Category Archives: Music

Have Survived

Made it through my second recital ever. Go me!

Didn’t screw up my shifts. Didn’t let the bow skip. Didn’t let the rhythm go ragged. Held a half note a wee bit too long but adjusted. The second repetition was better. I don’t think I really lifted the bow as had been my bad habit before lessons either, although it wasn’t as ‘in the string’ as I would have liked. All the trio and ensemble stuff was great, too. I wasn’t a mess leading up to it, but the nerves did kick in after we’d set up and I encountered the ‘will it never be day?!’ mood that develops when you’re ready and it’s not time to start yet. Apparently we have another recital in June, and I’m actually looking forward to that.

Liam fell asleep ten minutes into the programme. He got to hear the littlest girls do their pieces, but fell asleep either during mine or directly afterwards. He was very impressed with the butterfly someone had painted on the youngest girl’s face in full colour, complete with sparkly highlights.

Now it’s on to making shepherd’s pie (well, more correctly, cottage pie) for supper, and casting on HRH’s scarf, as we nipped out to Ariadne Knits before lunch to pick up the yarn. Liam was very impressed with the yarn store, although was firmly convinced that there ought to have been a cat.

Recital Countdown

In the space of thirteen hours I have had two cello lessons, one private on Friday night and one group dress rehearsal this morning at nine. The world is very clear, bright, and cold today, but there’s not much wind and so it’s lovely. The snow removal crews came along and took away the piles of snow in the street, and driving was actually a pleasure this morning as compared to the hell it has been for the past two days. (Way, way too much time spent in cars in traffic Thursday and Friday. Noting makes me crazier than leaving twice the amount of time it usually takes to get somewhere to account for weather and traffic, and still arriving late.)

Anywhat. Happy thoughts. Cello!

I lugged the 7/8 to my lesson last night along with my own cello, and my teacher played them for me so I could hear them. There’s no contest, no comparison. My full size sounds so much better: It’s clearer, it rings, there’s precision and just plain beautiful sound. The 7/8 was stuffy and dull. This just isn’t the one. I was somewhat worried about this. It’s going to take a lot to find a 7/8 that has the kind of sound my current instrument does. Anyway, it’s not pressing; it can go back to the luthier and I can forget about it until they get another one.

(Also noted when my teacher switched between the 7/8 and my current cello: My cello is HUGE! Yes, yes, I knew this, but I’m usually sitting behind it and I’m used to it. Seeing it in someone’ else’s hands was an eye-opener.)

So yes, last night’s lesson was great. I’m really happy with how my sound is developing after only two months of lessons. I can hear my intonation has improved, and the improvement in sound production that comes from better bow handling and control, too. There’s a lot of confidence being developed as well, which doesn’t hurt. I came home feeling terrific, which was very welcome after the day I’d had. (An hour on a bus to cover what usually takes fifteen minutes. Yeah. And then late to pick up the boy, late to make dinner, late out the door to the lesson thanks to the original lateitude plus traffic. It was very, very bad. Especially after the previous day’s trip to the doctor for the boy’s checkup, which took three times as long as it should have to get there and even longer to get home again.)

This morning the light was incredible, what with the sky being clear and so much snow off which for the sun to reflect. And although I didn’t sleep very deeply or steadily I woke up in a good mood thanks to the lesson, and looking forward to the morning group lesson. I love the group lessons to begin with, but I’m really enjoying the program we’re doing for tomorrow’s concert. It’s fun to play with the others, and they’re a terrific set of people. Some are older than I am, some are around my age, and others are in their teens. We have the two darling little girls, too, who are so serious when they play; they concentrate so hard and yet they stay relaxed. I adore watching them. My teacher played her piece at our insistence, too (if we had to play our solos and duets, then she had to as well!) and we loved it. It’s Fauré’s “Elegie”, and believe it or not I’ve never been in the room when an accomplished cellist has played something passionate like that. It was incredibly moving.

Afterwards we had our coffee and nibbly things and the kids played Christmas carols on the piano for fun, and it was just so lovely. Having a small group with a defined coach is so much easier than a small group trying to self-direct. And we all support one another and know exactly what everyone’s going through or trying to work past.

Something I really want to work on in the new year is advancing my musical interpretation and expression. It feels odd to have been playing the cello for fifteen years, yet be so behind on, well, sounding good (in a different way from being technically correct). Even when I tell myself that I haven’t had a lesson in ten years, my brain seems to think that because I’ve been playing in the meantime I should sound a heck of a lot better than I do. Today the tiniest girl, who is sitting in front of me for the concert, kept turning her head and watching me with wide eyes when I played the “Adeste Fideles” trio, which was nice. Being looked up to soothes both the logical and illogical parts of my brain.

I am looking forward to the recital. I’m still marvelling at the fact. I’m slightly concerned about the boy, who has been off the past couple of days and who will be attending the concert instead of napping, but que sera sera. And it will all be over too quickly.

