Intonation is Secondary to Enjoyment

Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory

2008-08-19T01:47:00.001-06:00

RMSC is fun, you should do it.

Auditions

2008-03-27T22:46:00.002-06:00

Let's see. I'm audition for Boise Baroque soon, so hopefully I'll be playing in there last concert of the season. That'll be fun and mildly profitable. Then I'm auditioning for the Philharmonic over the summer, that'll be more than mildly profitable. Very exciting.

Oddly, my roomate kind of left... abruptly... and I have only vague clues why. Fun! Now I have to find a new one or face moving back home.

Lately I've been obsessed with The Killers cover of the Dire Straits "Romeo and Juliet", also been examining other musical renditions of Romeo and Juliet, such as Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, etc. I thought it would have been neat if Wagner did a Romeo and Juliet, but then I realized he did, he just called it Tristan and Isolde.

Spring Break has mostly been me staying up until about 4:00. Strangely, I have the most energy past about 11:00. I worked with this guy who claimed to have a type of insomnia where he could sleep in the day, but not at night. I would say I might have this, but I suspect it's largely made up.

Recital

2008-03-25T11:57:00.002-06:00

I totally have my junior recital planned out! It's going to go something like:

Brahms Viola Sonata in F minor
Scott Slapin's Nocturne for Two Violas
--Intermission --
Something Else

I plan on playing only complete works, recitals that feature a bit of this sonata, half of this concerto, etc. are upsetting and seem sort of unprofessional. Admittedly, a school recital is hardly a professional affair. But, regardless, I want to do whole works. The only problem with this line up so far is that my junior recital is about two years off.

After discovering the Peter Slowik fan club on Facebook, I've decided that I must do graduate works with him! The problem here is, Oberlin doesn't have a graduate performance program. Yikes! As such, I have to come up with a plan to get Peter to switch schools! Yikes!

Lame (part 3 or something)

2008-03-17T21:58:00.003-06:00

My bike was stolen (or is simply trying to escape the its mishandling at its master's hands) this evening. This is incredibly lame and has served to lower my faith in humanity by however much percent. Send me something cheesy and inspirational. Cheesy inspirational music is always a plus! It'll probably cheer me up more than the Schoenberg I'm listening to now and the Guibaidalina viola concerto that's coming up...

I other news. Shostakovitch in orchestra along with Rhapsody in Blue makes for a very awesome program. Linda's coaching quartet tomorrow two!! I think I might have exclaimed my exuberance a little too loudly in orchestra when Mr. Purdy announced this, but he's got enough violinists sucking up to him already, he doesn't need me. Also DIII tomorrow, will go watch high school violists kick my butt and thus be inspired to practice more.

I'm going to get beat up

2008-03-09T23:10:00.003-06:00

Somehow my blog showed up on this Chopin blog. I'm psyched about the exposure, but in order to avoid getting mugged, I'd just like to clarify that I don't hate Chopin, or even dislike Chopin. Other composers simply appeal to me more, like Schumann! If you are a Chopin-lover (not that that's a bad thing), and you think I should be too, feel free to contact me with some of your favorite Chopin (perhaps the more Schumann-esque [which is not really a word] ones).

In other non-Chopin related news, I had the audacity to record myself playing some Bach d minor today. This was probably the freakiest thing ever. Fortunately, however, it helped me diagnose a lot of problems with my playing, so now I can go about eliminating them in an organized fashion. Very exciting! I also practiced my one-position scales three times today, which makes me either a prodigy or a freak, I can't tell yet.

Anyway, now for a viola joke:

Why do violists stand for long periods outside people's houses?: They can't find the key and they don't know when to come in.

I'm not a big fan... of Chopin

2008-03-08T23:50:00.003-07:00

I went to see a fantastic doctoral recital (by some Arizona Post-Grad, BSU doesn't have a Doc program) programmed entirely of Chopin works. I was slightly apprehensive, as I've never taken a deep liking to Chopin, but I went anyway, mostly because I really have nothing else to do. Well, I could do homework, but this seemed like a reasonable alternative. Anyway, went to see recital, but was mostly bored. The playing was great, but Chopin isn't incredibly exciting. He's kind of like Mozart + Chromaticism, which wasn't very exciting. Needs more Schumann.

