Escaping with books (and why I don't watch the Olympics)

Have any of you been watching the Olympics? What are your favorite events?

I haven't really been watching. The reason for that is that it is so similar to striving for achievement in the professional music world that I need a break from the mentality of striving for perfection and achieving the ultimate performance. It's what I do every day. During my very first year at Oberlin just months into my college career, we were watching the fall Olympics in 1988. I remember saying with ultimate naivete, "I wish there was an Olympics in music." Without missing a beat, one of the wiser seniors named Robin Pyle, a trumpet player who now is a fabulous baroque trumpet player based out of Boston, quipped: "There is. It's called the real world." :) It would be years (and several auditions later) before I would fully realize the incisive and poignant truth buried in those words!

Well, since the Olympics have been monopolizing NBC, which airs 3 of the 4 shows I watch regularly (Law & Order CI, Law & Order SVU, and my absolute favorite, Crossing Jordan), I have had a lot more non-TV time. Which is a good thing. I've been reading a lot. I am thoroughly enjoying Cold Mountain; when I started it, I was worried I wouldn't because I'm not that into war novels. But this one is different; it actually includes women characters (what a concept), and delves a lot into the socioeconomic differences between the survivors who had to learn to cope with nothing (who end up being the strong ones) and the wealthy who never had to fend for themselves before the war and who have no coping skills and don't know how to take care of themselves. It's so interesting. It's truly an escape into a different time, a different world. I love that!

I haven't read a lot of non-fiction lately, and this Sunday at the book table at my church I bought a paperback that I cannot WAIT to read. It just looks absolutely fascinating and involves several hotbutton issues that I'm currently immensely interested in. It's called The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris, who is a philosophy graduate from Stanford and is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience studying the basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. How fascinating! I might even start reading this one before I'm finished with Cold Mountain just for variety.

So what are you reading these days? (Click on "Comments" below and select "Anonymous" if you don't have a blogger account)

XO Darcy

OD'ed on Tchaikovsky, Audition Preparation

Well, 4 concerts later, we finally finished our all-Tchaikovsky program. And I've decided that if I don't play any Tchaikovsky again for a long time, it will be just fine with me. :)

Seriously - it was a great weekend, and with the exception of the Classical Connections concert on Thursday, all of the concerts were full houses, and every performance got a huge roaring standing ovation for both the piano concerto and the 1812. I have to admit, though the soloist was kind of a turkey in rehearsals, he really did have the projection and technique to play the hell out of that concerto. It really is hugely difficult; some of the sections with consecutive octaves in both hands are the terror of many pianists, but this guy (percussive though he was) mowed right through them without a problem. And people loved him to death.

We televised the Saturday night performance live; it was on Milwaukee Public TV, and David taped it for me. I'm curious to watch it some day...maybe after my audition. ;)

Speaking of which, I'm auditioning for an Associate Principal Horn position in Pittsburgh on March 13th. I have a fairly good handle on the list; there are a few excerpts that are technically nasty that need to be hammered on every day until the audition, but I can get through them fine now. At this point it's a matter of constant repetition so as to ensure perfect execution on demand, every single time. I'm having friends over for an "audition party" on Thursday night to listen to me in exchange for dinner and dessert. It's always a fun way to get into the audition groove.

David was describing one of the auditions I took to a friend of his, who is a writer and editor. She said that the whole process sounded like the PBS version of American Idol. :) I thought that was awesome. It's very true. I have to keep reminding myself of the complete crap shoot factor, that beyond playing my best, there are several factors that are really out of my hands: what the committee is looking for, what the hall sounds like, whether the committee has already advanced what it thinks is enough candidates into the finals by the time I get to play my preliminary round, etc. It's a heinous process, but there's unfortunately no better way to screen hundreds of applicants for something so competitive.

The thing is, really, while the Pittsburgh job would be great - significantly more work and more money, and a better position - I'm really also happy with my current life. That takes a lot of the pressure off. I don't need to win this job to survive. What I really love about taking auditions is the stimulation and motivation to practice - something to work toward. I love practicing; the drive to attain a higher level of ability, technique, musicality - it's so stimulating and energizing. I'm going to try to focus on that.

Anyway, I hope you all are well. :) Have a great start to your week.

XO Darcy

How many stage hands does it take to dim a lightbulb?

Wow, what a week we're having, busier than usual. Typically we have 7 or 8 services (a service is defined as either a rehearsal or a concert, anywhere from 2-3 hours in length), but this week we have a whopping 9. We're doing 4 concerts this weekend, and Saturday night is being televised live on Milwaukee Public TV.

It's an all Tchaikovsky program, which is fine; I like Tchaikovsky, but in doses. And this is waaaaaaay too much for me. We're doing March Slav, the piano concerto, Francesca da Rimini, and 1812. The horns are always playing, and we have to often go from playing loudly and forcefully to playing high, soft, delicate notes. This is painful.

It's interesting to do 1812 indoors. Normally we're outside amidst crowds of drunk people and screaming children on the 4th of July, so of course the strings have to saw through all of the soft parts just to be heard. Playing it in a concert setting gives us a chance to discover the nuances: "hey, that's actually some really good writing. Who knew?"

Tonight's concert series, Classical Connections, is a very informal format, very chatty and with visual aids. It starts at 7 and is only a bit over an hour, so that the young yuppies can go out and drink their martinis and discuss the concert. It's geared toward the young professionals demographic who might want to catch an earlier, shorter concert after happy hour. Today it took the artistic crew forever to figure out the lighting cues, as in when to dim the lights for the video projector, etc. There was a lot of 90 orchestra musicians sitting around on stage doing nothing while the backstage Einsteins figured things out. Andreas (our music director) said, "No other orchestra would be this patient! I love this orchestra!"

Well, although it's horribly unfashionable for musicians to like their music director (and there are certainly MD's out there who deserve to be disliked), I have to say that I just adore Andreas. And geez, after the lighting fiascos and this week's soloist (more to come about that), I think he deserves to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for patience!

