silver strings

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It is with the last of my remaining energy that I am writing this post...

... Not really, actually. Quaffed some coffee and now I feel life returning to my tired old shell. I just finished a grueling filming for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra...

... and decided not to submit.

Yeah. It was a tough decision on my part, but my Bach sounded really hideous, and the beginning of my Tan Dun was really out of tune, even though the ending was pretty good. So I'm better off not submitting. As opposed to my crappy little videos going online for the world to see.

I'll admit that I didn't prepare enough for this. Couldn't practise during the three days of Chinese New Year break (my cello couldn't fit in the trunk of Dad's car) resulted in me sounding absolutely crappy when I came back to school today. Add to that the fact that I'm also preparing a concerto for performance next week, and I'll readily admit I wasn't good enough this time round.

Talking about today... It's been a really, really tough day for me.

First disaster struck when I learned that the Chinese ensemble was up for Music Platform today, a fact about which yours truly was, in the classical tradition, uninformed. So I left Theory in the middle of the class (and told Tee Heong 'you can mark me absent if you want'), and rushed home in a cab to pick up my concert attire. That's $17 for a return trip.

Second disaster struck during rehearsal for Music Platform, when my friend ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKED OVER MY CELLO AND IT WENT CRASHING BRIDGE-FIRST TO THE FLOOR.

...

.........

Omgwtfpwned.

I immediately called Szabo and arranged for an appointment, but RA wouldn't let me go til after orchestra rehearsal. I spent the whole afternoon in his shop, with him tweaking lots of different stuff on my cello, but he couldn't get the sound back. The feel was also completely different each time. Every time he handed me my cello back, it was as if I was taking a new (and lousy) instrument from him.

I felt like crying, I really did. I even considered withdrawing. With the competition only 5 days away, there really can't be a more inopportune moment for such a mishap to happen.

In any case, I left the shop with a powerful but rough sound. Szabo also lowered the bridge (meaning he moved it closer to the tailpiece), which theoretically makes my finger spacing bigger. So I gotta practise, practise, practise.

Thank you, my precious treasure, for standing by me all this time... I feel I couldn't have made it through today without you.

Gah. After I publish this post, it's off to do my Music and Multimedia homework. Maybe I'll fall sick and get a day of well-deserved practice - I mean rest.

More coffee?

The Prof :: 10:32 AM

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Yep, here's the big anti-Nazi rant. A day late in coming. Fresh supply of F-words included.

-DISCLAIMER: Sequence of events may be grossly exaggerated-

It's hard to begin, because I'm not sure how far back I need to go. Basically, I played my concerto for performance class on Tuesday. Was a really flat performance because I was nearly panicking just before I went onstage. Why, you ask? (Okay, you didn't, but I'll say it anyway -) my pianist was late in coming because of class - not her fault - but the Nazi was exerting constant pressure on me, and wanted to start rehearsal.

Fick der Nazi.

Well anyway I gave a pretty mediocre performance - not actually bad, but nothing good about it - struggled through it, and when I'd finished, he gave some mixed praise - basically themed around how I had improved dramatically but was still way below MJ's standard. Nothing wrong with that, right? After all, he's always like that.

Then.

In front of my face.

He asked MJ whether she wanted to play my Haydn with NAFA.

...

......

.........

Is he stupid or is he just plain insensitive???

Some months back, he ranted to the strings about him getting a C rating during the teachers' evaluation, and he asked, semi-rhetorically, what he should do to get an A.

Commit seppuku, that's what you should do. We'll give you a unanimous A.

...

Anyway, what happened after that? He turned to the class and said, 'Isn't it a good idea? We do Haydn with MJ as soloist?'

What's his fucking problem????

Whereupon I said, 'No it's not a good idea you fucking Nazi. I'm doing Haydn for the competition.'

More stuff from him about MJ being so fantastic that she's far beyond me, and I don't stand a chance against her. Anyway I pressed him not to make her do Haydn, for the following reason, really...

It'd be embarrassing for her to lose to me if she was forced to do that concerto.

Now I don't care if he loses face - in fact, I'm going to make him lose face during the preliminaries - but I've nothing against MJ and don't want her to be caught in between. Especially because I'm working so hard on this concerto day and night. Does he think that I stand no chance against her if she picks it up? Really???

Eventually, the Nazi relented and said, 'Ok, I don't want to hurt you.'

But he already hurt me so badly... I felt like I could have killed him with my bare hands at that moment.

...

That night, I had a chat with MJ online... Seems she agrees that the Nazi fucker was too much too.

...

I vow to Mr Song and Yu Laoshi that on the 3rd, I will show some Nazi scum who's a great cellist. Even if I don't win, I will put up a great fight.

This one's mine.

The Prof :: 9:35 AM