I have about ten gazillion things that need to go back to the library. It'd be nice if they would just kind of migrate back on there own, but that hasn't happened... yet.

Weather's clearing up, which means more bike rides, which is awesome!! Sickness is clearing up to!

Lame

2008-03-05T14:51:00.003-07:00

In an incredibly lame turn of events, I'm sick on the super special day this week that I get school off! However, this does mean that I got to duck out of ECO this week. Rehearsal time has been moved back to 7:00, which is just absurd. Traffic isn't the reason why people show up late! It's simply because nobody wants to be there, and moving rehearsal time back won't change anything, it'll just mean that I get home later.

In searching for music I wanted to listen to this morning, I rediscovered Coldplay. Lots of fun.

I aprehensivelly tried gargling warm salt water at 3:00 in the morning, it actually works, which is cool. I suspect that the water should be warm because that's a lot less disgusting than swisching cold salt water around your mouth, Mmmm. Needs more drugs...

Jen and I hacked through a number of chamber music camp options last night over Flying Pie (the official pizza of Darkwood Consort!). There's this thing in Oregon that looks like lots of fun. You pretty much just read quartets for a week, which is a great plan. They also have a MASSIVE library!! The application date is kinda past, but it's possible they might make exceptions for awesome violists. When I can speak intelligibly and without sniffling, I might give them a call.

Finally, this is the best piece ever and should be performed by the BSU Orchestra in lieu of the crappy music we usually play.

FUCK!!

2008-03-03T11:25:00.001-07:00

Stupid Opera! I don't get to read Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony (one of the only cool things in Orchestra... ever...) because of stupid Opera rehearsal tonight!

Fuck!!!

Pianist:: Chu-Fang Huang

2008-03-02T22:19:00.002-07:00

Yes! This concert kicked ass!

The pianist, whose name I can't pronounce, started off with four short and snappy little Scarlatti Sonatas, three of which were fast numbers, and the third was a very slow and melancholy number. I was surprised by the amount of virtuosity in these baroque pieces, lots of runs and fast trills.

Next on the program came a massive Schumann Fantasy (Op. 17 in C Major) that just blew me away. The piece starts out with this great melody in the right hand and a flurry of arpeggiated chords in the left hand. Whatsername did a great job with the dynamics as well as bringing out some HUGE bass notes. The second movement is kind of a military march, and Schumann does a great job in maintain passion throughout what I've always viewed as kind of a dry form. The third movement totally blew over my head. Partially because it was at the end of a half-hour long piece, and also because it was so sharply in contrast with the two very flashy movements before it. All in all though, this was my favorite part of the program.

Intermission was lots of fun, I got a drink from the water fountain and reflected on the jobs of custodians in the university.

I was pleased to see that the pianist had programed some songs from her homeland of China. I figured that this was a great way to blow the wigs off of those snotty subscribers who came to see their Mozart played in high style while sipping wine and eating well-aged cheeses. My favorite of the three Chinese pieces was the third and final selection. Mostly because it felt like a Western tone poem with heavy Eastern influences. It was actually all about these very musical people in a certain province of China, I thought it was really neat. It also had a great call and answer section between soprano and tenor voices.

Finally, last on the program was Ravel's La Valse. This piece, when visualized correctly is incredible. It was written before WWI and the entire premise is one of the aristocratic families in Europe ignoring the obvious trouble brewing and deciding, instead, to keep on waltzing. The piece, as such, start out as a snappy little Viennese Waltz, but then starts to wind its way into disarray until, finally, there are gunshots in the same room as the waltzers and they're trying to dance and dodge bullets at the same time. Lots of fun, very nice use of dissonance.

Superproductive

2008-02-29T16:26:00.002-07:00

I feel superproductive today! I did my little bit in theory, played well in studio class, and finished my proposition for a super-badass essay about E.E. Cummings for my Literature class!

