black and white-the violin in my life

Sunday, September 30, 2007

i fear myself

i'm afraid of what the future might bring

i'm scared of the failures i will meet

i tremble at the thought of being hurt

yet we all trudge on

now,

hear my confession.

when I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;

when troubles come and my heart burdened be;

then, I am still and wait here in the silence,

until you come and sit awhile with me.

stomached it at
11:36 PM

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Something that's been out since May this year.

(stolen :D from a blog by guy called David Duff)
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From Reuters:
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LONDON (Reuters) - A Scottish church which featured in the best-selling novel ``The Da Vinci Code'' has revealed another mystery hidden in secret code for almost 600 years.
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A father and son who became fascinated by symbols carved into the chapel's arches say they have deciphered a musical score encrypted in them.
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Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his composer and pianist son Stuart, described the piece as ``frozen music.''
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And this from his son, Stuart Mitchell's web site:
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Rosslyn Chapel holds a musical mystery in its architecture and design. At one end of the chapel, on the ceiling are 4 cross-sections of arches containing elaborate symbolic designs on each array of cubes (in actual fact they are rectangles mostly). The 'cubes' are attached to the arches in a musically sequential way. And to confirm this, at the ends of each arch there is an angel playing a musical instrument of a different kind. After 27 years of study and research by Stuart's father Thomas.J.Mitchell, we believe he has found the pitches and tonality that match the symbols on each cube, revealing its melodic and harmonic progressions. It is what we could call 'frozen music', a little like cryogenics. The music has been frozen in time by symbolism, it was only a matter of time before the symbolism began to 'thaw out' and begin to make sense to scientific and musical perception.
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Tommy Mitchell (Stuart's father) unravelled the music from the symbolism and Stuart has produced the music using authentic instrumentation in the 1400's.
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Tommy began work on this amazing project over 25 years ago and the Rosslyn Motet is the culmination of a wonderful collaboration with his son Stuart who is the production manager of the project.
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And a little more from Reuters:
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Stuart Mitchell said he and his father were intrigued by 13 intricately carved angel musicians on the arches of the chapel and by 213 carved cubes depicting geometric-type patterns.`
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`They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here,'' he told Reuters.
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Years of research led the Mitchells to an ancient musical system called cymatics, or Chladni patterns, which are formed by sound waves at specific pitches.
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The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody.
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The Mitchells have called the piece The Rosslyn Motet and added words from a contemporary hymn to complete it.
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They have also scheduled a world premiere at a concert in the chapel on May 18, when four singers will be accompanied by eight musicians playing the piece on mediaeval instruments.

stomached it at
6:57 PM

Thursday, September 06, 2007

okok one last post for today before i go practise (i know i should be studying but i can't help it if the exams aren't all that important!) --> haha bad excuse. nevermind.

JUST WATCH THE WAY HEIFETZ'S BOW CURVES!!!
(and NO it's not a camera trick. so there!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx8tTI3xGEc&mode=related&search=

stomached it at
10:09 PM

... and with Pablo Casals saying
"look. (and he plays) Yea?.. Nonono you will know that a purist.. the purists.. are scandalised ... because it seems.. it SEEMS... that in the Bach time staccato didnt exist.. he is a purist... but... don't be afraid. (he plays again) Beautiful, isn't it?"
Spoken by a true master.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP5OUxyEOhk

stomached it at
9:39 PM

oooh ooh ooooooh
and the Korngold Concerto's cute too!
thanks to Hilary Hahn.

stomached it at
6:48 PM

and oh my god. what bow control! alexandr sorokow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHmWaAcI7vE

stomached it at
6:35 PM

youtubeyoutubeyoutube!!!

