Ringing

Listening to Hilary Hahn play the Allemande to the D-minor partita, I'm hearing the way her violin rings more than I ever did before. In an earlier post, I talked about listening for the ringing of my own violin as I played the Allemande. This ringing is amazing. It's like her notes were bell chimes. The ringing of one note does linger in the air as she plays the next. The ringing of the bass notes is like the bass part that Bach didn't include in the "Six Solos For Violin without Bass Accompaniment," as he originally titled them. Sometimes, when I tune into the ringing, I imagine another note that isn't in the music that seems to follow in the bass line.

Arnold Steinhardt, a concert violinist and chamber musician, says he has been pursuing the elusive Ciaccona his whole life. I can imagine why. There's always more to hear in Bach.

Arnold Steinhardt plays the Ciaccona in 2006

Open Source Interview about Bach's Ciaccona with Arnold Steinhardt

This is a radio program about the wonderful Ciaccona/Chaconne. 

Allemande

I can't find my Bach music, so I can't check to see how my edition spells Allemande.  I can, however, play the movement I'm working on, because it's committed to my memory.

I've been imagining how the movement would sound on an organ.  There are many rising arpeggios where I can imagine the notes building onto each other and the volume rising the way they would if an organist held each note down instead of releasing it to play the next note, the way you have to on a violin.

I'm also trying to listen for the way the ringing of one note mixes with the sound of the next.  For example, if I play a note on one string, then play a note on another string, the first string continues to vibrate from that first note while I play the second.  What does that sound like?  The vibrations aren't as loud as those of an organ, but they exist.  Whether I leave my fingers in place on the first string or take them off probably makes some minuscule difference. 

The beginning of the Allemande is similar to the beginning of Ciaccona, the D-minor partita's epic movement.  I wonder if Bach wrote the Allemanda first, or started with the Ciaccona.  The Ciaccona is so important.  It could be based on all of the previous movements, but because it's so fantastic, I suspect that Bach had it in mind from the beginning.  Bach probably planned the Ciaccona before he started writing the Allemande, the way J.K. Rowling planned the end of the Harry Potter series before she finished the first Harry Potter book.



I like this recording, after the Star Wars introduction. This sounds like not just any violin. Maybe a Baroque violin.

Week of 3/21/10

B-flat major scale
Kreutzer 20
D-minor Partita, Allemanda

I think I'm on Kreutzer 20.  I sporadically practiced for a while there, and I ended up on Kreutzer 20.  Also, I played the last movement of the A-minor Sonata, too. 

Fresh music

I think playing that piece versus listening to it on a CD is like eating homemade beef stew versus canned stuff.  It's better when you make the music yourself.  That's not because the playing is better, but because the sound is better!  The sound of ringing notes can't get any better than what comes out of your own violin. 

Pre-made meals might be good when they're fresh, but when they have to sit out for hours, or they have preservatives added, they lose something.  Music preserved on a CD loses something, too.  I try to make it fresh. 

My violin itself has been really in-tune lately, which helps.  Not just "uh, maybe it's in-tune now," but, "oh yeah, those are loud harmonics; it's just right."  

I've been playing the Préludio from the E-major partita for fun. I've been playing it, off and on, since seventh grade, and I knew it well enough make a tape of it in twelfth grade, so I know the notes pretty well.  It's familiar, and I always enjoy practicing it. It's also hard enough that there's always more to practice! 

I've also been playing the Méditation from the opera Thais, by Massenet, a piece I first heard as music for pliés in ballet class.  It's so pretty. 


  I'm not saying that my playing is as good as what's on the CD. 

First Notes

It's amazing how starting something I've been putting off can cheer me up so much.  Just tuning my violin made me happy today.  I just played for a few minutes, but it felt good.  It reminds me of how I sometimes dread going to work, but once I get there and start "ringing" (what cashiers do), I feel fine.  The routine of ringing can even be comforting.  By the time I've told twenty customers I'm doing very well, thanks, I'd better be feeling fine!  It's the same walking out the door to do an errand I've been avoiding, or getting in the shower.  All these things I avoid are okay once I begin them.

Beginnings, débuts, baptisms, tonics.
Awakenings, realizations, openings.
Openings of eyes, stores, doors. 
Dreams give way to reality.
Babies are bathed and baptized, agnostic adults simply shower.
Sunrises, springs, seeds.
Coffee.  A walk outside.  Warming up.
Tightening the bow. Tuning.  The A.  Schradieck number 1.

Every day is the oldest you've ever been and the youngest you'll ever be.
You'll always look younger on your driver's license.