The Bach d minor Suite is pretty freaking awesome. I played it badly for my senior recital, but now I've revisited it and I'm nailing the prelude with a much faster tempo than I used to take, which, I think, give it a much more passionate and driven feeling. It's pretty awesome.

I've thought about writing a poem and then setting it to music, which would make it a song, but I can't write poetry.

I plan on going to Onomatopoeia tonight to see some awesome Jazz viola.

This is all pretty strange considering that I got to sleep at about 3:00 this morning. Maybe more sleep makes me lazy... I doubt it.

2/24

2008-02-24T23:52:00.003-07:00

Um, let's see. Set up for orchestra rehearsal at Taco Bell Arena (no tacos provided?), rehearsed (boring as hell), set up for other rehearsal at Morrison Center, eat ham sandwich, rehearse (also boring as hell), go to awesome pizza place for dinner and procure sticker, concert (once again, boring as hell), type up nonsensical (but awesome) theory homework, and finally, waste time I should be spending sleeping by browsing the Internet to find out useless things about Schumann and writing blog posts. Cool beans.

Also went to the Philharmonic last night, but skipped out before Mahler. On a note, Timothy Fain = Part-time violinist, full-time badass.

Ugh, I should sleep.

Watch BSU Orchestra tomorrow at 3!! Channel Seven. Cheese fest!

Wikipedia is... the best thing ever

2008-02-18T22:48:00.002-07:00

I think I donated blood on Friday, which was cool. I had this really experienced old guy name Gary, if you can request a vampire for donating, I think I'll try to request him in the future. I just felt the needle go in and after that you barely knew it was there. Although this time I felt fairly crappy after donating, so that could be a side effect of getting lucky.

I finally got a roommate, which is pretty cool. I was initially repulsed by the idea of having some stranger scooting around my house all the time, but this guy's actually pretty cool, and he's 35 so I don't have to put up with any stupid conversations. Awesome.

Been listening to John Mayer recently, cool stuff. I'm hooked on "Daughters". Of course, everything comes secondary to "I Get By".

Went to go the Pan-American (what does that mean?) Trio this weekend. Very cool, very professional.

Love

2008-02-13T22:30:00.003-07:00

These past few days have seen me watching the same scenes from Napoleon Dynamite and The Office looking for evidence that true love is possible. Seriously, the writers of The Office know how to write love... Jim and Pam, no doubt. The writers for Joan of Arcadia though... not so much, it's clearly a lie.

On a brighter note, my sheet music arrived at Dunkley's. Jen, yours is there too, but they had a weird phone number on it, so I don't know if you've gotten the call, unless you changed your number. I ordered the Glazunov Elegy and Weezer's Blue Album. I forsee a kickass viola quartet arrangement of Undone some time in the future. Oh yeah, Jen, for viola camp next year I'm thinking Hotel California.

Today in theory we covered some 20th century stuff, it was great. I've got this really cool passage I harmonized with major chords built off of a descending G major chord, it's awesome.

We also recorded for Quartet today. We're entering some quartet competition, but there are too many aspiring youths trying out, so there's a preliminary round. I hope we don't make it, then we'll do some Mendelssohn.

I also found out that I can record stuff with my MP3 player, so I'm recording myself playing different parts of the same song and putting all together on my computer, it's really cool. So far I've got a reasonable version of The Killer "When You Were Young" (one of my favorite songs on Rock Band) going.

Whatever

2008-02-05T13:12:00.000-07:00

I ordered the Blue Album piano book at Dunkley's I'm so awesome. I heard they were owned by Mormons, but I'll buy from them so as to prevent Telford's from gaining a monopoly on my business, as they seem to do every time something breaks, which happens often.

I've also put a bunch of stuff on hold from the library. The other day I found the complete chamber works of Brahms on 11 CDs! It was great.

The days of the sketchy quartet are back! While we were figuring out rehearsal times I was amazed to discover that my quartet buddies have classes ALL day, EVERY day. I was also amazed to discover that free time from 8:40-9:40. 10:40-11:40, and 12:40-later is, apparently, also a class. I look forward to wasting my time this semester.