Andreas told a hilarious story tonight to the audience about how he was conducting the 1812 in Pittsburgh to a crowd of over 150,000 people. Apparently one of the sponsors was a brewery that was happily handing out free samples of its product to the masses, and the soldiers that were supposed to be lighting the cannons got drunk off their cabooses. So right at the beginning, which is the lovely and introspective string part, there were huge cannon blasts. The soldiers were having a lovely time. Then the concert producers freaked out and tried to cover up the soldiers' mishaps by broadcasting a cassette tape of Bruce Springstein's "Born in the USA" loudly, unaware that they were in fact making things much worse. It made for a great story. ;)

The guy soloing with us this week, who shall remain nameless, is a decent pianist but man, is he ever a hotdog. During rehearsals he was talking and gesturing directly to the musicians without going through Andreas - a HUGE no-no in the etiquette of soloists and orchestras (you always let the conductor address the orchestra). He kept jumping up onto Andreas' podium and pawing through his score (!?!!), and would play the orchestra parts on the piano while Andreas was trying to talk to the orchestra. Today during the A in rehearsal, he actually gestured to the oboist to move his pitch in a certain direction to match the piano, which I thought took a certain high level of testicular fortitude. The best one: during the concert tonight, he announced to the audience, "I voss vun off da last beeg names in Russia dat Gorbachov allowed to emigrate to America". It's actually fascinating to me, that someone could proudly (and seemingly obliviously) display an ego that huge to so many people at once. I wasn't blown away by his piano playing, either. He was very percussive, never sang the lines, and would hint that he was going to caress a certain suspension and then crash right through it like a bull.

That's all for now. I'm completely exhausted and my face really hurts (in addition to my lips being sore and swollen, they're also chapped. Lovely...thank god for Burts Beeswax. I get the little tubs and after rehearsals I've been just sticking my face right in them.

Good night! :)

XO Darcy

P.S. I'm reading Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain now, and I really love it; it's historical fiction set during the time of the Civil War in the South. I highly recommend it.

Meet them at the door laughing

Several weeks ago, Dr. Drew Kennedy, the Minister at First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee (my church), gave a phenomenal sermon during which he quoted this beautiful poem. It really spoke deeply to me, and helped me to be more courageous about facing my fears and welcoming change and the unfamiliar into my life so as to keep growing.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its funiture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Rumi

Running out

We had a run-out concert in Whitewater, WI today. I have no idea where that is. I ride the bus and read the whole time so I have no clue. I think it is somewhere south and west of Milwaukee.

We did a lot of nice, good fun pieces. Wagner's Flying Dutchman and the Intermezzo and Toreadors from the opera Carmen were the most fun for me to play of the whole program, but there were some other nice 2 horn pieces that I didn't play on that I really liked including a few chansons by Elgar. Thankfully, we got "South Pacific" over with by the end of the first half. It's actually a really good arrangement but some of the tunes are just hopelessly misogynistic and demeaning toward women, like "There is nothing like a dame", which is one of the theme songs in my own personal hell. Have you ever seen that acted out on stage? It's a bunch of sailors whistling and harassing some poor woman who has to strut around and act like she's enjoying it. And then there are other not as horrendous but equally irritating songs like "I'm in love with a wonderful guy", which always makes me want to retch (unless it's sung by a drag queen, in which case it really can be quite entertaining). But the audience always loves it (or seems to?), which depresses me even more. Oh well.



On a totally different subject - and I know I haven't yet talked much about politics, so this might be a nice reminder for all of you who just love our dear president that you chose to visit here of your own volition - what do you guys think about this whole Cheney hunting thing? I was just sorry he wasn't out hunting with GW with a little better aim. {*sigh*} I keep wishing GWB would sling around his pitiful little wang with some poor intern or something so we could impeach him already, before he does any more damage. Oh well. I can dream, can't I?







Oh, and here's another potentially contentious political comment. Don't you think it's just a little bit ironic that the cartoon of Mohammed portrayed as violent - which, I admit, was inflammatory - has so many Muslim fundamentalists acting out their outrage in violence??! Hello? Don't they realize their oxymoronic behavior? What are they thinking?

Segue....I made Thai Coconut Chicken right out of the Betty Crocker cookbook I was talking about. It was soooo good. It had sugar snap peas, lime zest and juice, garlic (of course), coconut milk, jalapenos, and of course chicken and a bunch of other things I am forgetting right now. It definitely satisfied my need for different things in our meal rotation, and it's so much fun to try new recipes. If you want it, post a comment and tell me to put it up.

Speaking of posting comments, did you know that you can post a comment even if you're not registered on this website? I set it up that way. Just click on the "comment" link at the bottom of any post, select "anonymous" (which doesn't mean you can't sign it and identify yourself, it just means you don't have to sign in to leave a comment). Then type your message in the box, and click "post"! This would be a fun introduction to those of you cyberphobes who may never have posted to a website or bulletin board yet!

Anyway, hope you all are having a peaceful wrap-up to your weekend. My "weekend" is tomorrow, Monday being our regular day off. This week we're doing an all Tchaikowsky program: March Slave, Francesca da Rimini, the Piano Concerto, and 1812. I don't know that I've done 1812 indoors for a while. I wonder if they'll simulate the cannon blasts. (I hope so! More blasting back there means less blasting we have to do!)


So have a great week!

XO Love,
Darcy

P.S. See that little link below? the one that says "comments"? Make my day and click on it, even if only to just say hi. (If you don't have a blogger account you can post as "anonymous" even though it's perfectly okay to sign your name.)

Green tea and Sensaria

I had to dedicate a post to some new online purchases that I have been enjoying immensely!!

The first thing is green tea. I found this fabulous website, Hibiki-an, that exports real, authentic green tea from Kyoto, Japan. They have the real stuff! If you look at the cost per unit of weight, it seems expensive, but because it's sooo strong (as I found out when I brewed my first pot) a little goes a long way. And it's SO good! I have a very low tolerance for bitterness, which is why I almost always add honey to any tea that's not fruity; with this green tea being so strong and having such a roasted flavor, I felt it needed some lemon, too. I can't tell you how much energy it gave me (after which I did not crash as with so many other caffeine-induced highs). It also really cleaned me out physically, if you know what I mean! ;)

I had to ask Megumi Kanda, the MSO's Principal Trombonist (who is also 7 months pregnant with her first child, a boy!), about green tea because there are several varieties. She is half Japanese and was raised in Japan so she's the expert. ;) Sencha green tea is every day green tea, and is generally less expensive. Gyokuro green tea is the best - "that's for the guests", laughs Megumi. So in order to qualify for the free shipping (at least a $35 order) I ordered both Sencha and Gyokuro. Honestly, I can't tell the difference! So if you decide to order some, I would try the Sencha first. We currently have enough green tea for at least the next year or so. Which is just fine with me!

The color of authentic Japanese green tea is just gorgeous; a lush, rich green. This picture is almost exactly the color of green tea. You can almost see the antioxidants and rich vitamins in it!!



















