http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/ This is a classical music discussion forum. A leading musicians and listeners community on the web. en Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:01:39 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.talkclassical.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/ http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/377-viola-da-gamba-day.html Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:47:50 GMT So today was my first day of playing a viol. It's a treble, and it's fairly difficult to play, though not really in ways I would expect.

First, the fact that I'm using a completely different set of muscles from those used to play viola doesn't seem to bother me. It's the same basic set of principles: you make the bow sound using the natural weight of your arm, the bow grip actually feels quite nice and relaxed, and the strings react in more or less the same way as does the modern viola.

That being said, everything else feels weird. Six strings means a flatter bridge, which means much less room for the bow on each string. Six strings (tuned in fourths and a third in the middle, similarly to a guitar) also means I do have to relearn my entire idea of fingerings, positionings, and stuff. Frets aren't that bad, except that occasionally I'll go a little too far and have a very ugly-sounding higher note than I intended.

Holding the instrument between the legs poses a different set of problems entirely. My legs aren't supposed to feel tension, but at the same time I can't let the instrument fall too far or my knees are higher than the ideal contact point. So...I figure I'll just get used to it.

It's a nice instrument, though. The strings are okay; some of them are rather old, but the instrument itself is in fine shape and I can get some pretty good sounds out of it already.

:tiphat: ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/377-viola-da-gamba-day.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/225-um-yeah-so-im.html Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:38:46 GMT And now I'm listening to a whole lot of Bruckner. It used to be Bruckner and Ravel, but now...uh...now it's just Bruckner, basically. Smattering of Sibelius, less one of Mahler, a pinch of Bach thrown in, you know, but it's exceedingly odd to say that Bruckner is the main composer I listen to right now.

It's weird for me to say this, being a mostly non-religious person (let alone a devout Catholic church organist), but Bruckner's music does have that strange feel of a confessional about it, or something like it. But it's not his confessional, it's the listener's.

The "What am I missing in Bruckner" thread kinda got me thinking about the Mahler/Bruckner dichotomy, and, yes, there is the element of "restlessness/repose" between the two, but writing the previous paragraph got me to thinking about what made me write it (hooray for metawriting). I'm starting to feel that Mahler's music is kind of a "here's what I'm feeling, if you agree then jump in" music, not to bash Mahler or anything. Bruckner I think is totally opposite. It's "here's what you're feeling; I can relate." And it's this that I find so immensely reassuring about his music.

Alright, enough confessionalizing, I'm going back to my smart-ass bluntness. ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/225-um-yeah-so-im.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/177-just-so-people-know.html Mon, 16 May 2011 23:08:33 GMT I might not be on very often for a while. I just need to withdraw a little from everything and figure myself out. School was a bit more exhausting on a personal level than I had thought it to be, and now it's caught up to me and I just need some time to sort out my thoughts.

:tiphat: ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/177-just-so-people-know.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/152-sorry-no-sorabji-today.html Fri, 06 May 2011 22:46:06 GMT I said I would post about Sorabji soon, but I don't have anything yet to post about Sorabji. He still gives me headaches on occasion, so I figure I'll wait a while and pursue some other random TC blogging adventures. Like summer.

So I figure this summer is going to be vastly different from my previous ones in several ways. There are no music camps, for one thing, which were the dominating factor in my summers until now. I just got tired of them. They're great things, and I love them to death, since they account for most of my musical education blah blah blah. But I need a break from them. And I need a normal summer (so I say as Kalevi Aho's 12th symphony is blaring from my CD player...).

Yeah, normal summer. I've got a couple of gigs, one next weekend, one at the beginning of June, and a few recording sessions with a few groups, and that's about it musically. So violistically I think I'll explore the solo rep. a little more in depth; study my Hovhaness and Rozsa pieces again, look into doing the Penderecki cadenza, see about doing the Rubbra Meditations, and record as much of it as possible. And all the while work at Frank Bridge's Two Pieces and Alkan's cello sonata with the goal in mind of performing them in some indeterminate amount of time, probably within the next year.

And that's it for music, apart from my usual listening craze (Kalevi Aho and Arvo Part appear to be central to this summer). I think I'll be getting a job as well, maybe Kroger or Wal-mart, something cheap and small. Mainly for the experience; I feel like I've gotten off too easy so far in my life.

Oh, and stand-up comedy appears to be my next big obsession. Shortly after starting to watch The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, I started getting into George Carlin, which is really addictive, and now I see the world in a different way. It's strange how one person can say one thing and suddenly that concept pops up everywhere throughout your day-to-day experience. One particular quote from George Carlin deeply affected my way of looking at the English language, talking about airline announcements: "They might say 'We'd like to pre-board.' What does that mean, exactly, to get on before you get on?!"

There's a comedy club in Lexington (about a 40-minute drive, give or take a few... minutes, not drives) that I'm hoping to get to once a week or so, depending on what my working hours end up being.

And that's another thing; I think I'll have to end up learning to drive and getting a licence. Not sure entirely why I want one, since it's just a whole bunch of legal rigmarole and paperwork just to drive the stupid thing, with maximum restrictions, of course, and with gas prices straddling the line between ridiculous and LSD-worthy...

