Last week I spent a few days in DC. Technically we moved away a couple of years ago, but my heart is still there, and so is my body with fair regularity. And though I'm slowly developing new routines in my new city, there are a few things that just don't transfer easily: 1) haircuts, 2) chamber music groups, and 3)Nordstroms.
So last week I got my hair cut and spent a very productive day at Nordstrom outfitting myself for my trip to Scotland next week. (Retirement + knee surgery + perimenopause = all my clothes have shrunk. Go figure.) But the best part was the play dates.
The first evening I met with two good friends and cello-playing buddies, three cellos, and five bows. Friend 1 had two on trial, a Richard Grunke ~ 40yo and a hot-off-the-bench Sam Cohen. After doing round robins playing the bows on his cellos we read the Beethoven cello trio (originally for horns) in order to compare them in an ensemble and had quite the good time.
The next evening I joined Friend 1 in "my" old quartet, where he replaced me after I moved. Since we had a cello-heavy quintet, they agreeably scrapped their plan to start working on Death and the Maiden and played the Schubert string quintet instead. We played the outer movements, with me on Cello 1. Expectations were not high since no one had prepared, and we had a terrific time meeting them, and got in a little more bow comparison, too. Friends who will let you massacre the first cello part in the Schubert are very special.
The last night of playing was Schubert again, this time a planned outing that I had organized because my last teacher (T2-) had expressed a hankering to play the first cello part with a congenial group of amateurs. My string trio formed the core, then we added T2- on Cello 1 and my favorite first violinist, someone with whom I had played piano trios in a university chamber music course for a couple of years.
I had mailed parts to the upper strings, so they had had a few days to look at the music, not much time because they were completely unfamiliar with it. It's cello Top 40, but amateur quartets don't often have that fifth cellist available so it's not as well known amongst the non-cellists. It was absolutely the best rendition of this piece I've ever played in, and we read all four movements.
The second movement seems to give amateur groups the most difficulty. Though slow, the key signatures are eb minor (5 flats) and E Maj (4 sharps), cello 1 is mostly thumb position, playing a duet with Vn1 much of the time and demanding a beautiful legato technique, and the cello 2 part has sixteenth note triplets followed by runs of accidental-studded 32nd notes as the music becomes more agitated. I first played this last summer and completely bombed the cello 2 part, but we won't talk about that now. This performance was much more respectable, aided by some audible counting from T2-. A little more work on the 32nd notes and I think I'll have it.
There was one particular moment in the middle of the Adagio, where the melody descends an augmented 2nd to move to the tonic, that was truly electric. We made a couple of extra passes to perfect it, and I got chills each time. Wow. That night I woke up every couple of hours and lay in bed, not trying to return to sleep, but replaying that quintet in my mind. It's fading now, but then I heard *us* playing it, and not a more generic rendition. Sublime.
It's been a bit anticlimactic since then, just a series of small parties celebrating my "big five-oh." That's today. HBtM!
Showing posts with label rehearsal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rehearsal. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A little cello news
Taking a break from Harry Potter. Whew. I don't know if I can stand this amount of intensity in every chapter. BTW, PFS, I had pre-ordered my copy from Amazon back in February. Love the convenience of having it delivered to my door, even though it means I'm 12 hours behind when I start reading. And I actually didn't have a chance to start until evening, which is why I'm only half-way through. Sleep is important. One of my favorite Harry Potter memories will be the anticipation of the book arriving by courier on release day, as I have done since 1998. Which book was that?
All of my past week was not spent flogging the computer issues. I had a pretty busy play week, too. On Friday and Saturday I got together with special music buddies to play cello trios, sonatas, piano trios, and string trios. The highlight was playing through some pieces written by Roger Bourland in the last decade or so that I had recently invested in upon Elaine Fine's recommendation. We read the cello quartet, with me alternating between cello 2 and 3 since we were short one, the piano trio, and one of the sonatas.
After reading, the universal consensus was that these are really fun pieces. They are technically within reach of good intermediate cellists, but will benefit from some thought and elbow grease. Everyone wanted a practice part so that we can work on them in the future.