The other thing I had to tell you is that my friend Jenn, who is David's cousin, told me recently about this company called Sensaria that sells plant-based, cruelty free (i.e., no animal testing) products. She is a independent representative for them and I love their products so much, I have completely converted from Aveda. Their concept is similar to that of Origins and Aveda, in that they are plant based products and are ethically/ecologically conscious. The difference is that Sensaria's products are much more affordable. I urge you to check out her website and learn more about the products! I have tried: the Cherry Almond and Mango lotions (yummy scents), the Nourishing and Soothing cleaners (face care), the Nourishing Moisturizer, and the Rosemary Mint shampoo, which I liked even better than Aveda's Rosemary Mint shampoo. Recently Aveda raised it's prices through the roof, and I was so glad to find similar products that I liked even better for much more reasonable costs.

So if you're looking for high quality products that you can feel really good about ethically, I highly recommend them! Plus, there's a fabulous guarantee, and they'll pay for you to send it back to them at no charge to you and you'll get a full refund. How great is that?



























Anyway, David's just getting home from his concert and he'll need the computer to do his review, so I'd better sign off. Love to all of you and enjoy your rituals - green tea, sensuous and delicious body care products, or whatever else renews and energizes you!! :)

XO Love,
Darcy

P.S. My foot feels okay; it's a bit sore, because I made the brilliant {*smirk*} decision to go to bed with an ice pack under the covers. Of course I moved around in my sleep, and I woke up at 2am with the ice pack under one of the tenderest spots of the sprain. My foot had been pressed against an ice cube and was throbbing in pain. I kicked the ice pack out (with my other foot, of course) and unwound the ace bandage and found a new position and eventually went back to sleep. I was relieved that the pain eventually abated, and my foot was back to near pain-free by morning, but I'm going to be a lot more cautious and careful in the future.

GRRR - Sexist telephone survey

So tonight the phone rang, which took me considerable limping to answer (David's out at a concert he's reviewing for the Journal Sentinel). Once I got there, this irritating survey person started going through an obviously recited spiel, and finally got to a question. I figured, well, I worked this hard to get to the phone, so I might as well make my opinion count. He said it was a survey on "travel and leisure".

So this guy asks, "how many adults over the age of 18 in your household?" and I answered two. And then he asked something like, "of those two people, how many are male?" and I answered, one, wondering what in the world gender had to do with travel and leisure.

Then he asked to speak to the man of the house. I replied that he wasn't home at the moment, but that I would be more than happy to answer any questions he might have. He said something like, "I'm sorry, but we were instructed only to ask the men."

At this point I was pissed. I said, "So you don't even want my feedback, just because I'm a woman? I travel more frequently than my husband." The guy said, "I'm sorry, but I was instructed to...." and I hung up on him. So that was 3 minutes of my life that I'll never get back, reminding me that the world still has a long way to go in the way of respecting and validating women. {*sigh*}



























Anyway, things in other realms are going well. My sprained foot is a drag (quite literally) but I'm getting along fine. It just takes me a lot more energy and time to do things, that's all. And at least I'm somewhat mobile! Thanks to all of you who have sent encouraging emails; it makes things so much better hearing from you.

XO Love,
Darcy

Gimpy girl fall down go boom

Well, this morning when I was leaving to go out to the garage to work, I fell. The upper left part of my left foot (not my ankle) twisted outward to the left, and man did it hurt.

Several expletives later, I had managed to scrape myself, my horn, my purse and black carryall bag up from the asphalt to get to the garage. Thankfully I only drive automatics so I could still drive to work with my good foot.

I managed to strap both my horn and both bags to me and limped into rehearsal. I could still put some pressure on the left foot, but not much.

I think that the fall was a combination of several things:

1. I was running late and in a hurry.
2. I had worked out on the Gazelle less than 1/2 hour before I left so my feet were still a little weak with fatigue.
3. I was wearing Dansko mary janes, which although hugely comfy (you could comfortably walk several miles in them) and stylish, don't have a lot of side support and have become looser as they've broken in. And I was wearing thinner socks with them than I normally do.
4. The step from the sun porch onto our driveway (which leads to our garage) is fairly deep. In fact, the housing inspector told us that we would definitely want to put another step in there. But did we? Oh no. It's felt awkward to me before, but we never did anything about it. But boy howdy yesirreebob, you can bet your britches that we will now. Like tomorrow. Okay, we both work tomorrow. But soon. Before spring.

This is a picture that I took of this ill-fated step during the housing inspection (presumably to remind ourselves to fix it...obviously that didn't work...). You also have to step over the drainpipe, which is also awkward. You might not be able to tell by looking at it, but I think it's a good 10-11 inches deep.

So I had sat down and warmed up for 15 minutes (which is not much of a warm-up by my standards), and then rehearsal started at 10:30am. Krystof and I didn't play the first several pieces on the rehearsal schedule, so I got up and tried to hobble out of the room to call David to tell him I had fallen and that we had to fix that step soon.

Only this time, I could barely walk due to the pain. Actually, the physical pain wasn't as bad as the worrying about further injuring my foot if I continued to walk on it. I had no idea what I had done to it in the fall - was it just a bad sprain, or had I broken my foot?

I decided not to mess around because while I have a very high tolerance for pain and discomfort, I knew I couldn't deal with the mental anguish of not knowing. So I told Rip, the Asst. Personnel Manager (who some of you you might remember as the Chicken Owning Bass Player guy who sells eggs to the orchestra) that I was leaving to go have this checked out, either at my drs. office or at the ER.

I called my Dr., and she said that because of the pain I was having, to definitely go to the ER to have it checked out. So I did. I went to the same place I had my appendectomy back in October of 2004, and the service there was just as phenomenal. I don't think I waited for more than 15 minutes for anything.

First I had regular x-rays, and the physician said that she wanted to ask a radiologist about what looked like it could be a tiny fracture. Well, the radiologist said he couldn't make a definitive answer about it, so they ran a CAT-SCAN. Then the good news came back that it was not broken, just badly sprained. Phew!!

So when the physician came back to talk to me about things, I asked her a lot of questions and learned a lot. Did you know that tendons connect muscle to bone, while ligaments connect bone to bone? I didn't. Isn't that good to know? She said that it's possible that I strained both ligaments and tendons with my fall, to keep my foot elevated and with as little pressure on it as possible. I am on crutches probably for the next several days, or until my pain is manageable enough to walk on it a little. She said that I could judge how much pressure to put on it based on the pain involved.

What I am discovering is that if I hold my toes and balls of that foot up high enough off the ground (about a 45 degree angle), I can walk on my heel with no pain at all. This makes sense because it was my foot, not my ankle, which got sprained. As long as I'm not putting any pressure on the foot itself, it's fine. It doesn't hurt much at all; I told the physician that I didn't need anything for pain even though she offered it. I have both ibuprofen gelcaps and a Walgreens tylenol knock-off in the medicine cabinet, and I am sure they will be more than enough. (Ibuprofen tends to work better for me.)

