Saturday, September 30, 2006

I Died of Exhuastion 2 Days Ago, But Haven't Had a Chance For It To Sink In

So...tired...so exhausted that my left eye is twitching. I discovered the twitch about 4 days ago. It's not a contstant twitch, but it's frequent and annoying. It twitches less earlier in the day when I haven't had as much coffee.

So, last night I committed heresy. I played a movement from the Bach d minor Partita for solo violin for a benefit concert for one of the schools where I teach. I didn't really expect to play, but I got an email the day before with a final plea. I have a hard time saying no, especially for a good cause. The gate should be going to fund the music program. Can't rationalize not playing.

Of course, that crap meant that I made two round trips out of Boston to that school today. Jesus...

I've been a good boy in all my exhaustion, though. I've been doing an appropriate amount of practicing. I've been trying to get the Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice under my fingers and into my head. That's on my next concert, apparently. I'm still trying to get ahold of the Roussel 3rd Symphony. Anyone have a copy? It's rental-only, apparently. I just want to learn the notes before I show up at a rehearsal.

Tomorrow, my plan is to sleep until I wake up. I do hope that I wake up when it's still Saturday. Sooner or later I'll wander into town and do a little practicing. Sleep, though, will be the centerpiece of my day. I realized today that I haven't had a day of in months. All of this galavanting takes its toll on even the most energetic nerd.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Weekend O' Goodness

Damn right...When I go shopping for mouthpieces, I shop for pieces. I managed to find one that may be my new primary mouthpiece, one that is just like my current one, and one that manages to be somewhere between. Right on. I managed to purchase three Genussa mouthpieces from Ben Redwine and, so far, I'm quite pleased with his craftsmanship. After I spend a little more time playing them, I'll give a full rundown. Just so everyone knows, I paid full price (which was very reasonable) and haven't come to any kind of shilling agreement with Ben. If I call 'em damned fine, I won't get any compensation for it.

What was my treat for finding 3 (count 'em) mouthpieces? Food...Yup, big surprise there. My partner in crime and I sucked down more Kalbi than most humans are allowed. I think that it was in Alexandria, VA, but I'm not too sure. It could have been Annandale. As far as I'm concerned, it's all DC. In fact, I'm pretty well convinced that DC runs right up to the city limits of Baltimore and Richmond. Makes life easier. Someone get on making that official. I'm busy being the idea man.

The next day, I hit the museums...Yup, I'm a nerd...A klassy nerd (yes, that's klassy with a 'k' Steph fans). I finally got to see Andy Warhol's soup cans...For some uneducated reason, I was under the impression that they were all Tomato soup. Nope, they're all different kinds of soup and each one is hand-painted, it seems. That's much more impressive. I saw a number of Picasso's, Monet's, and Gaugin's that I had seen only in books. It was wonderful to get up close with my nose nearly in the brush strokes. Of course, I didn't get closer...Brushes make my nose itch.

Just about the time I wandered out the the East Gallery, I got a call and wandered off to dinner. A decent bottle of wine, mussells, a couple of kinds of pasta (including more seafood), decadent desserts. Damn...Now I'm making myself hungry. Good food and fantastic company. All in all, I had an outstanding day.

Where was my clarinet during this busy day? Er...Uh....How about those Red Sox? What about the weather? Aw, why am I tip-toeing around it?...Bite me.

Barely caught my flight back to Boston, though. They were making last call as I literally ran up to the gate. I manged to catch some of Clinton's Fox interview on the inflight TV. Go watch it. It's like watching Stephen Hawking torment Biff. Wallace never new what hit 'em.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

On the Road Again

But no bongos or snapping fingers. If I see one damned drum circle, I'm calling in SWAT. Don't think I won't do it.

Back to DC for a little equipment shopping. I need to reload on the mouthpieces before I'm faced with an emergency. As I'm unable to do things simply, I, of course, had to schedule a 9am appointment to try them. Genius, huh? Oh, and I'm meeting with my accomplice that morning. I'm fairly sure that I'll owe a pretty serious breakfast/lunch/dinner to pay for the annoyance of waking so early just to hear a clarinetist. Oh, and the accomplice is driving. I'm still not sure how I was not thrown down a flight of stairs just for suggesting these shenanigans.