On Tuesday and Wednesday my orchestra had our summer noon concerts. Both concerts were outdoors, on different parts of the University grounds. We split the music I listed earlier between the two concerts, with some duplication, and on both days had more scheduled than we actually got through. It was a lot of music, and I can admit here that I was not very proud of my playing, especially the second concert. It was very hot, we were on concrete, and under the tent the heat seemed to reflect off the ground to be trapped there with us. I was physically exhausted.
There was a light breeze that kept us from being completely miserable, but no stands were blown over and we only lost a little music here and there. We don't have the luxury of punching holes in orchestra parts to stabilize them in a notebook, though if I was in an outside seat I would have copied the music and put it in sheet protectors, similar to what Maricello described in one of my comments. (BTW, I have never seen fold-out sheet protectors, but they would be awfully handy.)
Since I had to use the principal's music, I didn't have the sheet protector option, but did have my choice of clothes pins or wind screens. I've used clips in the past, and find unclipping, turning, and reclipping to be an intolerable bother. Might as well not play, as long as it takes me. I chose the wind screen, a 12x18 in piece of plexiglass that sits in front of the open part. The brachial strings don't like them, but for cellists it's not too bad to grab the screen with the bow hand, move it to the side, turn the page with the left hand, then replace the screen and resume playing. I can usually do it within 6 measures, but did have to apologize twice for slow page turns. (You'll appreciate that, L8.)
Orchestra season is over, to resume in September. Cello lessons resume in October. I'm waiting to really want to play before I resume an intense practice schedule. Occasionally I wonder if one of the reasons I don't feel much like playing is that I don't have a very good cello to play on. My replacement is still waiting for the varnish to dry, somewhere in a very wet summer in England. In the meantime I'm practicing my cello desultorily, but spending more regular time on my piano lessons, which end next week, and a little ear training. I'm thinking about trying a beginning vocal class in the fall. And I'm enjoying summertime.
All of my past week was not spent flogging the computer issues. I had a pretty busy play week, too. On Friday and Saturday I got together with special music buddies to play cello trios, sonatas, piano trios, and string trios. The highlight was playing through some pieces written by Roger Bourland in the last decade or so that I had recently invested in upon Elaine Fine's recommendation. We read the cello quartet, with me alternating between cello 2 and 3 since we were short one, the piano trio, and one of the sonatas.
After reading, the universal consensus was that these are really fun pieces. They are technically within reach of good intermediate cellists, but will benefit from some thought and elbow grease. Everyone wanted a practice part so that we can work on them in the future.
On Tuesday and Wednesday my orchestra had our summer noon concerts. Both concerts were outdoors, on different parts of the University grounds. We split the music I listed earlier between the two concerts, with some duplication, and on both days had more scheduled than we actually got through. It was a lot of music, and I can admit here that I was not very proud of my playing, especially the second concert. It was very hot, we were on concrete, and under the tent the heat seemed to reflect off the ground to be trapped there with us. I was physically exhausted.
There was a light breeze that kept us from being completely miserable, but no stands were blown over and we only lost a little music here and there. We don't have the luxury of punching holes in orchestra parts to stabilize them in a notebook, though if I was in an outside seat I would have copied the music and put it in sheet protectors, similar to what Maricello described in one of my comments. (BTW, I have never seen fold-out sheet protectors, but they would be awfully handy.)
Since I had to use the principal's music, I didn't have the sheet protector option, but did have my choice of clothes pins or wind screens. I've used clips in the past, and find unclipping, turning, and reclipping to be an intolerable bother. Might as well not play, as long as it takes me. I chose the wind screen, a 12x18 in piece of plexiglass that sits in front of the open part. The brachial strings don't like them, but for cellists it's not too bad to grab the screen with the bow hand, move it to the side, turn the page with the left hand, then replace the screen and resume playing. I can usually do it within 6 measures, but did have to apologize twice for slow page turns. (You'll appreciate that, L8.)