It's fortunate that my job involves long periods of sitting! With the exception of missing today's two rehearsals for several educational concerts coming up, I'm not missing any more work. I got permission from Linda (our Personnel Manager) to have a chair to the left of my stand so I can keep my left foot elevated and with ice on it during both rehearsals tomorrow. I'm planning to definitely pack a lunch, especially since the weather is supposed to involve snowstorms.

Crutches and snow. Oooooog...

So Gimpy Girl here doing just fine. I practiced a lot tonight, which was very good, and David is taking excellent care of me. Well, he will be when he gets home from band practice, anyway. I just wanted to let you all know that I'm okay, I'm thankful that my foot is only sprained and isn't broken, and that even though I'm moving much more slowly, my normally high "Energizer Bunny" spirits are still running at full throttle. :)

Have a great Wednesday...much love to all of you. And y'all be careful out there, y'hear? 'Cause it's s'posed to snow a LOT tomorrow. Least 'round here, it is.

(I have no idea where that southern/western accent just came from.)

Darcy

Church and Geisha movie

Church was really good this morning. I am really glad I went. The sermon was given by a guest speaker, The Rev. Robert Timberlake, a Presbyterian minister who had just done work in Cape Town, South Africa, to set up a study abroad program for students at Marquette.

He told a lot of stories about the extreme poverty, famine, and horrific living conditions there; and how these conditions inevitably bred much corruption, crime and robbery, of which he and his colleagues were often victims. Yet he also pointed out that South Africa has three living Nobel Peace Prize winners, has a much more liberal constitution than the US, and has an aggressive affirmative action program.

I found this very interesting, although I think I must have missed how it tied into his main point, which was that the main litmus test for a good religious belief should be the compassion and kindness it manifests; the rest is just commentary. A bad religion exudes judgment, intolerance, and a lack of compassion, a belief that poverty is somehow deserved, earned or justified.

Anyway, it was really good to get back to church and to see friends again. Some friends there had been to the Symphony to see the Bolero concert, and a fellow tea lover talked to me about tea that she bought online that was imported from Britain - I think it was called Yorkshire Red - and other teas she orders from Ireland. I also spent a good deal of time perusing the books at the book table (I love that my church not only has an extensive library but a book table with brand new books for sale during the coffee hour every single Sunday!). I bought one for David for Valentine's Day; it was a collection of essays on interpreting the Bible that I thought he'd really like.

Mainly it was really good to be back in such good intellectual, progressive, spiritual energy. I really feel at home at that church, more than I have ever felt anywhere else.

David treated me to a showing of Memoirs of a Geisha today. I thought it was really well done and true to the book. The few omissions/additions were purely for dramatic effect and didn't affect the general feel of the movie. If you are interested in the story but aren't sure you want to read the book, the movie will give you a really good sense of the story. I highly recommend it. It was also really neat to more fully expand the visual images I had made in my own mind by the gorgeous shots they captured of the kimonos, Japanese gardens, and makeup. And strangely, the woman they got to play Hatsumomo, the evil geisha antagonist, looked exactly in the movie how I had her pictured in my mind as I read the book. That was really cool. :)

Okay, time to go to bed now. Hope your week gets off to a good start tomorrow.

XO Darcy

Transformative concerts, happy horn playing

Well, after all of my complaining this week, I reached a transformative state during the Vaughn Williams last night. Because of limited rehearsal time with the chorus, we hadn't really ever run the piece until Friday night (we couldn't; we had to rehearse all the choral parts with the chorus with all the time we had and the afternoon rehearsals were devoted to the orchestra and soloists). So last night was enjoyable but everyone was still getting a sense of the piece.

Last night, however, was absolutely - what's the word I'm looking for? - well, transformative. It's a word worth repeating. First I must say that it was also easier to get into such a happy mental place because we hadn't rehearsed the hell out of our faces in the afternoon like we had on Friday, so I wasn't in pain. It's amazing how the absence of pain can make things so much better! {*smirk*}

I just absolutely basked in the glorious sound of the chorus. This is one of the most amazing orchestra choruses in the world.

Side note: The Milwaukee Symphony was the first American orchestra ever to get its recordings on iTunes! How cool is that? We got a lot of publicity for it. Go to iTunes and do a search for "Milwaukee Symphony". You can walk around listening to us on your iPods! (If you don't have an iPod or mp3 player yet, don't worry. Even I, techno-gadget girl, do not yet have one.)

Bill Barnewitz did an amazing job on the Hindemith again last night (Friday was incredible too). He has Parkinsons, and yet you would never know it to listen to him or to meet him. There was a very well-written article in the paper about Barnewitz and how he's dealt with his disease and I thought it was really interesting. Read the article; it's worth checking out.

Ooh, another thing that was great last night was that I think I finally figured out the intonation on my horn since Wes Hatch, the famous maker of amazing hand-made horns who we're lucky enough to have right here in Milwaukee, did some work on the lead pipe (the main pipe that the mouthpiece goes into). Not only is the pitch much better, but because of it, I feel much more confident on the triple horn in general now. But it gets better - because the overtones are locking in so well now, the resistance somehow seems less. I think because I wasn't getting a good ring before when I hadn't figured out the pitch, I was forcing to try to get more sound, or a better sound somehow, out of the horn. Now it comes naturally, without my forcing, and it's much better!! I think this will also help my face to not take such a beating when we're playing loud things.

Today David and I are celebrating Valentine's Day, since we have a run-out concert to Hartford on the actual day. We're also celebrating the 2 year anniversary of David's move up to Milwaukee from NE Ohio - a very happy milestone for me (I know his family in Wooster misses him very much!). I can't believe he's been here for two years already; it's been so blissful having him up here it hardly seems like any time at all. We're going to go see the movie Memoirs of a Geisha (even though I told David we could also go see the Narnia movie if he wanted to), which seems to work better with our dinner reservations at Ristorante Bartolotta, a 4 star Italian place in Wauwatosa.

Well, I really want to go to church this morning since I've missed the last few Sundays, so I had better get going. Have a lovely wrap-up to your weekends!

XO Darcy

I met the Beethoven Dancer!!!

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you the story about the Beethoven Dancer? Well, I saw him waiting outside by the stage door entrance off of State Street last Saturday night, and having written so much about him and how I wanted to meet him, I introduced myself! He was so nice, just as I thought he'd be, and said he couldn't have missed the concerts (the ones with Bolero and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg) for the world. His name is Peter, and he was very nice! I told him that we loved having him here, that his presence was hugely appreciated and that he added a wonderful energy to our audiences, and that the orchestra can sense the audience's demeanor when we're playing and that that energizes us tremendously. Now that I know him by name, I'm going to talk to him every time I see him so I can thank him for coming. He is such a great supporter of the orchestra and his enthusiasm is just so refreshing.

