s late June, that means it’s time for the first announcement for the annual July 1 concert!

On July 1, the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra will be giving a free (yes, free!) concert as part of the overall Canada Day celebrations with Pointe-Claire Village. We do this every year, and it’s always terrific fun.

This year’s programme includes:

Symphony no. 5, first movt – Beethoven
Symphony no. 5, first movt – Schubert
Symphony no. 40, first movt – Mozart
Suite from Evita – Lloyd Webber
Memory – Lloyd Webber
Suite from A Chorus Line – Hamlisch
Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman – Offenbach
Overture, Orpheus In The Underworld – Offenbach

I’ll have to verify the start time for you all, but it’s usually 19h30 or 20h00. As always, this concert is being held at St Joachim Church in Pointe-Claire Village, below Lakeshore Road, right on the waterfront; you can take the 211 bus from Lionel-Groulx metro and it drops you right at the corner of Sainte-Anne and Lakeshore, and you just walk down Sainte-Anne to the lake and the church. Here’s a map to give you a general idea. I usually encourage those facing public transport to get together and coax a vehicle-enabled friend along by offering to buy them an ice cream or something. It works nicely, and it’s fun to go with a group. And hey, you can’t beat the price.

Free classical music! Soul-enriching culture! And as an enticing bonus, the fireworks are scheduled for ten PM, right after we finish, and the church steps are a glorious spot from which to watch them.

Write it on your calendar, and tell all your friends! The more the merrier!