Orchestra season is over, to resume in September. Cello lessons resume in October. I'm waiting to really want to play before I resume an intense practice schedule. Occasionally I wonder if one of the reasons I don't feel much like playing is that I don't have a very good cello to play on. My replacement is still waiting for the varnish to dry, somewhere in a very wet summer in England. In the meantime I'm practicing my cello desultorily, but spending more regular time on my piano lessons, which end next week, and a little ear training. I'm thinking about trying a beginning vocal class in the fall. And I'm enjoying summertime.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Back in the saddle
Woo hoo! I finally made it to orchestra rehearsal, five weeks after surgery. The limiting factor is that it is a good quarter mile hike with cello (no wheels) from the parking lot to the rehearsal space. I was tired, and almost late thanks to a ridiculous volume of traffic - I left early and it took an hour to get there. Grumble.
Tonight was pops night. For some reason we are rehearsing with and without brass on alternate weeks, and when the brass shows, we run the pops numbers. I remember Camelot, The King and I, New York, Evita... and I don't remember at least one other.
Why don't I peek in the folder so I can list everything? Oops, no folder. They were short of music, so I will be sight-reading for another week. The good news is that I don't have to practice any orchestra music this week. The bad news is that I think we are rehearsing the Brahms Serenade and Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave next week. I'm going to die.
Concerts are July 17th and 18th.
Tonight was pops night. For some reason we are rehearsing with and without brass on alternate weeks, and when the brass shows, we run the pops numbers. I remember Camelot, The King and I, New York, Evita... and I don't remember at least one other.
Why don't I peek in the folder so I can list everything? Oops, no folder. They were short of music, so I will be sight-reading for another week. The good news is that I don't have to practice any orchestra music this week. The bad news is that I think we are rehearsing the Brahms Serenade and Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave next week. I'm going to die.
Concerts are July 17th and 18th.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Gig Book
A few months ago I joined my church orchestra, and on the same day a "more advanced" high school cellist joined. He brought his concerto music with him to every rehearsal and performance, played beautifully, and was lost most of the time. I helped as much as I could, but there's not a lot of down time when you have one rehearsal for half the music and get copies of the other half as you are climbing the platform on Sunday morning.
As I settled comfortably into the routine of rapidly preparing my music for practice and performing, I realized that I have either learned or discovered a bunch of common techniques for playing well in this kind of performance environment. I hadn't realized they were common until I saw many of my fellow orchestra members doing the same things, and I hadn't realized that everybody didn't automatically know how to do this stuff until I saw my fellow cellist struggling.
This is what I do:
Prepare a gig book
I have found a three-ring binder works best. Usually you are working with single-sided copies, and keeping them loose in a folder is just asking for things to get out of order. The music goes into the book in performance order. Save alphabetizing or other methods of organization for a separate archive.
Organize each selection
Start by punching holes in the music copies along both sides of the page. Then put the pages in the gig book in the best way to minimize page turns or disruptions in your line if turns are necessary. Ways that almost always work:
2 pages: 1st page goes backwards so you see p1 on the left and p2 on the right
3 pages: 1st two pages as above, p3 forward IF there is a good turning point at the bottom of p2. Vice versa if the best turning point is at the bottom of p1. Otherwise, p3 loose behind p2 and pull it out so you have three pages across stand BEFORE you start playing. If I have more than one crack at playing the piece I trim one side of p3 and tape it to p2, fronts together, then open it up to three across.
4 pages: usually p1 and p2 facing, page turn, p3 and p4 facing. If the bottom of p2 is critical, try p1 up, page turn, p2 and p3 facing, page turn, p4, or a variation with three pages across and one page turn. If the bottoms of both p1 and p3 are critical, there is one other option. Trim p1, tape to p2 facing. Trim p4, tape to p3 facing. Open all four pages across the stand, starting so you can see 1-3 with 4 falling off to the side. Mark "MOVE" at some convenient point after p1 and move the book to the left so you can see p4.
etc. Apply the above principles to group any larger number of pages.