In order to get a reasonably-priced flight, I had to stay through Sunday morning. Poor me, right? Hear the sound of violins playing? They're playing for me.


Thbt.

HAHAHAHAHA

(That's maniacal laughter there...Glee made sound. Oh jeez do I need to explain things properly soon. It's so lame to have to hold on to information out of propriety. It looks like I'm in a better position than ever. Wahoo. Bring on the tunes!)

Monday, September 18, 2006

After the Fall

So here's the danger in playing grueling music: It's so grueling that you don't have much left for the next piece.

I decided that my Berio Lied performance would highlight the dynamic contrasts as much as humanly possible. My softs were pretty damned soft...For those of you who've heard me go "morty f-soft", think even a little softer. The air system in the Theater was a significant opponent. The louds were fairly loud, but Berio just didn't write the piece too far into the loud spectrum of dynamics. Of course, this kind of extremely soft playing takes its toll on the lips.

Cue the Cavallini. I was pretty well screwed. No stamina at all. I just kind of barrelled through it with very little style and not a whole lot of accuracy, especially in the last little ride-out. The first 2 minutes were fairly acceptable, but it was a downhill roll from there. Not horrible, but certainly not controlled.

Oh well...That's what happens when you play two difficult pieces for the first time...Something always goes wrong. You just do your best and crash on through things. No point in getting all worked up over it. I may be doing the Cavallini next week for a public school benefit. Not sure...I'm a little behind on my emails. I'll check into it tomorrow. It's not as if I don't have it kind of under my fingers.

Regarding yesterdays orchestra concert: I really only have one thing to cover: Lowell Lieberman. Good composer. Check him out. The 3rd Piano Concerto is a good piece (a few small flaws), but it's a good work by an imaginative, skilled composer. Flute players already know his wonderful Sonata for Flute and Piano. I'm looking forward to getting to know his Clarinet Quintet (w/ piano and string trio). Jeffrey Biegel did an outstanding job of performing this weekend as well.

A plus: Both guys were real sweethearts who acted like perfect gentlemen the entire time (although they both had reason not to at times).

After the Fall

So here's the danger in playing grueling music: It's so grueling that you don't have much left for the next piece.

I decided that my Berio Lied performance would highlight the dynamic contrasts as much as humanly possible. My softs were pretty damned soft...For those of you who've heard me go "morty f-soft", think even a little softer. The air system in the Theater was a significant opponent. The louds were fairly loud, but Berio just didn't write the piece too far into the loud spectrum of dynamics. Of course, this kind of extremely soft playing takes its toll on the lips.

Cue the Cavallini. I was pretty well screwed. No stamina at all. I just kind of barrelled through it with very little style and not a whole lot of accuracy, especially in the last little ride-out. The first 2 minutes were fairly acceptable, but it was a downhill roll from there. Not horrible, but certainly not controlled.

Oh well...That's what happens when you play two difficult pieces for the first time...Something always goes wrong. You just do your best and crash on through things. No point in getting all worked up over it. I may be doing the Cavallini next week for a public school benefit. Not sure...I'm a little behind on my emails. I'll check into it tomorrow. It's not as if I don't have it kind of under my fingers.

Regarding yesterdays orchestra concert: I really only have one thing to cover: Lowell Lieberman. Good composer. Check him out. The 3rd Piano Concerto is a good piece (a few small flaws), but it's a good work by an imaginative, skilled composer. Flute players already know his wonderful Sonata for Flute and Piano. I'm looking forward to getting to know his Clarinet Quintet (w/ piano and string trio). Jeffrey Biegel did an outstanding job of performing this weekend as well.

A plus: Both guys were real sweethearts who acted like perfect gentlemen the entire time (although they both had reason not to at times).

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006

I'm taking part in a chamber music concert as part of the Glens Falls Symphony's "Musicbridge" festival. I'm not sure what else is on the program, but I'll be playing the following:

Luciano Berio's Lied for solo clarinet
Ernesto Cavallini's Adagio and Tarantella for clarinet and piano with pianist Bryan Kirk.

