Chez Louise - music

Musical Musings

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:59:09 -0500

Last weekend we had a concert with the orchestra I play with, and I think it went pretty well, all things considered. Some of the music was appropriate for the skill level of this orchestra, but at least one of the pieces, the Pines of Rome (by Respighi), shouldn't really have been selected in the first place. The Pines of Rome is one of those pieces that is quite beautiful if it's in tune. However, intonation is not the forte of this orchestra. Especially not in the cello section. To make things worse, for the third movement of this piece, the many of the string sections are split into 4 groups (within each group of Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Cello, and Bass) that each play different things. Ideally, this requires everyone to be able to hold their own in the section, but this is not really the case for the cellos. In my section, the people are great, but many of them just don't have much orchestra experience, and also, the piece is just too difficult for their level. All this to say, I was worried about the Pines of Rome.

It actually turned out OK from my perspective: no major disasters, no having to stop and start over, the conductor didn't have to yell out rehearsal numbers, and nobody in the audience fell of their chairs in fits of horror. However, I got comments at the end that the concert was a bit... um... well one person said boring... the other said something about how it was an "intellectual" or "thinking" kind of concert, rather than a sit-back-and-relax kind of concert. Oh well. We tried. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and a lot of the places that were supposed to sound kinda spooky, sounded kinda spooky for an entirely different reason from the one the composer had intended. But I was just happy that it actually sounded better than it had in rehearsal!

My favourite part of Pines of Rome is that the last movement involves 4 trumpets and 2 trombones who are offstage (in this case, standing at the back of the church behind the people), and towards the end, when the piece is picking up volume and going for the big blaring brass ending, the backstage players start to play as well. When they first started, it was quite funny to see the startled reaction of the crowd and everyone turning around to see where that came from. That reaction was worth it all by itself!

I also got to do a bit of a solo in another piece we did, the first suite of Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances. The third movement of that is a Villanella (I've never met a villanella I didn't like), which involves, for once, a nice lyrical cello solo. It's the sort of thing I'm actually good at. I did my best, and it wasn't perfect (my bow hit my stand at one point), but it was reasonably good. After the concert one guy, who plays in the orchestra I played in last year, said, wow, I didn't realize you were that good! It was in tune and warm-sounding and everything! I'll take it as a compliment, but it makes me wonder what he thought of me before this concert, if he thought I was principal cellist of an orchestra without actually being able to sound good...!

So overall I think it went well. Now I'm already starting the practicing on the new repertoire for the next concert. It's mainly dance music, which I like, and a lot of it has Spanish influences, which I also like.

The downside to all this orchestra stuff is that my brain won't leave me alone. I'm now constantly in the state where I'll have some tune or other stuck in my head, and the only way to get it out of my head is to get something else stuck in there instead. I'm beginning to wonder if I have some sort of obsessive or addictive personality. It's probably good that I don't have a taste for alcohol, or I'd be in trouble!

The Mystery of Mr. Ricochet

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:22:09 -0500

So like I mentioned in my previous blog entry, we just had a couple of concerts this weekend, and one of the pieces we played was the Rodrigo guitar concerto, with soloist Daniel Bolshoy. I really like that music, but the only problem is that getting that trademark "dum du-du-dum dum du-du-dum" rhythm is usually done with ricochet bowing. In other words, that last "du-du-dum" is not three separate bows, but rather three bounces of the bow, all in the same direction. This requires, ahem, being able to control a bouncing bow, and not only that, but making sure it's actually bouncing at the same rate that the "du-du-dum" should be going at. Some people found it easy somehow, but for me, it's easier said than done!

So, I practiced it for a while, and I managed to get a reasonable facsimile of a ricochet bowing going. That was, until I got to the rehearsal and it was supposed to go about three times faster than what I was doing. Doh! So, as always when I get into nice tight spots like this, I do what any sensible person would: fake it.

Then, at the dress rehearsal for the concert, I was so busy faking it that I barely noticed when I actually discovered that when I wasn't paying attention to getting it right, it started coming to me. Yay! Not that I would base my career right now on a faultless ricochet bowstroke, but hey, I'm not as hopeless as I thought!

Bagpipes, here I come!

noreply@blogspirit.com (Louise) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:00:00 -0500

It's amazing what you find out about people when you get talking to them. For example, yesterday I was playing with my orchestra at a church service, and afterwards, as we were packing up, I started talking to one of the violinists, whom I'd never talked to before. As it turns out, he used to play the bagpipes. I said, "wow, that's awesome - I'd love to learn to play the bagpipes!" So he said, "Really?", just to check if I was serious, and I said, "Yeah, that really would be awesome!"

He offered to teach me some stuff about piping during the breaks of our regular orchestra rehearsals. So now all I need to do is find myself a practice chanter and a tutor book, and I'll be set to go! Woohoo!

Of course, I told this to my parents when I got back home, and I'm telling you, the look on my mother's face... Priceless!

This will be so neat. I love Scottish music (and celtic music in general), and the bonus is, if I get any good at it, I can join a pipes and drums band, and attend things like highland games, and we all know what that means. Men in kilts!! What could be better?