On that lovely note, see ya on the boards! ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/152-sorry-no-sorabji-today.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/32-todays-alkan-experience.html Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:27:34 GMT So I've been listening to more Alkan today, as my friend known in the forums as Orange Soda King loves Alkan and has heard a lot of his music. We talked about Alkan and Sorabji a lot over supper (I'll post about Sorabji later) and later listened to the solo concerto (Hamelin's second recording), among a few other pieces.

I suppose the primary reason for my posting of this is to try to realize my astonishment at the solo piano concerto, which I can't really do well. The structure is marvelous, never degenerating into either showboating or long passages of just notes; in other words the structure is always present, and Hamelin does some magical things with voicing and (obviously) technique that are so unassuming that one is just listening to the music. I probably wouldn't have noticed that anything was really difficult excepting that I was following the score.

After that we listened to a wild performance of "Comme le vent," one of Alkan's more spectacular character pieces, and then a bit of his first chamber concerto. The beginning sounds almost exactly like Brahms. The scary thing: Brahms wasn't even born yet. ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/32-todays-alkan-experience.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/25-first-early-music-concert.html Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:03:49 GMT Yes, I played at A=415 in concert for the first time tonight. It was a fascinating concert for me, since the director spoke to the audience between sections of the concert, and he knows a lot.

The concert was themed, about birds. Ironically, we have a small recital hall called "Bird Hall" but we didn't play in it. There was a ricercar based on some song about birds, there were a couple of Rameau harpsichord pieces depicted birds, a Vivaldi concerto (Il Cardilleno or something like that; Goldfinch), and several other things. Of course, I didn't play in all of them, which is what I liked about it; it was one of those concerts where different groups did different things in the course of the concert.

I could get used to this. ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/25-first-early-music-concert.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/17-new-developments.html Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:12:10 GMT Things are looking great for next semester at my university; I might actually be learning something in music theory, and on top of orchestra, new music ensemble, my string quartet and my own violistic shenanigans, it looks like I'll be officially joining the early music ensemble here and picking up viola da gamba! It's going to be busy, particularly at the ends of semesters, but right now I'm just really happy that I can participate in all of these amazing groups.:)

Hey cool, old smileys are back! I missed them... ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/17-new-developments.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/13-undeservedly-obscure-composers-1.html Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:35:18 GMT It's somewhat bewildering to me that today was the first time I really listened to Alkan's music apart from the cello sonata. I suppose he was just one of the composers that just never really caught on with me until recently.

I've listened to a few etudes of his within the last half hour or so, and they turned out to be some of the most satisfying piano pieces I've ever heard. No. 7 ("Fire in the neighboring village") is probably my favorite so far, combining a very peaceful beginning with a torrential middle section, ended with a recasting of the opening as a climactic hymn... that actually works on piano! Seriously, Alkan has some serious tone-painting ability on the piano. And what I really like is that he doesn't get all sentimental or pyrotechnical like Chopin likes to do. He writes beautiful music that is music first, poetry second, and only then does he kick us in the shins with its devastating technical brilliance.

Next I'm going to listen to Sorabji without getting a headache (how long have I been saying this without it actually happening???) and listen to Bowen's non-viola output. ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/13-undeservedly-obscure-composers-1.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/4-baroque-impressions.html Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:16:34 GMT So it turns out I'm a fairly intuitive and competent violist in the baroque style. Earlier today I had my first rehearsal (encounter period, really) with the director of the early music ensemble for a concert I got involved in as a replacement for the regular violist. Despite having basically never played in this style, and despite having metal strings and a modern bow, I picked it up quite well and felt quite proud of my imitation by the end of the hour. I had decided to be a bit creative with a sort of continuo figuration I had, and the director told me to exaggerate what I was already doing, about which I felt particularly proud.

What can I say? Intonation issues aside (yes, my strings are now a half-step flat and it's somewhat hard to deal with), this is quite appealing to me. ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/4-baroque-impressions.html http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/1-my-first-tc-blog.html Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:34:17 GMT Seeing as I've already got a blog for my generic thoughts about random and non-specific things (which, if you tumbl, or stumbl, trip...whatever the related verb is called (or even if you don't), you can view/follow it here (hey, I made a text link!)), I suppose I'll just use this for music-related (and TC-related, when these come up) shenanigans. That's probably what it's for anyway, but it's good to have a back-up reason.

So in the aftermath of Beatrice et Benedict (whose performances were about a week ago), our orchestra has been sightreading some orchestral music (don't give me that about "sightreading" not being a word, spell-checker...) from the likes of Beethoven, Sibelius, and Shostakovich. I have heard words about sightreading Bruckner 9 at some point. I have a bit of trepidation, not only because I love that symphony but because his viola parts aside from the 8th are legendarily bad.

It feels awkward writing a blog on Talk Classical. Hopefully I'll get more used to it, since it now seems a more or less permanent fixture.

Cheers!
WV:tiphat: ]]> World Violist http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/world-violist/1-my-first-tc-blog.html