Speaking of time, Linda's recital is Friday night. I have have English Friday night because I'm an idiot. I managed to work a deal where I go to the Wednesday night class in Nampa, but that means that I can't go to the Concerto-Aria competition and see Henry kick ass. I also can't watch House tonight because I feel morally obligated to go listen to people play badly at ECO. Gah! I thought about caucusing tonight, but after receiving a flurry of emails from Barack Obama (my home dog) that seemed to present the illusion that it was actually Barack Obama sending me emails, I decided I didn't want to. Apparently it takes 4 hours to caucus too! Definitely no House if that happened. Does House re-air at any times?

I moved

2008-01-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I no longer live with my parents, it's like Freebird! One day I'm going to learn how to play that song on Viola just so I can bust it out at some gig some where some snobby classic rock-aholic demands I move away from the Bach by calling out the Rock anthem that is Freebird. That'll bust'em a new one. On the topic of rock Viola, I've been undergoing Rock Band withdrawal, so I've resorted to playing Rock Band songs on Viola. Viola Hero forever. Right now I'm hammering my way through Reptilia by The Strokes, it'd be nice to get a whammy bar installed on my viola.

Living away from home is kind of nice, but I miss the cat and the free meals. I need a job. The library hasn't gotten back to me on those positions I applied for about a month ago, and according to the Boise website they haven't filled the position either. I think I should do the job that they aren't, that is, going through applications. I don't have internet, I'm actually typing this through my neighbor's unsecured wireless connection. If my neighbors happen to read this, you should get that secured, it's dangerous to type in personal info like passwords over an unsecured network. Also, I promise I'm just using your internet for the essentials, like email and Scrabble. I'll get my own soon (like when I get a job...)

I also need Microsoft Word.

I've been practicing more, which is good. The acoustics in this house are really nice, with the wood floors and all.

Went to Darkwood today. To be honest, I really don't like a lot of the things they play, Danish and Icelandic music just doesn't appeal to me. I also happened to miss the one thing I did want to see this season, the Dvorak Bass Quintet, due to some sort of freak coffee mishap. Jen, you need to take charge of the operation! Don't let Aage push you around because he's taller!

Also went to Dr. Moreau's Clarinet recital. That was kind of fun, their were some freak modern pieces on the program, which is always lots of fun. I didn't know you could play two notes at once on the Clarinet until today. They're called multiphonics! That's a much cooler name than 'double stops'.

Confusion

2008-01-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

....

Scamalot

2008-01-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

I got a call the other day that seemed briefly like a dream come true. A job offer! It wasn't from the Library, or Borders, or any of the other places that I applied to. Instead, it was from a company called Vector Marketing, they wanted me to sell kitchen knives for them for $14.50 an hour. I was shocked, $14.50 is pretty freakin' good. Anyway, I promised I'd call them back to confirm the 4:00 interview time they had already set up for me. I played some Bach and then went on the internet to discover more about Vector Marketing and find out what they were all about.

Amazingly, it's actually a scam! Really, who wants to buy a set of knives for $800? And the $14.50 is actually only per appointment, and I forfeit it if I actually manage to trick some idiot into buying the knives. The real source of income comes from their 'employees' (they actually call you an individual contractor, despite not meeting the legal requirements for that status). You have to buy your own set of knives (albeit, at a discounted price) to display to potential customers. It must suck to have a job where you make a living ripping people off...

Procrastinate

2008-01-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

I put off signing up for Fiction Writing until today. Oops, it's all full. In my defense, I wasn't sure that I wanted to take this class, so I had signed up for all of my core classes, but simply neglected to sign up of fiction writing. Today I realized that I did need to sign up one way or the other in order to meet the credit requirement for a full time student.

I ended up taking American Literature from the Civil War to Present from 6:00 to 9:00 on Friday nights. Oh joy.

