Bad form to follow up a rant with another rant, but oh well.
I screwed RK up REAL BAD today. Feel slightly guilty about it, but only slightly. One of the things which galls me most in life is people who spout nonsense with a straight face. Or rather, teachers who don't get their facts right, and people believe them because they're, well, teachers. I frankly get murderous urges whenever I see this occur. RK is the main culprit mostly.
'J.S. Bach wrote for a six-stringed cello in one of his Cello Suites.'
Me: (in a loud voice) 'FIVE!!'
Sheesh. She's supposed to be a cellist herself, you know. The suite in question is, of course, Cello Suite no. 6, which is sometimes attributed to the viola da gamba, but this is mostly discredited today.
Second take: She was asking us to classify instruments according to the Hornborstel-Sachs system.
'Okay, A (identity protected), what is a celesta?'
A: 'Er... erm... uhh... an idiophone.' (Correct answer.)
'What is a piano?'
Murmurs of 'chordophone'.
'So a celesta is - '
Me: (in a loud voice) 'An idiophone!'
I mean, what the hell? But then again, I guess she can be forgiven this little transgression because 1) she is a pianist, not a percussionist and 2) she teaches History, not Orchestration.
I feel so extremely vindictive lately. A demonic aura has been hanging over me - I think it's probably because I'm soooo troubled about the anti-Nazi revolution that I've begun channeling my hatred towards everyone around me.
To all my friends: I'm sorry if I hurt you. Really, I am. I'll make it up, I promise.
Sometimes I just feel like destroying everything in my way. Maybe I am already getting cynical.
I give my heart and soul, my time and effort, for the people I really care about, and all that happens is that it gets returned to me in pieces.
No scholarship. No leadership position. No recognition whatsoever. No girl. (Maybe this will change this year.)
Maybe it's time to stop giving.
Nah. I will still never turn down anyone in need of my help. A promise is a promise.
Except J, who is in danger of losing my protection because she helps the kimchi - guilty by association. (It's still not too late to turn back!)
On another note, I'm firing on all cylinders with my practice. Never before in my life have I practised so much! My repertoire nowadays looks something like this:
J.S. Bach Cello Suite no 6 in D (Prelude) Haydn Cello Concerto in C Major Hob. VIIb:1 (complete) Beethoven Cello Sonata no 3 n A Major op. 69 (1st and 4th movements) Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia Chen Gang, Sunshine Over Tashkurgan
That's quite a lot of work.
The Prof :: 12:01 PM
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Oh look, a video of Julian Lloyd Webber playing the finale from Haydn's C major concerto. I don't mean to diss the guy, but... I'm dissing him anyway. He sounds like he's on Ecstasy pills. And what's with the outfit?
I didn't think there existed a recording of this concerto worse than Jacqueline du Pré's. Now I really don't mean to diss her, but I'm dissing her anyway so bear with me here. Now Woodriver's gonna kill me for this, but that doesn't deter me from saying it. Jacqueline du Pré's life was beautiful. Her death was beautiful. Her playing was... not quite so beautiful. Aww, come on. Aren't I entitled to my own opinion?
It's 2.30am and I just quaffed a coffee without realizing what it was... So, with sleep out of the question, here's another rant to get the poison out of my system, and trust me I'm dying of emotional septicaemia these days.
How many people does our cello section have?
Just one. The rest of us don't exist, in VH's eyes. Everything is luscious marmalade jam. The world centres around it. It gives the earth its spin.
I never liked marmalade in the first place.
Today her playing spoke for itself. Definitely not up to all that pre-concert hype there. Zero emotions, zero dynamics. Kind of in tune. Well, in a way, it made me feel better, because I'm not worried about her - SHE DOES NOT STAND A GHOST OF A CHANCE AGAINST ME if she foolishly decides to enter the concerto competition.
But what's really galling is the fact that VH coddles her as though she's some kind of treasure. Well, maaaybe she is. No, she isn't. She can't count. And so, if he continues in his folly, he'll be left with one cellist in the section when - I mean if, and I pray it won't come to this - I hit the anti-Nazi button.
By coddling that girl, he is alienating the rest of us. Check out what he did today:
1. He announced that he would be doing the Dvořák Wind Serenade, and he needed a cellist.
'I need a wonderful cellist... and I've found one!'
Selected her on the spot, he did. Did not throw open the request to the floor - in which case I would have jumped at the opportunity, because I have played the piece before and I will definitely do a better job than her any day because I CAN COUNT MUAHAHAHAHA.
2. He made plans for a Brahms evening, saying he wants to do the Brahms violin concerto and double concerto. No prizes for guessing who he picked to play the cello for the double concerto.
All in one afternoon.
Come on! What the hell! Who does he think she is? Some kind of superwoman? Has he forgotten the rest of us? This is definitely serious.
On another note, the Beatles concert is really throwing a monkey wrench into my plans. I'd have talked to VH earlier about things, if not for this shit. EW is a nice guy, and he's innocent of all this nonsense. Plus, the British were one of the forces which defeated the Nazis.
This evening I had my first cello lesson since Germany. Finally showed my teacher the 3rd movement. Practised hard and did really well. =D And finally got my old case back. It feels REALLY light compared to that white sarcophagus.
Cabbed back to school after lesson to put away my cello (so I don't have to drag it home and back to school tomorrow), and ended up watching YouTube in the lab, then banged away on the cello for half an hour. Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia. Anyway, I have a new favourite violist:
Pinchas Zukerman.