Good page turning and moving points are not always long rests. Also look for rhythm motifs you can play on an open string. You can bow it while turning the page with your left hand. Or, if there are only one or two measures after the page turn before a good rest or open string part, write in those couple of measures at the bottom of the page and turn afterward. And ditto with one or two measures you can write in at the top of the next page so you can turn early.
Mark the road map
Choir pieces often have repeats, some of which become omitted. Cross them out boldly. Write in whatever signs you need to tell you where to go next. The lighting on stage or in the pit is, shall we say, suboptimal. Make sure you can see it.
Hymns. Seem simple. Play these four lines over and over. But how many times? At the top of each hymn, write down how many verses you are playing, and sometimes which ones to sit out, and sometimes which key to transpose to. My favorite to date:
v1 as written (was in D MAJ)
v2 tacit (organ)
v3 Db
v4 C
It may seem obvious during the run-through, but I guarantee it won't in the service when it is one of four tunes in rapid succession. Write it down.
Enough for one day. If I get around to it, I'll write a little bit about rehearsal and practice techniques I find useful in these playing situations.
As I settled comfortably into the routine of rapidly preparing my music for practice and performing, I realized that I have either learned or discovered a bunch of common techniques for playing well in this kind of performance environment. I hadn't realized they were common until I saw many of my fellow orchestra members doing the same things, and I hadn't realized that everybody didn't automatically know how to do this stuff until I saw my fellow cellist struggling.
This is what I do:
Prepare a gig book
I have found a three-ring binder works best. Usually you are working with single-sided copies, and keeping them loose in a folder is just asking for things to get out of order. The music goes into the book in performance order. Save alphabetizing or other methods of organization for a separate archive.
Organize each selection
Start by punching holes in the music copies along both sides of the page. Then put the pages in the gig book in the best way to minimize page turns or disruptions in your line if turns are necessary. Ways that almost always work:
2 pages: 1st page goes backwards so you see p1 on the left and p2 on the right
3 pages: 1st two pages as above, p3 forward IF there is a good turning point at the bottom of p2. Vice versa if the best turning point is at the bottom of p1. Otherwise, p3 loose behind p2 and pull it out so you have three pages across stand BEFORE you start playing. If I have more than one crack at playing the piece I trim one side of p3 and tape it to p2, fronts together, then open it up to three across.
4 pages: usually p1 and p2 facing, page turn, p3 and p4 facing. If the bottom of p2 is critical, try p1 up, page turn, p2 and p3 facing, page turn, p4, or a variation with three pages across and one page turn. If the bottoms of both p1 and p3 are critical, there is one other option. Trim p1, tape to p2 facing. Trim p4, tape to p3 facing. Open all four pages across the stand, starting so you can see 1-3 with 4 falling off to the side. Mark "MOVE" at some convenient point after p1 and move the book to the left so you can see p4.
etc. Apply the above principles to group any larger number of pages.
Good page turning and moving points are not always long rests. Also look for rhythm motifs you can play on an open string. You can bow it while turning the page with your left hand. Or, if there are only one or two measures after the page turn before a good rest or open string part, write in those couple of measures at the bottom of the page and turn afterward. And ditto with one or two measures you can write in at the top of the next page so you can turn early.
Mark the road map
Choir pieces often have repeats, some of which become omitted. Cross them out boldly. Write in whatever signs you need to tell you where to go next. The lighting on stage or in the pit is, shall we say, suboptimal. Make sure you can see it.
Hymns. Seem simple. Play these four lines over and over. But how many times? At the top of each hymn, write down how many verses you are playing, and sometimes which ones to sit out, and sometimes which key to transpose to. My favorite to date:
v1 as written (was in D MAJ)
v2 tacit (organ)
v3 Db
v4 C
It may seem obvious during the run-through, but I guarantee it won't in the service when it is one of four tunes in rapid succession. Write it down.