It has, however, occurred to me that an unreasonable number of students who signed up for Fiction Writing will inexplicably fail to show up for class 99% of the time. This postulation is based on observations on the thinning of my English 102 class throughout the semester. I suppose I should try to email the professor and point this out, as they will undoubtedly noticed on there own. If I point out my own perfect attendance and pledge to attend every one of their classes, maybe I can get a permission number. Hey, it's better than American Lit on Friday nights.

In other news, I was recently referred to a band called Harvey Danger. Apparently, they've put their most recent album up for free download. Now, I've heard free music before, so I was a little skeptical about the quality. However, I was tickled to discover that this was actually some pretty good music. Rock on! Download it now! Anyway, if they come to Boise at any point in time, I'd probably go see them.

I hope your New Year sucks

2007-12-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

Well, not really, but I'm annoyed by people who randomly wish you a "happy new year" without a clue as to what a happy year for you would include or a care as to the happiness of your year past the second they wished it upon you. I also fail to see why my happiness can't cross the boundary between years. I mean really, I don't feel like the course of my life is incredibly dependent on the annual calendar switch. Although I will have trouble writing 08 for the date for a little while. I doubt this will cause monumental problems.

Ranting aside, I love the good food and sparkling cider we have on New Years.

I've decided that playing the drums in Rock Band is like playing the viola in an Orchestra, it's not really flashy, and most of the time it's more difficult than people appreciate, but somebodies got to do it. Such are the woes of my existence.

Update: I watched the ball drop on channel 7. This was probably the most pointless thing I've done all year. Somebody proposed to his girlfriend, I suppose. I predict it'll be over by the next time the ball drops. Damn, am I cynical or what?

Rock Band

2007-12-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

I got Rock Band for Christmas! Actually, my little brother got Rock Band for Christmas, but he has minimal talent and never plays it anyway, so it falls upon my shoulders to tour the world picking up chicks and generally creating an atmosphere of rocking out with the help of my lead guitarist, Andrew, and lead singer, Cally (I play drums).

Anyway, I've decided that this game is great because it encourages group music making to the masses. It's not quite real music, as the actions of the players don't directly translate into what's coming out of the speakers, but it's still great fun. My eyes usually glaze over after about two hours of playing, but I still love it.

My shoulder rest foot is in the process of breaking. This is not surprising because stuff tends to break when I need it. As such, my plans to tackle a bunch of technical aspects of my viola playing have been kind of shut down. Which reminds me! I need to bitch about juries!!

Anyway, juries are quite possibly one of the stupidest things ever. They're like the standardized testing of Music Majors. And, unlike some other tests, the practicing doesn't help, since about a month before juries you're forced to drop all long term viola goals and focus on getting this piece right or something like that. I got bored quickly with this and pretty much stopped serious jury practice about two weeks before my jury. This probably hurt me for the jury, but I don't care because I'm pissed off! Now I just need to listen to some inspirational performance by an awesome string player and I'll be ready to jump up and practice! And then a string will break or something. How predictable...

Addict

2007-12-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Nick, and I can't stop buying works for viola. Today I bought the complete Hindemith Sonatas, but for only $18. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not. I kind of feel bad for spending so much money on music. Seriously, most of my last paycheck went towards paying for all sorts of different viola recordings. Along with an absurdly overpriced A string and the sheet music for John Williams Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola.

I quit my crappy job. My last day is the 31st, how fitting. I'm looking into a job at the library in Boise, or something like that. I'd hate to work in food ever again. Bleh! I also think I'd like not to work in retail. In fact, I think I'd like to remove myself from the presence of annoying stupid people for the rest of eternity! But I understand those jobs are hard to come by.

Duet

2007-12-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

I talked to Linda about doing a Bach Partita next semester instead of a suite. She said she'd think about it, but I'm confident I can push it through.

I had a gig today, another Christmas party. This one went better than the last in the sense that it was in tune. I have read duets with about a quadrillion people in the past few days. It's pretty fun. I also discovered that duet reading is a great relief for depression, but hopefully that won't be an issue now. I also suspect that I'm insane, but that's really nothing new. I decided that a viola duet thing would be a great ensemble to embark on. Or maybe just any kind of duet, since that's less people you have to count on to show up for rehearsals and gigs. Plus, there's plenty of crazy duet music!