Forty-Two Months Old!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have achieved Lego. I was going to search for something between the sizes of the Mega Bloks he’d been using when he was younger and the standard Lego size, but apparently he’s been working with standard Lego at school, so HRH brought up the huge bag of Lego that t! bequeathed to the boy and opened it up for him. (For those who were in the S:1999 game, there were parts of Moonbase Alpha still extant but not for long. I rescued the communicator before the boy wrecked it, although he did put wheels on it before I got to it.) We have made countless cars and trains and spaceships and houses since then. If anyone’s looking for gift ideas, a pile of Lego wheels would be good because there are never enough. In the realm of toys and games HRH has also introduced him to Mario Party 8 on the Wii. And as HRH and I plan to buy ourselves Rock Band for Christmas (terribly romantic, I know, but I’d rather do this than get one another things less likely to be used) I have no doubt the boy will soon be introduced to the drums there as well.

WALL*E has succeeded in completely and utterly eradicating any other film from the boy’s memory, and it’s all he watches now. He listens to the soundtrack while playing in his room and falling asleep, and now he wanders around singing the beginning of “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” as if he was our very own Michael Crawford. It’s adorable to hear him burble, “Listen, Barnaby!” and “we won’t come home until we’ve kissed a girl!” Book-wise, we’ve just finished The Wind in the Willows, and are about to start on Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series. We all love the snuggling in the big bed and reading a chapter every night.

The biggest news this past month was the bunk bed tree fort (which is what he calls it, although the fort does double duty as a pirate ship at times, as seen in the picture). HRH and I love the twin size bed because we can actually stretch out on it and cuddle him. The boy loves it because he can roll around on it, and he loves playing on the upper level (it’s where all the tins of Lego are stored). We’ve moved all his toys into his room now, and the living room is once again a free zone. He brings toys out, but we’re enforcing the put-the-others-away-before-you-play-with-a-new-one rule.

One of the other exciting things that’s happened this month is of course the piles of snow we’ve already received. Even when there was only a scattering and the grass was still visible, he made the most of it. “I’ve never seen any child make so much out of so little,” his educator told HRH. “He was rolling in it that first day.” We’ve been adding a few seasonal decorations as the days go by. He made cut-out Christmas trees and painted a cone I’d made to look like a tree, and helped make paper chains, too. We introduced him to the Advent calendar, but he forgets most of the time (and so do we, really). Evidently we’re not doing a very good job differentiating between the season and the day itself, because Liam goes back and forth between flinging a hand out at all the snow and lights and saying, “But it *is* Christmas!” and saying very seriously in reply to something we say, “But it’s not Christmas *yet*.” Poor kid. It must be hard for him to figure out the difference because there are all sorts of Christmas-related activities going on like parties and concerts. The upstairs neighbours even hung the usual Yule stockings on the banister and he ‘s just angsting over what’s inside them. He’s at the age now where he knows he’s not supposed to open them, but that he’s still young enough that if he ‘forgot’ that he’s not supposed to open them he might get away with it. (In his mind, that is, not in our eyes.) I’d wrapped Mousme‘s hat in a gift bag and set it in to corner of the room until I next see her and he found it, bringing it into the kitchen while I was making dinner. “Oh, Mama, what’s this?” he said. “It’s Mousme’s hat,” I said. “Oh, can I see what’s inside?” he said. And before I could say No, or Yes but be very careful because it’s not yours, he had slipped the tissue paper out of the bag and deftly unwrapped it. Even though he’d seen me knitting it and had seen the finished product he held it up and said, “Oh, Mama, it’s beautiful! Great job!” Then he wrapped it back up again and slipped it back into the bag, and even replaced the bag exactly where it had been. So he got the fun of unwrapping a present after all, and he practised his gracious comments on a received item, and complimented me all at the same time. We’ll see how much of that he remembers in the upcoming week.

He’s figured out that knitting is something that I do and enjoy, and he wants to help. So he’ll come up to me and pick up the ball of yarn and say, “I’ll be your helper and hold this for you.” Which would be fine if he actually did hold it, but he doesn’t. He lifts it and pretends it’s a balloon, or drops it and then the cat chases it, or some other sort of mishap occurs. When it warmed up enough for me to wear my red coat and newly knitted scarf he looked at me while struggling to get his arms into his coat sleeves. “Why are you wearing that yarn around your neck?” he said. I thought it was interesting that he knows a knitted item is made of yarn, and that once it’s knitted up he stills identifies it as yarn, not whatever object it’s been knitted into.

In the milestone category, he left his first voice mail message on Ceri’s birthday. Despite coaching as to what to expect, when the beep sounded and the time came to leave his message he kind of hung there, a tiny smile on his face, waiting for someone to say something. I finally got him to say “Happy birthday!!!” (kind of slurred together and rushed and somewhat shouted), then I disconnected the call for him. I left a message afterwards explaining what had just happened. Ceri seemed amused by the effort he’d made, so all was well. He left his first blog comment this month, too. And of course he attended his first evening concert.