was just watching shlomo mintz (sibelius, finale) and it suddenly hit me how little i've been concentrating on the sound that i play. too much music in your head hurts your playing. it's almost mechanical, the way he concentrates solely and so precisely on the finger, hand and arm muscles is exactly what my teacher's been nagging at these four years! and it took me this long to realise. love my teacher for so being so tireless. and LOVE SHLOMO MINTZ! (but didn't my teacher just criticise him a few months ago? hm. dunno)

shrugs

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

having said that

it seems playing the violin (or on any other instrument, for that matter) isn't fun at all. NOT ONE BIT. quite contrary to e usual expectations, eh? professional music's all about how much devilish control u have over your movements - and micro-movements - that there's no time for u to enjoy yourself. so much for artistry, eh? on the other hand, the more u do enjoy yourself, the more rubbish the poor audience is bound to hear. and i'm a living testament to that. no wonder i can't even play as well as those people whose playing i deem inconsequential. so rude of me, yes, but it's true (that i think of them that way, not that it's 'true' their playing is silly). nope. maybe the joy comes from HAVING performED well. just maybe. i'll just have to find out myself.

but for now

BACK TO YOUTUBE!

(p.s. if watching youtube is piracy then i don't know what others' self-uploaded free videos are. oh well, just a thought.)

p.s. note to self: musicality = breaking as many rules as possbile within the limits of acceptibility. been breaking far too many rules to have anything left to hear.

that's why cannot 'enjoy' playing too much.

so there.

if anyone else happens to be reading this part, apologies for the rant. congrats to me, i now look like a decided show-off, but it's kinda hard for me to look for something to scribble moments of epiphany on without losing it in a few hours so this is a last resort - typing it in the blog which isn't really one (now that i use it as a scratch-post). haha.

go us struggling music students.

stomached it at
5:23 PM

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

oh ok here's something to make up for the lack of new photos.

i like photos.

i like photos on my blog.

makes it so much more interesting to scroll up and down.

hahaha

anyway, here goes - School COLOURS '07

me and not-so-little SIS. but look who's taller now! haha. rare shot indeed.

LIZ me n GRACE

in the strings room, no less! LIZ me LAUREN JO and SIS

(notice the rather similar prints of e two beside Jo)

with CLARA who should have gotten Sportsgirl of the Year! lousy system. so much for crediting talent. anyway... classmates for almost every year since Secondary One!

with SHERLENE (and her beautiful megawatt smile) and GLORIA!

us in the hall waiting for me to make that stupid boo-boo of not knowing that i was sitting in the wrong place. sheesh.

stomached it at
12:27 PM

oh. my. god.
a pianist who actually plays the piano like a harpsichord.
behold... the legendary
Glenn Gould!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB76jxBq_gQ&NR=1
creepy.

stomached it at
11:54 AM

oh cool just noticed that her violin (the one being played in the link in blue) looks exactly like mine except that my pernambuco tailpiece hasn't aged. nor have the pegs.. not even sure what wood she's using though, but hers looks lots darker.. haha. but all that's just me not looking at enough models. dun even know how my teacher and his colleagues can insist that something looks like a strad. like, HUH?! ok this is embarrassing. but, just for the record, that last instance was an incorrect guess of theirs. haha. so much for professional experience.

stomached it at
11:18 AM

ok shall leave these here till i have the time to figure out how to put videos up.
yes, i'm hopeless with e internet.
but for now-
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cute girl on violin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84yc45l5xWM
li'l boy also on violin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw0Ua7TRi6c&mode=related&search=
someone else on the violin - Sibelius International Violin Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZOjO-5Mc4
(dunno who this last one is, but it's not like i know any of e other two either.. and it seems that there's a huge population of 'unknown' professionals out there!)
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AND REALISE,
they're all asians? haha take THAT, you racist ang mohs!
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haha.
tata!

stomached it at
11:00 AM

Monday, September 03, 2007

yarghhhhhhhh

just spoke to EGGY online! this webcam thing's just so weird, esplecially when only one party has it wahahaha.

anyway. just recording something here just in case i lose it somewhere else (but who's to stop me from losing it here, you say?) sigh. can't be helped. need to rush and salvage my sorry technique.

anyway.

conversation on msn.

Malisa says:

my address is 100 Gibbs street

box 12
Rochester, NY 14605

WRITE letters to me!
so that i feel popular
hahahahah

YES, eggy, i WILL write. soon. i hope.

haha ;P

HUGGS FROM THE PEPPER SHAKER!

stomached it at
12:44 PM