Today's Coffee: Irish Breakfast Tea (and an Arnold Palmer after lunch)

The pictures above and below are from Chalk Walk. They passed out chalk and the whole community got involved with their art! The one below won overall. It was so neat to see everyone being artistic - although barely any music students (if any) got involved -- we have a lot on our plate already!

So, it's been a long 10 days so far. After hearing the faculty concert on Friday night - can I just say that they are all amazing? They play so elegantly, and yet, there is a raw factor to the sound (with the gut strings and all). I have learned so much these past few days. For the first time, in a long time, (maybe ever?) I feel that I am finally doing something that I really really love. I'm hoping that I've found my musical niche. It's been a strange feeling - even as I play in masterclass and am critiqued crazily over my bow stroke or phrasing, I enjoy it. It doesn't bother me, because I want so much to get better. It's an interesting feeling. I still get insanely nervous before performing, but I'm starting to feel really confident in what I'm doing and let the instrument work for me. But I digress - the faculty concert was amazing! Just the exposure to composers that I'm not familiar with : Schmelzer, Bonocini, Ariosti, Schenck and others - there is so much gorgeous and amazing music out there! 

Saturday was our first student recital. I think it went well. It was under 4 hours long - so, it was shorter than expected. :) Some of the groups were phenomenal! 

Then Sunday arrived, and T got here. It's so nice to have him here - not just because I now don't have to play with a stranger as my harpsichordist - but I missed him so much! And don't even get me started on W - he's such a trooper as he is now hanging out with the Wilson Family. 

I performed in masterclass on Tuesday, the Biber Sonata 12. I learned a lot - that basically, I play a little too refined and could just throw the bow around more. I'm doing a lot of thinking and applying about intonation. Each scale is different. And leading tones... not so much. All the #s should be played a little flatter, and all the flats a little sharper. We always talk about the character of the key that we are playing in. The composer chose the key for a reason, and so we always discuss what that feeling is and how we can portray that accurately through the music. There have been so many bow circles this week as well. I always warm-up by just doing bow circles on the up bow and down bow. It's tedious work (did I mention I love it though?!) but it really helps! Also, in modern violin, we are taught to control the sound via bow, right arm, vibrato, etc. But now we are focusing a lot on not controlling the sound, but letting the instrument speak. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Oh goodness, and not being tense. I don't know why it's not talked (like... seriously talked about and worked on daily) about in masterclass/lessons/orchestra. Musicians are so tense, and that hinders the sound as well. There are several techniques you can do, but the best (and yet, very hard to do) is to play with your mouth open. If our mouths are closed, we tend not to breathe as much (which is bad) and so we constrict muscles in our face, neck, shoulders and arms. 

(You're probably bored with what I've been learning, right? It's hard to tell because I am excited about it all!)

My violin and a gamba, resting. :)

Anyways, I perform the Biber Sonata tomorrow for the whole BPI crew. I'm nervous, but I feel like I've done the best I can in the 7 days I've had the music. On Friday, the student orchestra will play some Muffat, then Saturday we will all perform our ensembles. I'm now playing in a group of 3 violins, cello and harpsichord. We are playing Purcell's Pavane and Chacony in g minor. We will also perform with our dance class. We will have live musicians as we perform several of the dances we have learned. 

I miss W so much! This is how you do summer!

And then, we fly back to Nashville, only to get in our car and drive to Florida for most needed vacation of my life. Being 17 weeks pregnant in a dorm room in 90 degree (YES - IT REALLY IS THAT HOT HERE!) weather and doing 12 hour days of Baroque music calls for some serious laying on the beach time. 

Gambas and viols and violins for sale. 

I miss this little guy so much! Such great hair!

Today's Coffee: Irish Breakfast Tea

I'm doing it. 

I'm here and I'm following a dream I've had since I was 13 and saw Andrew Manze play. 

What on earth am I talking about?

Baroque Violin

I am currently at Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. This is big for me. Sometimes I would worry that I wasn't getting to do enough music and I would feel 'stuck'. Don't get me wrong - I love staying home with W and teaching, but without getting to play great music, it was easy to get discouraged. So, go back a year ago - I started taking lessons. This was a fairly hefty step for our family as it would be an added expense (lessons, a bow, eventually a violin and now a summer festival) and we weren't quite sure how we would handle it financially - but we were always provided for. 