Enough for one day. If I get around to it, I'll write a little bit about rehearsal and practice techniques I find useful in these playing situations.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Next concert
We don't have a date for our next concert yet, but Thursday night we read through the new music. The Maestro was occupied elsewhere, so we had a substitute conductor, a nice and very competent guy named Steve, who seemed well-known to the rest of the orchestra. The main theme of my thoughts since rehearsal is something along the lines of "Ouch!". I don't know if it was just two hours of reading, which means we had fewer breaks because we didn't stop as much to work, or if this is very bow-arm unfriendly music, but my tendinitis has definitely flared.
This is what we have in our folders:
(1) Dvorak's Slavanick Dances #3 and #8
There are evidently not convenient and well-stocked libraries for checking out orchestral parts available locally. The orchestra has a very small library, and the repertoire expands through generous gifts from patrons. This year, it seems like the patrons have been wind players, who have donated a number of pieces that "they" would like to play. Hence these Dances. We did 1 and 2 last concert, and will eventually do all 8. All I know is, they're fast, have a lot of double stops, are in string-unfriendly keys (#3 is in Ab and E), and are doing a number on my arm.
(2) Moussorgsky's Une nuit sur le mont chauvre, which sounds so much more elegant than Night on Bald Mountain. This one is fun if nuanced appropriately, and shouldn't cause too much strain if I don't overplay the fortes.
(3) Rossini's Overture to Die diebische Elster. WT? Aha - The Thieving Magpie. I knew I recognized it. I was initially annoyed that the stand behind us had missed the tenor clef, but then we discovered that they had been given a bass part. This won't be bad after a session to work out optimal fingerings. A little time on fast scalar passages, and again, don't overplay.
Well, that review makes me feel more optimistic. I don't really care for the Dvorak, but as long as I don't let myself get sucked in to trying to compete with the brass I think I can do a better job both of playing the music and protecting my tendons at future rehearsals.
This is what we have in our folders:
(1) Dvorak's Slavanick Dances #3 and #8
There are evidently not convenient and well-stocked libraries for checking out orchestral parts available locally. The orchestra has a very small library, and the repertoire expands through generous gifts from patrons. This year, it seems like the patrons have been wind players, who have donated a number of pieces that "they" would like to play. Hence these Dances. We did 1 and 2 last concert, and will eventually do all 8. All I know is, they're fast, have a lot of double stops, are in string-unfriendly keys (#3 is in Ab and E), and are doing a number on my arm.
(2) Moussorgsky's Une nuit sur le mont chauvre, which sounds so much more elegant than Night on Bald Mountain. This one is fun if nuanced appropriately, and shouldn't cause too much strain if I don't overplay the fortes.
(3) Rossini's Overture to Die diebische Elster. WT? Aha - The Thieving Magpie. I knew I recognized it. I was initially annoyed that the stand behind us had missed the tenor clef, but then we discovered that they had been given a bass part. This won't be bad after a session to work out optimal fingerings. A little time on fast scalar passages, and again, don't overplay.
Well, that review makes me feel more optimistic. I don't really care for the Dvorak, but as long as I don't let myself get sucked in to trying to compete with the brass I think I can do a better job both of playing the music and protecting my tendons at future rehearsals.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Ear worm
Oh, my poor head. I have snippets of the first of Dvorak's Slavanik Dances stuck in it, going round and round, from one ear through the neural jungle to the other. It started after our strings-only rehearsal on Thursday, and seems to get worse daily. Even though I haven't touched the piece since rehearsal. Guilt? Revenge?
There is one 8-bar phrase in that dance that I despair of ever playing. It's a set of ascending broken thirds, and the last 5 measures are the same repeated fragment. Since it's eighth notes in 3/4, that comes out to a unique 32-note fragment. A similar 3-bar motif in Beethoven Op. 59 No. 3 was the only fragment of two quartets that I could not play at all at camp last summer. Is this my Waterloo?
Maestro encouraged us in this movement, pointing out that it is scored very pianistically. Unfortunately we aren't playing keyboards. The bottom line was to suck it up, quit whining, and fake it as best we can. He also suggested that if we practiced these short sections slowly for 25 hours playing it fast would be a piece of cake.