At his semiannual checkup the doctor reported that he weighs 35 lbs and stands 100 centimetres tall. That’s right; he’s hit a metre. We’re going through shoes like there’s no tomorrow; he’s gone up three shoe sizes in the past twelve months. He’s maintaining a steady weight and stretching upwards. I knew this before the doctor measured him because his 3T pants no longer need to be folded up like they did a couple of months ago. It’s unreal. He’s been going on eating binges too, where he essentially grazes all day and has two or three helpings of dinner. I was most impressed by this doctor’s appointment. For the first time Liam answered all of her questions himself (very clearly, too) and stood still on the scale and against the height chart.

He’s turning into more and more of a character every day. It’s great fun. I feel bad sometimes that I can’t keep up with him (well, he was home for almost six days straight with a bad cold last week, and I was sick too, but still) and my temper gets short when he doesn’t listen or ignores what we’re telling him (ditto), but he is three and a half and testing whatever boundary he can. For every frustration there are half a dozen things to love about him and praise. We’re lucky to have him.

Other Liam posts this past month:

– Liam attends his first non-Canada Day evening concert, and attends a cello lesson
– “You must never go down to the end of the town, if you don’t go down with me”
– Liam helps us vote in the provincial election
– the arrival of the bunk beds and the rearranging of the bedroom
– a future as the drummer in a punk band
– overheard from the back seat of the car

Orchestra Video

I debated about posting this, but why not.

Someone made a video recording of about half of the recent LCO fall concert. It’s broken into approximately eight-minute long sections, so you can see the first and second part of the three-movement Mozart Divertimento (the second part covers the second and third movements), the lovely Adagio for Clarinet and Strings (the so-called “Wagner adagio”, which has some nice close-ups of Martine’s hands for you clarinet players out there), and the Haydn Symphony 104 in D major (first part, second part, third part, and fourth part). I wish I could say each part actually corresponds to a movement, but they don’t. The first part is most of the first movement, the second part is the end of the first and most of the second, the third is the rest of the second and the full minuet/trio, and the fourth is the fourth movement in its entirety.

Why did I consider not posting this? Well, mainly due to the fact that the sound is awful. It’s very flat and quite distorted. (Although I recognise that not all the distortion is due to the recording. Ahem.) The balance is completely off, and things are very muddy. Hand-held video cameras just aren’t designed to record such a wide range of sound level, especially from that distance in a very echoey venue. And as such, it isn’t particularly complimentary. But it’s an idea of what went on. Also, it’s fun to see what the audience members are doing while we play. (I was amused by the people nodding and tapping their programmes during the minuet, and by the kids.)

And yes, I am cleverly hidden by my teacher’s scroll most of the time through the Mozart and the Adagio! Although the videographer seems to have moved forward for the first two-thirds of the symphony and therefore there is a better view of me from a three-quarter back angle in those recordings. (And thus my pathological avoidance of vibrato has been preserved for prosperity. I’m working on that now in my lessons.) Also, good gods, does my left hand always look that spidery?

This is the first half of the programme. I wonder if the videographer recorded the last half, and if it will be posted.

Oh, For The Love Of Euterpe and Calliope…

I just crashed through a huge, thick wall of writer’s block and made a freaking enormous discovery.

Harpsichord Dreams is not one but *two* different music-essay/narrative non-fiction books. Specifically: one about the function of music in my life, and one about my life with cello.

This is both good and bad. On the one hand, it opens up an entirely new avenue to explore, down which my mind and fingers are already racing (holy sudden wordcount, Batman). On the other hand, it means I have yet another project to add to the roster, yet another unruly child to discipline and manage and feed.

For now I’m going to keep them under the same rubric and classify them as the same book/project. Very soon I’ll have to split the file in two, though. I don’t want to because it will feel like hacking half of Harpsichord Dreams away and the resulting total word count will make me sad. Maybe I’ll rename it, something like “The Narrative Non-Fiction Music Duology” and report the word count of each, then report a combined total word count. Anything to avoid sending my writer-self into morose despair. I mean, of course I know the words are all still there but just in two places instead of one. It’s like having two ten-dollar bills instead of a twenty-dollar bill. My writer-self, however, like most other writer-selves, is easily dismayed and must be coddled humoured supported.

When my brain has finished spewing rough stuff about the second incarnation of this project, I think I’m going to give it a break and turn back to the delicate work needed to tie up Orchestrated. Finishing that was my primary goal for this month, after all. And we all know that there’s nothing like a major primary goal to get the projects you’re not focusing on to multiply and demand attention.

Skiving

I have sneaked away from my laptop to come check out what the Internet’s doing behind my back. So far this assignment is going well. It’s a good product, and unless it jumps the shark in the next forty pages I’ll be able to give it a thumbs up and send it along to the correct department after writing up the evaluation tomorrow.

I must absolutely post this, as the crossover between book-lovers and music-lovers among my Gentle Readers is vast: Bookride Provides a List of Literary Rock Band Names. In other words, bands who have taken their names from books in some way, either title or character of phrase or whatnot. Tons of fun. More provided by commenters below the actual post.

ETA @ 2:45: Finished the rough draft of the review at twoish! Huzzah! And then Jan arrived and there is tea and there are scones and things are very good. So all I need to do is polish it and submit it tomorrow. This leaves me lots of time for writing, because I have goals for the month that I want to meet.