So, anyways, I'm here. I'm immersed in it. I haven't heard a 440 A in 5 days and 415 is starting to sound really normal! I thought, since this is a fairly niche musical community that I would talk briefly about my day and what I get to do. 

I start off by practicing or visiting the library just checking out different editions of music. Then I head to violin technique class where we go over basic technique (holding, shifting, bowing) as it's all quite different from modern violin. Then we have an hour and a half masterclass where our two main teachers (Marilyn McDonald and Marc Destrube) listen to us perform and critique our playing. After lunch there is a lecture, or faculty recital - but today started our series of Biber's Mystery Sonatas. Now, I should explain, these bad boys are tough. There's a reason they aren't performed a whole lot - well, a few reasons, but one is that they are tricky. Another is that out of the 16, only 2 are tuned to the traditional G-D-A-E tuning. The rest - could be anything. Well, the violin students are learning and performing them. All 16. On the first day they wanted us to pick one to play. Lots of students came prepared... I came more or less with an understanding of the music, but not really anything under my fingers. So, I randomly picked 12. Didn't know what it was called or how it was tuned, or if it was one of the crazy hard ones. Once I grabbed the music from the library, I was scared to see that all 4 strings were re-tuned and that the bottom string (G) had to be tuned up a 4th! I had to borrow an instrument since I obviously wouldn't be able to re-tune my violin every hour or so. Well, I broke the G as soon as I tried tuning it up, so the next day I asked for a D instead to tune down. While Biber would have wanted me to tune the G up to have that added tension (it will sound different than a D tuned down), we all agreed that it would be safer with the D. 

Broken G

Anyways, 

So today was the first recital of half of the sonatas. Really great players and the music is phenomenal. After the recital we all have our ensembles. I am playing 2 different pieces. One by Monteverdi (scored for harpsichord, gamba, 2 violins, and 2 sopranos) and one by Delalande (scored for harpsichord, gamba, 2 violins, 1 bass and 2 sopranos). It's so amazing working with all the different coaches and the instrumentalists and singers. After ensemble we head over to Baroque Dance class. We've learned all the major dance styles (from the German influence) Gavotte, Bouree, Sarabande, Loure, Courante, and we'll take a look at Chaconne and Passacaglia tomorrow. What a crazy workout! It's so interesting to know the steps behind the dances - it's meant to help us be better performers of the dance styles. Then we grab dinner and then head back for orchestra. We've been reading through all sorts of music (Muffat, Lully, Purcell, Corelli, Handel, etc.). 

Needless to say, I have enjoyed every minute. It's been a great experience so far. Saturday we will all perform our ensembles and next Thursday I will be performing (with Thomas on harpsichord with me!) the Sonata 12. The violin is tuned in a C Major chord. (Is that how a ukulele is tuned?) Check it out:

Thomas will be joining me up here on Sunday while W gets to spend quality time with the grandparents. I miss my little man so much - but I know he's having a great time with the Russells. 

In other news: the baby is kicking. So, I have little #2 to keep me company while my boys are all several states away. Also, the house is continually moving forward, so prayers appreciated for that! I've got to go to bed - we go for about 12 hours straight and this momma is tired!

In Christ,

Julie

Today's Coffee: Ice Water and a Krispy Kreme Doughnut

We've kept busy the past week or so! We are under contract for a new house. We are praying that this house will work our for us as our lease in our current rental is up at the end of July. The Russell Family visited last weekend and we had a blast!

W is now in a big boy bed! It used to be his Papa's!

Uncle Eth is the best

Family picnic - eyes being open was optional?  :)

Boy, W and I sure love our pickles!

A great pic of Uncle Matthew and W!

We went to a local park today and had a great time listening to a studio of bluegrass students play and tap dance, catch crawdads in the creek, and dance with ribbons!

We had a great time - and I kept feeling as if I was going to see Leslie Knope somewhere telling Jerry and Tom what to do next. Well, now I have some chicken bbq packets on the grill - in foil with broccoli and pinto beans (it's amazing!) and I'm going to see if I can convince T to slice into a watermelon for me tonight. 

Also, if you have thoughts/tips/advice on how to get a 2 year and 3 month year old to sit (or even act like he's paying attention) during family worship, let me know. We're trying to get him to sit through a hymn that we sing (usually just 1 or 2 verses), a Bible story, then prayer - and it's really tough! But, we persevere and do it each night - I'm just wondering what others do and what worked for them. 

In Christ,

Julie