Speaking of admirers, a woman in the orchestra who of course shall remain nameless has an admirer who has taken to sending long stemmed red roses to the Marcus Center backstage for her. He was sending so many that she gave some to me to take home since she was running out of vases. What a sweetheart she is to have been sho generous as to share her bounty with those of us who (thankfully) remain admirer-less. :)

Aren't they gorgeous? I love the one yellow rose in the middle of the 11 other red ones. At the time this picture was taken, the roses had just started to open; at the height of their glory, the yellow one got to be almost twice the size that it is here:

Today I stayed on after rehearsal to listen to Bill Barnewitz play the Hindemith Horn Concerto. Bill is an incredible player and though I don't know the Hindemith well, it was a pleasure to hear him play it as my lips recovered from the beating they took after rehearsing the Flying Dutchman for the first hour of rehearsal. I saw Ted Soluri, our Pr. Bassoonist backstage after the rehearsal and said, "I think I broke my face."

Seriously, this week has been brutal for us brass players. My lips are swollen and my jaw is very stiff and sore from all of the pressure. The triple horn is great for playing in the high range but the resistance on that instrument is just so high that I end up pushing so hard just to get the notes out. For those of you who don't know, most horn players play double horns, which have two layers of tubing. The triple has an extra layer of tubing built in to give high horn players more ease in the high range. It's a lot heavier than a regular double horn because of all the extra plumbing.

Here's a picture of what my triple horn looks like, only mine has even more tubing since I have an extra stopping valve (so when I have to play stopped horn I don't have to transpose). When I bought this horn from a Yamaha dealer in Chicago, he told me I probably have the fanciest horn in all of Wisconsin. Bill Barnewitz plays on a Yamaha Triple as well, although his does not have the extra stopping valve.

I worry that I might injure myself on this horn; the resistance keeps whacking me back in the face when I play the least bit loud, almost like feedback from a microphone. I might try to see if, now that I have learned how to play with a brighter sound, I can go back to the 11D for a while to see if that makes things better on my face. I really don't want to damage my face irreparably. Of course this week's program would be difficult no matter what I was playing on...

That's all for now. Hope you all are having a great start to your weekend!

XO Darcy

Symphony in Sea (har har)

Well, I stand corrected - this is why I should reserve judgment on a piece until we've been through the whole thing! Today we rehearsed the the 2nd movement of the Vaughn Williams Sea Symphony called "On the Beach at Night, Alone" which was just orchestra and soloists and it was just beautiful. It was very intimate and I was thrilled, after all the blasting last night, that it was soft and gentle with intricately spun chords and beautifully balanced harmonies.

We also ran through Wagner's Flying Dutchman Overture, which is - well, loud. But it's fun and it ends.

I love these quotes on Wagner:

Is Wagner a human being at all? Is he not rather a disease? He contaminates everything he touches -- he has made music sick. I postulate this viewpoint: Wagner's art is diseased.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Der Fall Wagner (1866)

Of all the affected, sapless, soulless, beginningness,
endless, topless, bottomless, topsiturviest, scrannel-pipiest, tongs and boniest doggerel of sounds I ever endured the deadliest of, that eternity of nothing was the deadliest -- as far as the sound went.

-- William Ruskin, letter, 1882, referring to a performance of Die Meistersinger

Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.

-- Gioacchino Rossini, 1867

I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds.

-- Mark Twain, Autobiography (1924)

I finished Memoirs of A Geisha, and it was just fabulous. It was so depressing though. The protagonist achieves the absolute height of her power as a geisha, which is more than most women similarly fated could ever hope of attaining. And yet she still was only the mistress to the man she loved; he was married. She was completely dependent on him. The book really exposed how difficult the power struggle for impoverished women was during the 30's and 40's; the only ways that poor women could survive were to be factory workers, wives if they weren't sold into slavery first, prostitutes, or geishas if they were pretty enough. They were only valued for their bodies, their worth measured only by how they could serve or please men.

Very depressing, in a good way. It was excellent perspective, reminding me of how fortunate I feel to be gainfully employed and receiving equal pay to that of my male colleagues for doing the same job (a rarity even today for a woman); and having enough power and stature that I could choose my own relationship and marriage based on my love and feelings and not have to depend on anyone else but myself for my financial stability (though of course two incomes are better than just one :D). Geishas were never allowed to marry, and even if they were to have feelings for their dannas or "husbands" (not in the literal sense, for dannas were almost always married already and were only taking the geishas on as subsidized mistresses) they were, in essence, owned by their dannas.

I watched a special on PBS on human trafficking and how still, women and young girls are still sold into prostitution and slavery every day, across the world, even in this country though moreso in less developed countries. It is a huge underground business, illegal of course; but in so many countries the laws against it go unenforced and there is tremendous apathy about the plight of the girls and women in captivity. Even if they escape, the chances that their traffickers will be penalized at all are very slim to none. I wept. It was so sad.

I'm going to go upstairs and clean up the kitchen now. Hope you all have a lovely Thursday evening!

XO Darcy

Symphony at Sea

Last night I scrubbed, poked, and popped three medium sweet potatos into the oven. If you've never had a sweet potato as an entree before, you should really try it. I drizzled a bit of natural peanut butter, chopped apples and walnuts on mine, and it was sweet and dessert-like but also full of fiber and made me feel energized for the whole evening.

Which was good, because I needed every bit of it for last night's rehearsal. We're doing Vaughn Williams A Sea Symphony, which is an obviously programmatic piece about being, well, at sea. I'm feeling about it as I feel about much of the Wagner I have played before.

1. It's probably much more fun to listen to than it is to play. For example, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is one of the most difficult operas I have ever played and it was sheer mental (and physical) agony to have to perform it in Febr. 2004 when the MSO did it with the Florentine Opera; but seeing it performed at the Met (the very night my sweet David proposed to me before the 3rd Act!) in October of 2003 was a life-altering experience.
2. It's all build-up [i.e., LOUD] and never really seems to go or arrive anywhere. In the case of the Sea Symphony, it's like being on a boat that's supposedly going somewhere but there's never any land in sight. Loud, loud, loud.
3. It's painful. It's all loud, and we're playing pretty much all the time, but very little of what we're playing is all that important.

But, the chorus sounds fabulous, and thankfully, they're singing pretty much the entire time. I think the piece should be called "A Sea Mass" or "Songs of the Sea"; the title "Symphony" is misleading because very little of it is unsung/purely symphonic.

