my music career - the next phase

i've entered the next phase in my music career - i'm still waiting for an official letter from McGill that will tell me i'm either invited or i'm not invited to register as a student in the faculty of music in the fall. however...

... julia, my piano teacher, who also teaches in the faculty of music at McGill (also known as the Schulich School of Music), asked me today if i would be joining her piano class in the fall, or someone else's. i told her i would join hers, of course. she proceeded to explain how i would most likely be admitted into first year piano studies right away instead of the pre-requisite courses, given the speed at which i've improved in the past 6 months, and we will need to plan my program for the exam at the end of the first year...

... all this talk, it's about me being a student in the faculty of music this coming September! it's unofficial, true, but it sounds quite promising!

we're talking about improving my technique by learning some Czerny studies, selecting another Beethoven sonata (or Mozart or Haydn), and anything else i feel like playing as long as it's appropriate. yeeha! woohoo!!

i started a Debussy piece today called Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir. it's beautiful. it's atonal, it sounds like movie music. i loooooove it. this is the kind of thing i'd love to write.

i have a feeling Debussy and i will become good friends.

puzzle canons

we're studying puzzle canons in my counterpoint class. they're quite fascinating - i'm told there are puzzle canon books, just like crossword puzzle books. boy, would i like to get my hand on one of those.

a canon is a composition with 2 or more voices. each voice sings the same melody, offset by a few bars or so. take, for example, the tune row row row your boat, or frère Jacques. one person starts to sing, then a little while later, a second person sings the same thing, and the whole thing sounds good together.

a puzzle canon is similar. what happens is that the composer writes out one line of music, a nice singable melody. then to solve the puzzle canon, you take this line and find a way to have it repeat itself on top of itself, with its second version coming in after the first version has already begun. it may stay in its original pitch, or it might need to be transposed by a perfect fourth, or perfect fifth, or by an octave (or maybe something else!). and when the two are heard together, the rules of renaissance counterpoint must be observed - consonants must be heard where expected, and dissonances must be treated properly. musicians were expected to figure this out for themselves, being given nothing more than one line of music and instructions for turning this into a canon by augmenting or diminishing or inverting and transposing.

oooooh, what fun. i've found references to Bach's Musical Offering (BWV 1079) in my internet search for information on puzzle canons. if you haven't yet listened to the Musical Offering, i'd highly recommend it. it's an amazingly interesting set of canons, fugues, ricercars and a sonata based on a bizarre theme given to Bach by Frederick the Great. he's taken the theme, augmented it, diminished it, transposed it, inverted it and written it backwards against itself. what a brilliant man...

post-audition wrap

phew, it's done...

what a day. talk about an emotional roller-coaster... i wrote the theory placement exam in the morning, that was a breeze (although i still don't know what scale degree the mediant is).

then i wandered around a bit, walked through a shopping mall, bought myself some nice pj's, and checked into a local Second Cup for a chamomile tea and a piece of carrot cake. i read my book for a few hours, and took the time to write up my audition programme since i knew they'd want to have it written out.

julia had suggested i drink some hot cocoa before the audition (not the regular hot chocolate, but real cocoa). i found a great place on ste catharines, across from the paramount theatre, that serves hot cocoa and i got myself a double. ooooh, that was yummy and sooo rich - good place to go back to, that's for sure.

i headed back to the music building and changed into a lovely black dress for my audition. i sat around, waited for my time to come, then got myself a seat just outside the audition room. i chatted with a nice young guy who was due to audition before me, then wished him luck as his turn came up.

i repeated to myself "i am good" and "i can play a good audition" and "i am relaxed" and so on, until i was called in. i started with brahms, then they asked me to play beethoven and finally the bach. i didn't get to finish any of them - they stopped me before i could finish brahms and beethoven, and to my utter chagrin, i found i was unable to deliver when it came to the bach fugue. i tried two or three times, but kept fumbling in the same spot - a new spot, i had never fumbled there before. but all in all, it went quite well. still, i couldn't believe i'd screwed up the fugue, i love that piece...

i found out one of the judges actually lives in my backyard and has been hearing me practice for the past few months. she recognized my playing on the pre-recorded audition, and again today. isn't that funny - it's a small world, and you never know who's listening.

julia called me at about 9:30 tonight and told me she had just spoken to one of the judges. it seems i made a pretty good impression, regardless of the trouble with bach. she is quite confident that i have done well enough, although i still need to get the official invitation to enroll for studies in the fall. she wouldn't have called just to make me feel better, so i'm hoping that this is all a really positive sign, and feel encouraged about my performance earlier today.

so, officially, i will know the judges' decision by the end of march. geez, waiting is the hardest part! but no matter what, having done this today changes everything after this. wow, what a day...