By far, the best recording of the Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia on YouTube has to be Perlman/Zukerman. I can't find a good violin/cello recording. Cellists always take the string crossing passage too slow. Maybe Jerry and I should put ours up. Anyway, Passacaglia next week with Jerry! I jammed with Pamela for fun in the afternoon, and - freak - she made me realize how rusty I am with the damn piece. I NEED TO PRACTISE.
'My God, Wen-Bin! You practise too much! Try not to play so well, will you? You're an intelligent man, so talented, but you're a composer, not a cellist! You can't play so good, everyone will hate you otherwise!'
No one actually said this to me, but this is precisely the vibes he's giving me. =/
This post is for Andrea Nicole, as well as any and all of you out there who want to harvest articles on the viol family. Well, some background information to make your search slightly easier:
Some notable members of the viol family: - Viola da gamba - Viola d'amore - Violone - Arpeggione (has the tuning of a guitar)
Famous works for viols: (these are usually played today on cello or viola)
J.S. Bach, 3 Sonatas for Viola da Gamba - no. 1 in G major, BWV 1027 - no. 2 in D major, BWV 1028 - no. 3 in G minor, BWV 1029
Franz Schubert, Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D.821
Known resources on the viol:
Go to Esplanade library. There's a nice book on how to play the viol. I didn't look through it, so it's probably still there. Can't remember the title.
For the Year 1s... my first gift to you: a list of possible search topics for History.
1. The viol family - a family of instruments common in the Baroque period, but eventually superseded by the violin family. Search for: viola da gamba.
2. Farinelli - one of the greatest Italian castrato singers in the 18th century.
3. The Cremonese luthiers - three families of great violin makers hailing from Cremona, Italy. Foremost among them are: - Antonio Stradivari - Nicolò Amati - Giuseppe 'del Gesu' Guarneri
4. Antonio Vivaldi, probably the most important contributor to string literature and someone's favourite composer.
5. Important works by Vivaldi: 'La quattro stagioni' (The Four Seasons) op 8 nos 1-4, Concerto for Two Violins op 3 no 8 in A minor, Concerto for Four Violins op 3 no 10 in B minor, Concerto for Two Cellos RV 531 in G minor
6. Domenico Scarlatti, the most important composer of keyboard music. Wrote 555 keyboard sonatas.
7. Johann Sebastian Bach. Need I say more?
8. Important works by J.S. Bach: - Three violin concertos - in A minor BWV 1041, in E major BWV 1042, for two violins in D minor BWV 1043 - Four Orchestral Suites, BWV 1066-1069 - The Well-Tempered Clavier BWV 846-893 - St Matthew Passion BWV 244 - Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV 1001-1006 - odd numbers are sonatas, even numbers are partitas - Six Suites for solo cello BWV 1007-1012
9. Important late-Baroque composers: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Luigi Boccherini
So beendet meine erste Woche der Schule. Und es war schrecklich. Aber ich möchte nicht schlechter Deutsch schreiben. Deutsch töten mich.
(So ended my first week of school. And it was terrible. But I don't feel like writing/typing bad German. German kills me.)
My passion for Deutsch is waning... Blame it on the fact that I've almost no one to practise on, and that a certain German... well, shan't go much further, else I'll be sued for defamation.
Far and wide, the biggest bummer which happened this week was the promotion of underqualified personnel over the heads of more senior and qualified people. This is proving to be a rapid setback to orchestra morale, and is probably the worst decision that guy has ever made to date.
I mean, this little girl is year 1, barely speaks a word of English, doesn't socialize with people, has no orchestra experience, and he makes her principal cellist over the heads of three year 3 (and one year 2) cellists? Granted, she's a fantastic soloist, better than all of us, but she can't even count properly. As an orchestra cellist she is so-so. As a section leader she is... totally underqualified.
People who pay attention during orchestra rehearsals will quickly realize who is the true principal cellist... who was doing all the work, giving humongous cues because our dear leader can't count, practising the orchestra parts late at night in school (I have witnesses to this), working out bowings (to my section: stop following her, fools, and start following ME instead), listening out for mistakes, getting scolded by the German for her mistakes...
There's a difficult passage in the Dvořák symphony (if I recall it's figure D in the first movement) which we did on Wednesday. Because I spent quite some time practising it on Tuesday night, I was playing confidently whereas my section... faltered... faked... whatever you choose to call it. Whereupon the German turned to me and said something like this:
'You're so intelligent, can you be more intelligent when you play cello? If only you had her (guess whose) technique, that would be so great...'
I seriously feel sick.
Today (Friday) in particular, I was so angry with him I could have picked a fight... We were sight-reading Sibelius's Valse Triste (which I have played before during my debut with NUSSO), and I told my dear stand partner not to rush and to look at the conductor, but he said, 'No no, she's right.' Bloody f... never mind. He also hollered at my friend for a mistake someone else in that guy's section made.
Thinking back, I'm actually quite surprised at how angry I managed to become. Is this really me? I honestly don't know. I originally wanted to take him aside and berate him for his lousy decision-making, but calmed down during lunch with my friends. (The vocalists. I love you all, guys... =D)
And yeah, just a word edgeways about the great friends I have... Thank you all for rallying behind me during this time of great stress, unhappiness and general emo-ness... 'M', thanks for making me happy this afternoon and sorry you had to listen to me rant again. 'J', thanks for standing behind me through this. I'm not angry with you. Ever. 'R', thanks for being my buddy. 'D', thanks for the MSN chat, and I'm really glad we feel the same way about things.