What else is new? Well, it's still cold, but I'd feel as pointless as a bra on a supermodel if I complained about it. It's February. I'm in Milwaukee. It's gonna be cold.

But I do have good news...the scale has finally jumped back in the right direction, and I've lost 24.5 pounds now since Sept. 05. I am continually humbled by this journey toward wellness and a less encumbered self. At times, I am amazed at how simple it really is: don't eat more calories than you need to function. I think the word simple is often misinterpreted as easy. Losing weight may be simple, and at our most motivated, it may even seem easy. But it is ultimately really, really difficult for zillions of reasons: emotional associations with certain foods, the social aspect of eating, the ever-increasing pace of life and devalue of taking time for sit-down "slow food" meals, avoiding processed and additive-laden foods, the difficulty of staying active in an increasingly sedentary media/computer/TV dependent society, eating to self-medicate and comfort with sugary/carby foods, etc. etc. etc. The list is infinite and unending.

I am in this for the long haul. It's very different from those other times when I looked to a program, an unsustainable exercsie routine, or expertise of other people to achieve my wellness goals. This is much more internal, personal, and I think ultimately much more of a lifetime awareness. I thought about it and realized how easy, how imperceptible it would be to gain just .5 or 1 pound a week. Well, if you do that over the course of a year, you've gained over 50 pounds. Consequently, if you lose only that much per week, you could lose over 50 pounds in a year. Taking it easy, making small, non-drastic manageable changes, seems to be the way to go for me.

The hardest thing is going to be to remain humble about it. I'm not saying I shouldn't feel good about this, but I have to remember that just as seemingly easily as this weight has come off, it could just as easily come back on. I have also noticed the tendency within myself to loathe the fat person I was and had become and to want to just shut that person out of my mind forever, to abandon her and gloat that she's no longer a part of my life now. Our culture has become so obsessed with burning fat and demonizing weight that anyone who's been the least bit heavy can't help but internalize some of that. Of course it's good to be healthy, but I can guarantee you that there are some heavier people out there that are fit who eat healthfully that will greatly outlive some skinny, inactive person who drives around in his car smoking and eating Taco Bell all day.

Anyway, I have rehearsal in a bit so I'd better get showered and dressed. More on this subject later!!

XO Darcy

Fashion police brutality

Have you ever watched those makeover TV shows? I try to avoid them, but sometimes when I'm flipping through the channels when nothing else is on, I'm somehow captivated by it. It's like watching a car wreck - sort of morbid fascination.

What usually happens, if you've not seen one of these shows, is that several obnoxious, loud, fast-speaking "stylists" and "fashion consultants" swoop in on some unsuspecting, innocent person on the streets of some big city. They tell her, "Hey, you look like absolute crap! What's going on with your wardrobe? What were you thinking?" and other completely insulting and presumptious remarks.

Somehow, in the course of this attack, the woman agrees to place her makeup, entire wardrobe (eek!), and hair (triple eek!) in the hands of these idiots. They infiltrate her apartment like militia and ridicule everything in her closet and throw it into a big pile while telling her (as if they hadn't driven home the point on the street) that she is completely incapable of making her own fashion, hair, and makeup decisions. What's more, they assure her that they, these people with a camera crew, fast vocabularies and loud voices, know exactly what she does need in order to "step into the fashion world".

I have to say, I can't watch these things for very long. These predators rip things out of closets that I think are fabulous, like high quality flannel shirts, dark cardigan sweaters, and very high end Dansko clogs (which I adore). They classify them as "boring". (Apparently, anything that is both comfortable and comes in a color actually found in nature qualifies.)

Usually the woman has a very classic, natural look about her. What they do to her makes me crazy, especially what they do to her hair. She'll have a lovely dark brunette mane of hair, and they'll paint all these nasty bronze stripes into it and butcher it with these flipped-up layers that look ridiculous. And her comfy Danskos have now been replaced by PTD's - Podiatric Torture Devices - otherwise known as high heels that are not designed to be walked in for more than 30 feet. I won't even mention the clothing they have forced this poor soul into. Sometimes it's not so bad, like a little black dress or classy suit outfit, but most of the time it's something really unfortunate, like a poncho or wrap in - well, some fluorescent or otherwise obnoxious color not found in nature.

I suppose I'm trendier than some people who are still wearing 80's style hairdos with the oversized color-coordinated bows to match their parachute pants.

But anyone who tries to paint stripes in my hair is asking for it.
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Cute pictures of the kids!

Good afternoon! It's Monday, a day off, and I'm enjoying leisurely spans of unstructured time. I got back on the yoga mat today after several days off from it, and it felt luscious. Sometimes just lying on the floor on your back can feel soo good and be amazingly restorative, just by itself.

Today I did a lot of standing poses, including tree pose, Warrior 1 and 2, Mountain Pose and Triangle Pose. In a bit I'm going to get off this thing and then get on the Gazelle for some gliding - sort of the same movement of cross-country skiing. It's a great, gentle workout that lubricates the knees and hip joints fabulously. When I was researching exercise equipment, this one received the highest ratings, especially from those recovering from knee and hip surgeries.

Ours is in our rec room, conveniently positioned in front of the telly:

I also took some adorable pictures of the kitties lately. Here's Gabby, enjoying some sprawling time cleaning her face on our new hardwood laminate flooring in our living room. For those of you who haven't met Gabs, she is a very talkative 5 year old Maine Coon mix (hence the huge plumy tail and the big tufts of gold/black hair):

Strangely, one of Emma's favorite places in the world lately has been on the edge of the tub between the shower curtain and the liner. She loves to hide out there while I'm taking a shower and bats at the droplets on the liner from her little dry hideout!

For those of you who haven't met Emma yet, she's part Persian, which is why she has that bug-eyed "I just did the 100 yard dash in a 90 yard gym" squashed face look. :) I love how her little pink lip juts out from her underbite when she looks up at me like this.

That's all for now - have to go get stuff done! More later, of course...

XO Darcy

Recipes: Soup, Pico, and Pizza Dough

I have received multiple emailed requests for the recipes of the dishes I mentioned in my last post, so here goes!! Enjoy!! :)

Potato Leek Soup

This soup is hearty and has a lovely creamy texture. It is delicious served either hot (in the winter) or chilled (in the summer). Leeks are sort of a giant green onion and can be found in any produce aisle. They have a mild onion flavor with a hint of mellow garlic overtones, which makes for a scrumptious flavor in this soup. An excellent main dish, especially when served with muffins or garlic bread.