My first and best theory teacher made the news, Seth McMullen. He is probably one of the best choir directors around and his high school choirs are better than the stuff at BSU, really. I will definitely be attending their concert on Saturday.

Income

2007-12-12T23:22:00.000-07:00

I suspect I will quit my crappy job on Friday. Personally, I'd like to move my income away from fast food and toward viola, but I'm not entirely sure how to do this. I'd like to audition for the Boise Baroque soon, but I can't do their February concert because of Linda's recital, and I hear they don't pay too well. I'd like to audition for the Philharmonic as well, but I don't really expect to be ready for this until next year. I would teach lessons, but who wants to take viola lessons? And would want to take them from me? Another option is doing the coffee house performing routine. But I haven't really don't much with the viola quartet. Admittedly, they haven't exactly stepped up to the plate as well, but it was my idea to begin with, so I should follow through. Jen! I need to contact Charles Noble!!

Most of all though, I just don't want to hate my job.

Icy

2007-12-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today the roads were really icy. This created a situation in which it took over an hour to get to school, unfortunately, one hour was not enough time to justify skipping theory. As much as I love theory, that class just moves unbearably slow. I don't understand why we need to spend two weeks on ninth chords. I get the picture, add another chord tone --> wishy-washy jazzy sound, resolve ninth down to the root. I get it, let's go on. Lame! I also spent time in SWAM realizing that I didn't have my journal complete, but not really caring because I was so depressed for totally unrelated reasons. I suspect I'll show up at Dr. Belfy's office tomorrow and beg her to take my journal (completed now). Personally, I find the whole thing rather redundant since I keep a totally separate journal and write this blog. Another journal full of whatever I suspect Dr. Belfy wants to read is mostly just annoying and definitely not introspective. It's sad too, since I'm usually the only one who gets really engaged in that class. I wonder if she's noticed that I haven't said much recently, I doubt it.

I just received an invitation on Facebook to attend some sort of Ron Paul tea party! I don't normally drink tea, but I don't mind it sometimes. Personally, I find this whole Ron Paul thing to be hilarious. I've seen signs up for his campaign all over the place, the ones forwarding the "Ron Paul Revolution" with revolution misspelled to be hip, or something like that. Lots of people talk about him on the internet too. Unfortunately, he has something like %2 of the vote in Iowa so far. That could hurt in the long run, I think. Apparently he's a real stickler about the constitution, because documents written in the political environment of the 1700s readily apply to today.

I'd just like the reiterate that modern music is amazing. I'm listening to Styx, for Solo Viola, Chorus, and Orchestra by somebody named Kancheli, it's pretty neat. Lame people who don't appreciate modern music, we don't need them anyway. Jen and I were actually talking about this yesterday at Darkwood. She proposed that so much viola music is being composed because it's almost guaranteed to be played by violists eager for more repertiore, whereas violinists already have a slew of works composed for them by famous dead composers, why should they care about modern works? Lame! I'm buying more music than I can afford. Lame.

Teleport

2007-12-09T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to Mitt Romney's "Faith Speech" on YouTube right now, but it's largely uninteresting, so I doubt I'll talk about it.

I've had a few dreams recently in which I could teleport. This is probably due to me reading "Jumper", just like when I had a dream I ate some gillyweed after reading that part in Harry Potter. Anyway, these dreams are mostly pretty cool, me teleporting all over the place, but they usually end up in me having to escape some peril by use of my ability. Like fighting off evil robots (WTF?) and escaping Earth as it was blowing up. Although I really only got away from that last one by teleporting onto an outgoing spaceship. One time, however, I did teleport into a good seat at a concert, so I wouldn't have to squish past the annoying people who sit in the outer seats even though they know it will just make trouble for everybody else going past them to all the open seats in the middle. Lame!

I got a fantastic deal today on Amazon, all three Brahms Violin Sonatas for just $5! Awesome.