:)

pre-audition jitters...

hey, wow, i've never been affected like this before.

i'm nervous, but not like shaking-like-a-leaf nervous, i'm hyper-sensitive today. i had a lesson with julia this afternoon, started with the brahms, and when brahms was done, she looked at me and said, with her russian accent, "i don't like you today, you seem nervous..." and i broke down and cried for half a minute. how bizarre...

i'm not worried about my performance tomorrow, so i don't know if i'm nervous about it, or just super aware of what i'm headed towards and how different it is from anything i've ever done. it's quite exhilarating, and understandably it's also a bit trepidating, if that's the correct word. i love this new direction. it's amazing to see how well it fits with who i am and what i love.

i think i'm overwhelmed rather than nervous. and although i often notice a feeling of aloneness in all of this, i also know i'm getting support from all sorts of people who want nothing but for me to be happy and to follow my bliss - you all have such faith in me.

thanks everyone.

practice makes perfect

actually, i don't know what's truer - practice makes perfect, or perfect practice makes perfect... that was a point of pointless debate at music camp years ago.

anyhow, i've just had an amazing practice session. i'm more relaxed, i can feel that in my forearm muscles in both arms, i'm aware of it. in the beethoven, i've found a way to play those left-hand triplets more musically, just by giving them some thought.

i really like all my pieces. i think that makes a difference. they're starting to take on new meaning at this stage too. it's like learning to walk - you focus on placing your feet one in front of the other and working out your balance. you don't notice anything else, until one day, you don't even give walking any thought anymore. and now, you notice everything you pass by, and how it all fits together, and you consider all the work and effort and heart that went into all of this beauty. and you wouldn't even know about it if you hadn't learned to walk in the first place.

how lucky i am.

count down to the audition

ok, we're a week away. i just had my penultimate piano lesson with julia this afternoon (well, penultimate before the audition) and she had some pretty nice things to say.

she said the brahms is just right, nothing needs to be done to it. i actually found myself drifting off to another world when i played it for her this afternoon, and felt tears behind my eyes. tears of ecstasy, really.

the beethoven is much better at this new speed (metronome 84 for the quarter note instead of my usual 72) but i'm losing the tempo in some parts. when i replayed it, it was much better. just a little shaky on the trills in the right hand, i just need to relax more when i get to them.

and the bach, gotta keep the prelude singing, think about hearing all the notes, and the voices. the fugue, finally, is in really good shape. i don't think i'll balk when it comes time to playing it in this friday's pre-audition recital.

and... julia's giving me advice on how to dress. this is a good sign. when your teacher takes time to help you choose your wardrobe, you know there isn't much criticism left for your performance. and a good choice in wardrobe can only enhance the impression i make on the jury.

woohoo! i'm feeling pretty good about all of this right now. a cutie-pie singing grad student named John whom i met a few weeks ago stopped me in the hallway just before my lesson and had a quick 30-second chat with me, another reminder to me that i AM meeting other musicians and artists, even some who might be interesting to me and fun to hang out with. yeah yeah yeah, bring it on.

olympic opera

lookie here, the cbc has a contest on right now called the Studio Sparks Winter Olympics Contest. to enter, you must be canadian, and submit a plot for an opera set at the 2006 winter olympic games, in 150 words or less.

grand prize: an mp3 player from CBC sports, cbc sports olympics magnets, and a cbc sports olympics ball cap.

this sounds like fun! i can't wait to hear them read some of the entries on the radio next week.

McGill piano audition

so, they've asked me to play for them live after listening to a pre-audition recording i prepared around christmas time (with the help of a cutie pie sound recording student at McGill named Carlos). yay for me! february 20th is the date.

what am i playing? Brahms Rhapsody Op. 79 No. 2 (brilliant piece); Bach's prelude and fugue in E major from Book I of the well-tempered klavier; the 1st movement of Beethoven's piano sonata No. 6 in F major. i'm just loving it. my teacher says she pictures me playing Rachmaninoff preludes. that made me slightly giddy.

Debbie Quigley and Kim Vincent come to Montreal

Debbie and Kim were in Montreal last weekend from Toronto. sadly, i missed Debbie's whistle workshop but i got to catch up with her later that evening at a really awesome house session. it's been a while since i've played in any session, let alone one as great as this one. the tunes were flowing, conversation was fun and the home-cooked food was scrumptious.

Debbie and Kim played a concert at McKibbins on sunday, and that was just delightful. i love the sound of pipes and fiddle together. like when ivan goff and patrick ourceau play The Old Bush and Spike Island Lasses...

it was a musically invigorating and motivating weekend for me, in a celtic way. such a pleasure to see Debbie and hear her play, and i'm always up for meeting new musicians, so hearing Kim was a treat too. man, the chicken leek pie at McKibbins is to die for!

Radu Lupu and the MSO Feb 7 2006

the MSO performed Shostakovich's 8th symphony, followed by Radu Lupu's Beethoven's 5th piano concerto last night in montreal. i know Beethoven's great, but the Shostakovich elicited much more of a reaction from me than the piano concerto did.

after the concert, back in the comfort of my shared apartment, two friends (one newer than the other) came by to pick up a bag of books, and i got to discussing the concert with the new friend who is a graduate of McGill and a former double-bass player. i'm amazed at the energy of the conversation - it's been a while since i've been able to discuss music with someone this way.

he said the Shostakovich 8th is rarely played in concerts. it was written 2 years after war began in russia, and is quite an intense composition full of emotion, despair, subdued hope. and wonderful music. i loved it instantly.

the beethoven was cool - watching Lupu sit back in the chair and play as if he was mixing a bowl of pasta on the dining table before diving in to eat it. he's obviously quite comfortable at the piano. something for me to strive for :)