Week of October 11, 2009

C-minor Scale
Kreutzer No. 9
Bach B-minor Partita:  Sarabande


It's the time of year when I stand with my hands over the kettle as I wait for the water to boil for tea.  Brrr!  It's also the time of year when my Reynaud's Syndrome kicks in.  That means that if my fingers get too cold, one or of a few of them may turn white and go numb for a little while.  Don't worry:  my fingers won't lose circulation long enough to die.  They might, however, be numb while I'm trying to practice a scale in a cold room, as was the case with the fingers of my bowing hand today.  Warming up has new meaning in the wintertime.

This week's Kreutzer étude is certainly not something for a person with numb fingers.  It's all slurred sixteenth notes, it's very repetitive, and it feels good to play.    By the time I got to Bach today, I felt thoroughly warm, as if my fingers had gone for a jog. 

I thought about skipping the warm up today and going straight to Bach, but that proved impossible.  Unlike the Presto last week, the Sarabande is not just a series of sixteenth notes that can be slowed down and substituted for scales.  The Sarabande is full of slow and stately chords, which came much more easily after a warm up.

This is the movement I've had stuck in my head recently, I was glad to discover today when I turned the page in my volume of Bach. 

I practiced from 10 to 11 tonight.  Rather than use my housemates' sleep as an excuse to skip practicing, I said, "Oh, let them complain.  Chances are, they're still awake!"  It's the kind of irreverent, impassioned thing Paul Farmer (of my Tracy Kidder book, Mountains Beyond Mountains) would do.    
Thus begins the second month of the B-minor Partita.