Thoughts about Music

2010-01-29

Practicing each individual phrase of our bass parts for the Niwot Timberline Symphony Orchestra, I recently had one of those overturn-the-world moments. It's so simple you'd think that after half a century of reading music I'd have got it before, but while genius has bounds, stupidity knows no limits :)

Simply this: musical rests are notes. It has totally changed my phrasing. Previously I was focussed on the duration of the note preceding the rest. Then the note would "stop" for the rest, and there would be a gap. Of course, the result of that kind of musicianship is that my notes would slop over into the abyss of the rest or stop short in fear of falling in.

Since that moment, I've finally learned that a rest is a note. A silent note, but silence, too, is a note in music, as John Cage so pointedly observed. A rest grabs its own space and the previous and following notes don't dare to intrude.

later

Reading Wikipedia's Dynamics (music) it occurred to me that the field of classical composition has witnessed in certain well-known pieces by prominent composers extraordinary and/or humorous instances of excessive notation meant to convey a mood or intent to the player beyond the expressive capacity of the formal notation of the time.

2010-01-15

Lifestyle improvement: I finally bought a midi interface which now allows me to do midi keys entry into Finale instead of pointing and clicking or using the computer keyboard.

2010-01-12

Conductor humor:

At rehearsal tonight for Tchaikovsky, the conductor said to the high strings, "Look, people, these sixteenth-note runs are not fakeable. You're going to have to practice at home. You can't just pull a fingering out of your butt!"
Last year when we were rehearsing the Adagio to Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, another conductor told the violins, "I can tell you didn't practice this week, because this is the most beautiful tune ever written and you're not playing it!"

2010-01-04

The IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library, the free public domain sheet music library, is for music what the Gutenberg Project is for literature.

2009-12-08

It's funny how like Bach that Jazz is chordally. Jazz gravitates towards I-VI-II-V. Bach gravitates towards I-V-II-VI.

2009-11-03

Playing with the symphony I am realising that it's much the same as playing with a good pop or jazz combo, there's just more for the bass player to pay attention to!

2009-10-22

I'm performing these days with the Niwot Timberline Symphony Orchestra, a volunteer community orchestra. It is a very good experience and is changing the way I approach the bass. I'm very glad for the chance to bow more, but beyond that, I'm now becoming much more conscious of my left hand pivots and am playing more accurately as a result of this demanding kind of performance!

2009-10-11

The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a resource of free sheet music with the licenses all in order for download at one's pleasure.

Jax Delaguerre