We'll be at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls. For more information, including tickets, call 518-793-1348. That's the orchestra's phone number and they'll hook you up. If you'd really like to come and not pay, I haven't done anything with my comp. tickets yet. They could be your's if you bat your eyes and ask sweetly (or punch me in the kidneys and call me bitch). Either way, I hope that you say hello if you come.

Berio and Cavallini? Well, I don't generally play Cavallini-type stuff since I tend to spend more time cramming a bit more "serious" music. I figured that the audience would need a refreshing little dessert after the Berio, though, so I took one for the the team. Of course, that meant that I actually had to learn to play all the notes in Cavallini....damnit.

Alright then...I've managed to make it through another posting without degenerating into an endless stream of filth. It's the little triumphs that make one happy, I guess. Now screw off.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Whistle While You Work...Or Bawl...Either Way, Don't Stop Toiling

Holy crap am I tired. I spent the entire workday, from around 9am-630pm copying, cutting, and taping. There is a rather significant stack of music that owes its life to me and my able partner in crime today. The FSM could have been of some use with its many limbs, but we were to make use of only our human four today. Damned near got everything done. Tomorrow, we're back at it. I expect to cross the finish line and buy a round or twelve as a thank you. What if I had to do this by myself? Do you remember Eye-gor in Young Frankenstein? I'd be a mental midget compared to him. Plus, I'd be weeping profusely.

Okay, back to work tomorrow. The end is nigh.

Oh, and I now have some of my repertoire for Nov, Dec, and Jan. Yay...Some good stuff. When I get half a second of downtime, I look forward to pulling out the scores and recordings. Yum...As it turns out, some of it I've conducted in one form or another. Can't wait to play clarinet on it.

Oh crap, remind me and I'll pimp next week's solo performance in Glens Falls. My skull hurts too much right now.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Abrupt Movie Review

Saw "The Illusionist" today. Ed Norton: wondeful. Jessica Biel: pretty, good. Paul Giamatti: excellent. Soundtrack by Phil Glass: positively dreadful. The low string playing was quite lovely, but the compositions themselves were just dreck. Blech...

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Shorting My Sleep-Obsessed Inner Self

In my freezer is now a quart of JP Lick's Chocolate Ice Cream. Dear FSM, I do hope that at least a fraction of it is still there in 24 hours. My self-esteem demands that some of it live through the day.

Was planning on a late night movie, but plans got scuttled. Instead, I'll actually get a reasonable amount of sleep before restarting my school year Sunday schedule: 9am lessons! (dramatic music cut here) Yup, I tend to teach a handful of lessons on Sundays, the first of them at 9am. Ouch, you say? Yup.

I look at it this way: If I schedule a lesson at 9am, I'm going to drag my lazy ass out of bed and take care of the business of the day. By 2pm, when I'm completely finished for the day, I've got all day left to take care of my own practicing and general time wasting. That means that Sunday becomes a horribly useful day.

It also means that I have to be teaching at 9am. Oh well. You win some, you lo...you teach some at crazy o'clock in the am. If I didn't have such neat students, I wouldn't even considerate it. All it takes is consciously subverting my nature...

Friday, September 01, 2006

Go Joe

Oh dear, I took a little break from the mad scramble that is my clarinetting today. Don't get me wrong, I still practiced for a few hours, but I just did my "Annoying Warm-Up" (aptly named...as every housemate for the past 9 years can attest), scales, and Bach today. I'm working on a movement from one of his Cello Suites right now. I'm playing it mostly below half tempo.

Huzzah...(always like that word)

Why half tempo? Why not? I can work on manner or musical issues and clarinet-ty issues that way. It doesn't sound awful at that tempo, but it's oh-so-hard to make every note sound appropriately beautiful at that tempo. Actually, I think that's half the battle...Wait a minute, was that the GI Joe half or did his half and my half create a whole? If so, I'm afraid that I've solved the meaning of life. Still not sure how '42' works into it, but I'm sure it does.

Ran into a Cellist today...After telling me I looked happier (apparently than I did 4 months ago...quite an understandable statement...and true), she then took the blame for my Bach OCD. She's the scoundrel who told me that Bach was good for the soul. (Seoul...ha ha...jeez, that was a bad joke. Even I know.)

RM:MIA Arular...always good for a jog. Fun fun fun...