That does exceed the limits of my faith. I have experience with slowly bringing a piece up to tempo with a metronome, but no experience with it magically improving with extended slow practice. So I am going to try an experiment. I hereby resolve to play these 8 bars over and over s*l*o*w*l*y for 10 minutes at each practice session until I reach 25 hours of practice time. That should be in about 6 months. I'll let you know what happens.
There is one 8-bar phrase in that dance that I despair of ever playing. It's a set of ascending broken thirds, and the last 5 measures are the same repeated fragment. Since it's eighth notes in 3/4, that comes out to a unique 32-note fragment. A similar 3-bar motif in Beethoven Op. 59 No. 3 was the only fragment of two quartets that I could not play at all at camp last summer. Is this my Waterloo?
Maestro encouraged us in this movement, pointing out that it is scored very pianistically. Unfortunately we aren't playing keyboards. The bottom line was to suck it up, quit whining, and fake it as best we can. He also suggested that if we practiced these short sections slowly for 25 hours playing it fast would be a piece of cake.
That does exceed the limits of my faith. I have experience with slowly bringing a piece up to tempo with a metronome, but no experience with it magically improving with extended slow practice. So I am going to try an experiment. I hereby resolve to play these 8 bars over and over s*l*o*w*l*y for 10 minutes at each practice session until I reach 25 hours of practice time. That should be in about 6 months. I'll let you know what happens.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Further to my last
Continuing my experiment with Silly Putty, I think what I showed in yesterday's post is too much. Today I used just a pea-sized pellet and flattened it quite thin, probably to less than a millimeter thick. That gave me a patch of about 2 x 2.5 cm, which I placed in the concave part of the frog, covering the eye but not extending up or over the stick. It's much less noticeable (to my fingers) and still performs well.
Just got home from trio rehearsal, our second coached session on the first mvmt of Hummel Op. 12. I think we made good progress, stopping at the end of the exposition today. I had only a few mental glitches switching between bass and "trouble" clef (treble clef transposed down an octave), but we played under tempo much of the time. Still, that was a nice reward for hard work.
My most frustrating moment came when the coach (C-) asked me to start a note in motion before catching the string, instead of from the string, as I was. I spent a long time eradicating the bad habit of starting notes from the air, something 'cellists often do because of the need to get that big mass of string vibrating. This was a little different, of course, and after the light bulb lit I could do it.
I still remember the first time T2- asked me to do something a different way after I had worked so hard getting it right the way she had requested the previous week. My first glimmer that there is more than one right way to do something. Something very complicated for a rule-bound first-born like me to comprehend!
Just got home from trio rehearsal, our second coached session on the first mvmt of Hummel Op. 12. I think we made good progress, stopping at the end of the exposition today. I had only a few mental glitches switching between bass and "trouble" clef (treble clef transposed down an octave), but we played under tempo much of the time. Still, that was a nice reward for hard work.
My most frustrating moment came when the coach (C-) asked me to start a note in motion before catching the string, instead of from the string, as I was. I spent a long time eradicating the bad habit of starting notes from the air, something 'cellists often do because of the need to get that big mass of string vibrating. This was a little different, of course, and after the light bulb lit I could do it.
I still remember the first time T2- asked me to do something a different way after I had worked so hard getting it right the way she had requested the previous week. My first glimmer that there is more than one right way to do something. Something very complicated for a rule-bound first-born like me to comprehend!
Friday, October 13, 2006
Compliment?
This week at trio rehearsal our new coach said something to the effect of "Wow, you guys are a lot better then I expected you to be." Our last coach said something similar near the end of last semester. Is that a compliment? What are they thinking? We are just finishing up the last movement of Beethoven Op. 1 No. 1 (this is a piano trio) and the coach gave us a trio by Glinka to take home and look at as a candidate for our next piece. Hmm. The first page of the cello part is all in tenor clef. My first clue that this may be a significant amount of work.
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