Category Archives: Music

Concerts, Colds, Camembert

When it it get to be two in the afternoon? Ten to two, to be perfectly specific?

I woke up at six this morning and decided that it was evidently fate. So I got up, appreciated the nice warm sun pouring in the front window for a few minutes, and began editing/writing this damn chapter right away. I think I’m finished. I want to walk away from it for a while, then go back and read it objectively as possible, to see if I can tell what I wrote from what the original author wrote. (I tried to imitate their style of writing. No point in showing them up, right?)

So I’m now going to go huddle under the afghan and a pile of cats with more hot herbal tea. I’ve been drinking bouillon and elderflower tea since I woke up, fighting this dratted cold. I’ve had the shivers even though I turned all the heaters on as high as they’ll go, have two sweaters on, socks and slippers, with the space heater pointed right at me. I did acknowledge before I fell asleep last night that playing the cello whilst in the throes of Early Cold is easier than singing, which I’ve done before as well. It’s less stressful on the throat.

Thanks to everyone for your support regarding yesterday’s concert. Ceri even gave me a generic-string-instrument-shaped box of delicious Mozartkugeln marzipan and hazelnut chocolates as a congratulatory gift, with apologies for not being able to find a Beethoven-themed one. (t! and Paze suggested drawing a scowl and messy hair on the picture of Mozart to make it more Beethoven-y.) Gifts always surprise me. I don’t mean to sound like HRH, but really, people coming to enjoy my concerts are more than enough of a gift for me. I didn’t even get to see my in-laws; I thought they’d rushed off because I’d been grumpy after last week’s concert, but HRH assured me that they just didn’t want to be in the way. Over three hundred people were at this concert; that’s a lot of folks milling about afterwards, so I can understand.

I had a terrific time with my parents afterwards as well. They took us back to their hotel room where they had a bottle of both red wine and white wine, Camembert, mushroom pate, and crackers. (My parents always travel in style.) Then we went out to an Italian restaurant that my family’s been going to as long as I can remember. It’s grown from a tiny one-room little house to a huge multi-room establishment, and they’re in the process of expanding yet again. The house wine, which I remember being nice, just wasn’t as good as my dad’s pinot noir. Apparently my taste is ruined now, and I’ve been hopelessly spoiled.

The new strings on the cello performed wonderfully. One always forgets how good new strings sound: fresh, rich, and mellow. I think it was one of the reasons I enjoyed playing the symphony so much in performance (apart from the fact that a live audience always boosts the quality); the sound issuing from the instrument was so much better than the dull sounds I’d been making up to that point.

Right. Hot tisane and cats, ho.

Cello Woes

This has never happened to me – usually I break a new A string by tuning it too quickly – but I have so much sympathy for him.

I have two concerts coming up within two weeks, and I’ve just realised that I need to replace my strings – all of them. I put a full set of Eudoxa gut strings on my cello in September of 2002 as an experiment, because I love the deep mellow sound gut produces. The D string broke first, followed shortly by the A. My emergency replacement A string is now unravelling (no surprise there; it’s a Thomastik Dominant, and the wrapping on Dominant A strings is coarse and dreadful); my replacement D string was salvaged from my original overstretched Aricore set that was put on six years ago; and the G and D strings are still the gut strings that have now stretched beyond proper sonority. I hadn’t realised all of this until lately, now that I’ve been really digging into the lower strings (love that Beethoven!).

I guess I know where the student payments that are beginning to trickle in for the new semester are going.

In the dead of winter…

At this time of year, my husband and I get restless because we’re housebound so much due to the extreme cold. So naturally, we begin to think of ways to make the house more pleasant.

I went out for three hours on Saturday to do administrative teacher-type stuff, and came back to a cheery yellow kitchen. The transformation was literally that simple; I was present for practically none of the emptying of the room, the preparation for painting, the actual application of colour, and the replacement of the removed items. I left one boring kitchen, and came home to a different, bright one.

Yesterday, the bathroom was painted sage green and white. It looks fabulous. HRH even went so far as to paint the outside of the claw-foot bathtub sage green, which looks very cool. I was here for half of this particular endeavour, but I was away at the Beethoven rehearsal for the latter half.

It was, in fact, a very busy day. I had a three-hour rehearsal for the Beethoven, then came home to study group already in progress (in which time flew, making us late for…), then a Changeling game (which also went late thanks to our belated arrival, plus various things like dinner and bookkeeping and the first combat session of the story!).

The Beethoven: It never ceases to amaze me that I can sight-read brilliantly, but fall apart at simple passages that are played really fast. The symphony already sounds phenomenal; I can’t wait to hear the choir with it. I’m incredibly fortunate to be able to play with this ensemble.

The study group: Ah, the joys of discussing deity concepts, and the balance of male and female energies. Always fun. The nice thing about this group is that it’s made up of experienced people, so the discussion is very different from the discussions I usually have with students, for example.

The game: It’s been so long since I’ve made a character for a new game that I’d almost forgotten how much I hate it. Unless I have a very clear concept that pops into my head, I have to slowly try out bits and pieces that either work or don’t. This is the third session of world-building and intro games, and I’m still not settled on who this character actually is. It’s been frustrating because I’ve really missed gaming, and to struggle with a new character when I so desperately want to dive right in has been so maddening. Last night was as close as I’ve been able to come to feeling comfortable with her; dropping her age from eighteen to eleven has really helped nail it down and free me up to enjoy the game and explore her personality. I know that part of my problem is derived from my habit of firming up a character’s personality through gaming; it’s hard to know what a character is like until you’ve put him/her through some paces in context. I’m lucky to have an understanding group who chose to play a couple of experimental sessions to introduce the system and the world, which gave me a chance to stretch my muscles a bit and discover the character’s actual personality.