• 2 large leeks, cleaned (cut off the ends, slice each leek down the middle lengthwise, and then wash out dirt under faucet) and diced
• 4 large potatos (4"-5"), peeled and diced
• 2 cans vegetable broth
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1 c. sour cream*

(* vegan option: use extra soft silken tofu instead)

1. In large saucepan, combine leeks, potatoes, and broth. Simmer until potatos are soft.
2. Pour heated mixture into a blender and puree. Add sour cream.
3. Add salt & pepper to taste.
4. Add chopped scallions as garnish before serving. Yum!

Pico de Gallo

I took this picture of yesterday's batch. I expanded on a recipe I had gotten from my Aunt Bev, who lived in El Paso for many years and picked up a lot of the local cuisine by osmosis. She is a genius in the kitchen and is known for inventing recipes for dishes that are both delicious and good for you.

This pico is very mild, despite the jalapenos. I learned that jalapenos are only hot if you include their seeds; the rest of the pepper is really quite mild and only for flavor. In fact, just in case you're worrying, this pico came out a little too mild for me (even though it is certainly delicious)! Next time I'm planning to leave some of the seeds in for some zip! Yeehaw!

• 15 roma tomatoes, diced into small cubes (less than 1 cm. ea.)
• 2 medium (2"-3") onions, chopped
• 3 jalapeno peppers (found in the produce aisle), seeded and chopped (as long as you don't touch the seeds, you don't have to worry about your skin or wear gloves or anything - a grapefruit spoon or small knife is good for seeding)
• 1 small can of tomato sauce
• olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
• about 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
• 2/3 of a bunch of cilantro, chopped
• 5-6 cloves of garlic (more, if you're a garlic lover like me!), finely chopped
• Option: If you like you can also add 1 diced avocado, but David hates it so I left it out for him.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well; add more vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Chill. (It only improves as it sits in your fridge, and trust me, it's so good that it'll be long gone before it goes bad!) Serve with the chips of your choice.

Pizza Crust

I just could not believe how easy this was. Until recently, anything involving yeast sort of freaked me out and I shied away from it. Now I feel like a doofus and have vowed to never buy a pre-packaged pizza crust again! Next time, I'm going to add spices to it, and maybe even a little parmesan cheese...mmmm....

This recipe is straight out of the Betty Crocker New Edition Cookbook.

• 2.5-3 c. all purpose (not self-rising!) flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 package regular or quick active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 1 cup very warm water (120-130 degrees F - heated in a small saucepan, feels hot but not boiling to your finger)

1. In a large bowl, mix 1 cup of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast. Add oil and warm water.
2. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 3 min., scraping bowl frequently with rubber spatula.
3. Stir in enough remaining flour until dough is soft. Place dough on lightly floured surface (like a cutting board). Knead 5-8 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy.
4. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes.

Here are Betty's suggestions for making pizzas with this crust. I think you could probably be okay even if you didn't have time to pre-bake the crusts before adding the toppings, but who knows. As you will read, although following her directions for making your own pizza are not labor intensive, they do require a good chunk of time for rising and pre-baking, so just keep that in mind. Calzones were actually much easier and required much less time, and frankly, they're even a little bit more special than pizza because they're less common. But here's the pizza stuff anyway:

For thin crusts: Heat oven to 425. Grease two cookie sheets or 12" pizza pans with oil or cooking spray. Divide dough in half. Pat each half into 12" circle on cookie sheets. Partially bake 7-8 minutes or until crust just begins to brown. Add toppings and then bake for 8-10 minutes longer, or until cheese is melted.

For thick crusts: Heat oven to 375. Grease two 8" square pans or 9" round pans with oil or cooking spray. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Divide dough in half. Pat each half in bottom of pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes or until almost doubled in size. Move oven rack to lowest position. Partially bake 20-22" or until crust just begins to brown. Add toppings and then bake for about 20 minutes longer, or until cheese is melted.

As I said, I decided to make calzones, instead. There was no pre-baking and man did they look gorgeous! David said it looked like something you'd order from some fancy Italian restaurant. (Wish I had taken a picture! I will next time!)

Calzones:

1. Heat oven to 375. Grease two cookie sheets with cooking spray.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. On lightly floured surface, press each part into a 8" (or so - it doesn't matter really) circle with fingertips.
3. Top half of each dough circle with any ingredients you want to within 1" of the edge of the crust. You can put anything in there! Mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, ricotta cheese, cream cheese, spinach, basil, tomatoes (either canned diced or fresh), veggies, pizza sauce, sausage, ham, etc. I would recommend some combination of cheese and pizza sauce (see below) as a base, but from there you can do whatever you want!
4. Carefully fold dough over filling. Pinch edges with fingertips or press with a fork to seal securely.
5. Place calzones on cookie sheets. Betty says to brush them with egg, but I didn't; I just used olive oil and oregano and they turned out gorgeously.

Pizza Sauce: To make a great pizza sauce for my calzones, I just combined 1 small can ea. of tomato sauce and tomato paste, and blended them well with a small whisk (you could just use a fork, too). I liberally added Italian spices (rosemary, oregano, thyme, and basil), garlic salt, and chopped garlic, and mixed them well.

Bonus Tip!! Ooh, and another great trick that I learned while watching the Food Network: sprinkle some oregano over your pizza or calzones before you bake them, then spray some olive oil (you can buy olive oil spray in the grocery store where you find cooking spray, or you can buy a pressurized spray can for cooking oils that you fill and then pump yourself) over the top. Your whole kitchen will smell like the most authentic pizzeria, and it browns crusts and cheese with extra flavor.

Bon Appetit!! :) (Now I'm hungry after typing all of this!! I suppose it is time for lunch, after all...)

Cooking and reading

So tonight's concert went well, and more importantly, Bolero is over and we don't have to play it anymore! It always takes a while before you're really rid of the earworms of any given concert if it's played more than once, and we had three concerts of it this week.

So I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha and it is absolutely stunning. I had meant to read it a long time ago but kept forgetting to get the book, but because of all the press it's gotten since the movie came out recently, Borders had a glossy covered copy on one of its display tables, so I bought it.

It is a very heartbreaking novel, based on a true story told by a woman who was a Geisha around the time of WWII. The main character of the book and her sister are bought from their father when their mother was on her deathbed and are sold to different locations in Kyoto; the protagonist to an okira, or Geisha house, as a maid with the possibility of becoming a Geisha some day if she behaves. She is treated as a slave, but hers was a better fate that that of her less attractive sister, who because of her looks was sold to a whorehouse.

When I started reading the book, I didn't really know what Geisha were. From what I've learned from reading the book, they're sort of like upper class entertainers of men. Sex is only a factor when there are obscene amounts of money involved, such as having a danna (someone who pays to support the Geisha in exchange for her being his mistress) or men bidding on a Geisha's mizuage, which is the ceremonial taking of their virginity. The woman about whom the Memoirs are written had a record sum paid for hers as a result of a bidding war. Geishas have a tough life, even under the best of circumstances; their costumes are labor-intensive and heavy, to say nothing of the waxed ornate hairdos and elaborate make-up; they are never allowed to marry or have their own boyfriends because it will upset their dannas and thus their main sources of income.

This book is a fantastic escape, both fascinating and heartbreaking. I highly recommend it.

So when I haven't been engrossed in my reading, I've been doing a lot of cooking. I had gotten tremendously bored with our usual routine of rice/beans/soup/pasta/chicken, so I flagged a bunch of new recipes out of my favorite cookbooks. I made a great (and easy) potato leek soup, and served it with garlic bread. I also made Pico de Gallo, based on my Aunt Bev's recipe, and it turned out really well.

What else did I make? Oh, yeah! I made my first pizza dough from scratch out of my new Betty Crocker cookbook (my mother in law gave it to me for Christmas - I had asked for it!) and it was so easy and turned out so well I feel like a goober for having bought pre-made pizza crusts up until now. With the pizza dough, I made calzones, which are nothing more than pizza pods, or pizza with the toppings on the inside like a dumpling. I'm definitely making those again.

Well, it's late and my amazing book is calling. Good night!

Multiple tonguing and Bolero (music geek post)

I hope you're all enjoying a nice weekend. I'm certainly enjoying an afternoon to myself.

In case you all were wondering about the title of my blog, it's from a Far Side Cartoon. I just love it. There's no hidden meaning in the fact that my blog name comes from this cartoon. I simply find it hilarious. Here it is:

So much to tell and I haven't written in so long, I feel blocked, and for me, who always has a lot to say, that's something. Thank god I type with 100% accuracy at 95 wpm or I'd never leave the computer (some of you probably already think that, I'm sure). I'm sure once I get writing here today, I won't be able to stop and you poor blog donkeys will have to wade through paragraph after paragraph of my endless drivel. Oh well. I shall take this opportunity to remind you that you visited this link on your own volition!

This week has been a moderately fun one at work. We did a sort of hodgepodge concert of a bunch of Spanish-influenced tunes: Bolero, Alborado del Graziozo, and a concerto for guitar and violin by Assad that I did not play on.

The Alborado was fun. We had some challenging bits that gave us something to do, namely in the realm of triple tonguing. For those of you incredibly fortunate souls who don't know what triple tonguing is, it's a technique by which wind players create multiple syllables with the tongue to achieve rapid repetitive tonguing.

Single tonguing, which is just using the front (or tip) of one's tongue uses the syllable "Tuh" or "Duh". When you multiple tongue (as in double or triple tonguing), you also employ the syllable "Kuh" or "Guh" with the back of your tongue. Double tonguing is used when you have rapid groups of two: Tuh-Kuh, Tuh-Kuh, Tuh-Kuh;and triple tonguing when you have rapid groups of three notes: Tuh-Tuh-Kuh, Tuh-Tuh-Kuh, Tuh-Tuh-Kuh.

Okay, I'm sure that's much more information than you ever wanted or certainly needed to know. Anyway, so the Alborado had lots of triple tonguing and so that was exciting.

Bolero, on the other hand, was both exciting and torturously boring. The exciting part is that the piece is one huge crescendo from the beginning to end, repeating the same tune over and and over over again until the loud climax at the end. The torturously boring part is that the piece is one huge crescendo from the beginning to end, repeating the same tune over and and over over again until the loud climax at the end. Everyone in the orchestra at some point plays the ostinato (or underlying rhythm that's repeated over and over again) that goes a little something like this:

DIT, dididiDIT, dididiDIT, DIT.
DIT, dididiDIT, dididi dididi dididi.

Multiply that several hundred times, and you've got the rhythmic structure of Bolero - or as we brass players have not-so-affectionately termed it, "BLARE-O".

If you're dying to know what it sounds like, you can hear it by clicking here (make sure you turn up your speakers because the clip is of the beginning, which is really soft).

Anyway, it's no wonder that the word "ostinato" means "stubborn" in Italian (note the resemblance to the word "obstinate"). It is indeed a very stubborn rhythm and it's really very obnoxious after a while. Some audience member told me after the concert last night that he really appreciated the horns keeping up the repeated notes so well, which of course made my day. I told him so and thanked him for his keen observation and for noticing.

One thing they are doing that I hate is adding special lighting effects. Just in case you're a complete idiot who can't tell that the piece is climaxing at the end, they flash these big red bright lights on the back of the shell in time with the music. If I was in the audience, I would find that very distracting from appreciating what the orchestra was trying to do musically.

As far as the sexual implications of Bolero, I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. If sex was that boring and repetitive, no one with half a brain cell would do it and the population would die out altogether. Certainly if it was as sloppy, messy and gross as the end of Bolero sounds with its smeary trombone glisses and discordant gong crashes, I'm quite sure I would wear a raincoat and rubber boots to bed every night just as a precaution.

Having said that, I do for some reason enjoy the end of Bolero. There is something neat about the slow, repetitive build-up that really sets up the excitement for the almost grotesque ending. If you just fast forwarded to the end of it without having to sit patiently through the soft solo versions of the theme at the beginning, you wouldn't get the same thrill. Although the thought has crossed my mind that the reason I like the ending so much is really just relief that the piece is over and I don't have to play any more dididi-dididi-dididi's. {sigh} That may very well be the real reason.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is the guest violinist this weekend. She plays with more subtlety, nuance, and deep inflection than I've ever heard any violinist use, ever. Listening to her is really a treat. She can play just one note, and in that note, make you feel at least 3 different things and can transport you to another place. Her subtleties were absolutely exquisite. As I said, I didn't play on the Assad concerto she did, but I did play a whopping two notes on the top-40 classical hit Meditation from Thais by Massenet (listen here, you'll totally recognize it). This is a piece that can easily sound cloying and sappy (you'd really have to work to have it not sound that way, actually), but the way she played it added such depth and intimacy that the piece probably doesn't even deserve. I would have loved to have heard her do a solo piece as an encore. Who knows - tonight is Saturday, after all!

We also did Debussy's Claire de Lune, arranged for orchestra. This is another top-4o classical hit and I'm not quite sure what it has to do with "Latin Passion", which is what this weekend's concerts have been dubbed. I much prefer the original piano version, which my best friend Karinia played so beautifully at our wedding.