On today’s agenda: fleshing out the anthology series proposal for my publisher; working out a couple of brick-wall type passages in the Beethoven; and refilling my black ink cartridge with the ink that just arrived in the mail. Of course it leaked, so I have to email the company and ask for a new instruction sheet. Not much ink was lost, but as anyone who has ever had a leaky fountain pen knows, even a small amount of ink creates a disaster of epic proportions! And tonight, my CD-ROM drive gets replaced by the burner drive! Hurrah!

Concert Update

I just learned that my chamber orchestra concert on February 8th is not being held at the rather cold Valois church in which we usually play (hurrah!). Instead, we’ll be performing at St-Paul’s Anglican Church, located at 377 44th Avenue in Lachine (cross street Broadway; just north of the Lakeshore, or Blvd St-Joseph as it’s known in Lachine).

Our programme has altered slightly as well: besides the 104th Symphony (London) by Haydn and the Italian Style overture by Schubert, we’re playing Albinoni’s Adagio as well as his Concerto for Two Oboes, and Schubert’s Rosamunde Ballet Suite. Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony has been postponed to a later concert, which suits me perfectly, since it’s not one of my favourites.

Now, off to orchestra!

From the “It’s A Small World” File

Yesterday was the first rehearsal for Beethoven’s Ninth. Walked in, sat down, smiled at the bassist, said hello to the cellists I played with last November, and set up. The conductor (who’s a riot) announced that just for kicks, we’d start off with the fourth movement.

Yes. The movement. It’s what the Ninth Symphony is all about, really.

Me: Erk! Gulp!

(You see, the cellos figure prominently in the forth movement. Erk, indeed.)

And then the conductor lifted his head from his score and said, “Is that good for you, Brad? Can you do half a rehearsal here, then half off wherever else you need to be?”

Naturally, not knowing everyone in this symphony orchestra, I turned my head to follow his line of sight. As I did, a voice said, “No, I’m all yours today. It’s good.”

I blinked. I know Brad. Last time I saw him was, oh, seven years ago.

So we played (and what a ride, to sight-read the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth – I mean, really), the cellos got lots of compliments, and eventually we took a break. I put away my cello and got my water bottle, then picked a path through the chaos of instruments and strangers wandering around playing random bits of music to themselves all the way to the back where Brad sat with his trumpet on his lap, talking with someone else who was, oh my gods, the music teacher from my old high school.

I waited politely until they’d finished their topic of conversation, and when Brad turned to me, I said, “Last time I saw you, you were standing in the doorway to my apartment, holding out a bottle of IBC root beer and telling me that you couldn’t stay for my housewarming.”

We exclaimed and laughed a bit and caught up on the past seven years. He’s married, too. He complimented me on having reached a level of ability equivalent to playing with this symphony (and ooh, didn’t my ego need that bit of bolstering, although I admitted I was an emergency fill-in). Then he turned to introduce me to his friend Murray. I smiled and say, “Yes, Murray Rosenhek. You taught music at Mac High while I was there.”

He charmingly admitted that he didn’t remember me, which was highly amusing since, as I quickly assured him, I never took one of his classes. All my friends took music, but as our school didn’t teach strings, I took drama instead. When he asked with whom, and I told him Elaine Evans, he said, “Oh, that was twenty years ago!” as if that explained his memory lapse. Brad got a good laugh out of it.

It was good to share memories with someone who had been instrumental (if you’ll pardon the pun) in getting me into orchestra. It all began rather oddly. Brad, having access to Concordia’s database of students, contacted me via e-mail with compliments after he’d seen me sing in LLO’s production of The Pirates of Penzance. We started messaging, got to know one another, hung out a bit, and then one day he proposed an interesting gig: his wind orchestra was performing a really modern symphony by Johan de Meij called Lord of the Rings, and they had the idea of writing a dramatic narrative to introduce the symphony as a whole, as well as the individual movements. Would I be interested in performing something like that? And did I know someone with a good deep voice who could co-narrate with me?

Heck, yes!

Thus it was that Tal and I were guest performers with the Lakeshore Concert Band in May of 1998. (Okay, so Brad and I haven’t seen one another in six years. Feels like longer.) One of the last times I saw Brad was when he invited me along with some of the concert band to attend a Canada Day chamber orchestra concert in Pointe-Claire village. They all urged me to talk to the conductor and ask about joining. As secure as I was in my dramatic abilities, I was just as insecure about my cellistic talents, and as much as I wanted to play with an ensemble the level of technique displayed in the concert scared the hell out of me.

Has anyone made the connection yet?

Yes. I eventually managed to screw up the courage to call that conductor and inquire about a place for a cellist in the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra. It’s now my third season with them.

And now Brad and I are playing together in Cantabile. Small world, indeed.

On The Twelfth Day Post-NaNo

Twelve days after The End of November, I awoke with a strange desire to read Balsamic Moon. So I’m about to do a quick spell-check, go out to pick up a new ink cartridge, then print out a draft.

Before I do, however, I must put a CD on. CBC Radio Two was originally playing some kick-ass Mozart. Now they’re playing sappy choir carols. I’m so not in the mood for this today.