Monthly Archives: February 2014
Bach is Beautiful
Well I’m enamored of these minuets. As I’ve developed a basic competency playing the first one, and am at the spot where I can start to hear what the second one is getting at, I have come to the conclusion that I love Bach. To hear teacher refer to him, I think all violinists do. […]
Tenuto?
I’m enjoying having music to guide me, and learning what it all means. The Suzuki method does not focus on reading music until book four, but all the songs are laid out in proper staffs – while I’m no expert at looking at scores, to my eye there is an awful lot of musical notation […]
Junior High School
I woke up with a flash of memory. Since beginning this blog, I have been unable to remember whether I made it out of elementary school with my violin – I know I played in the fourth through sixth grades, but I’ve been unable to recall if I kept playing in junior high. The thing […]
The German-ness of Bruch
While I have yet to see them, The Evanston Symphony Orchestra plays out of a venue on the campus of Northwestern University not too far from us Chicago north siders. I started to learn more about them as I began looking for local performances of violin concertos. Evanston’s 2013-2014 season features four concerts, and in […]
Bach Minuets in Suzuki
I have been trying to find out more about the Bach Minuet I’m playing – the first of three in Suzuki Book 1 for Violin. It is more difficult than I thought it would be to pin these minuets down. Let’s stick to the facts: A minuet is a dance, the music to which is […]
The New Case
As I noted when it first arrived, I have needed a new case since my father-in-law shipped me my violin. I did a lot of searching and finally found one I liked, but it was on backorder, so it has taken a while for it to come. I didn’t need a particularly high-end super impact-resistant, […]
Opus 61 – The Beethoven Violin Concerto
As I’ve been listening to some of the best violin concertos in the world, I’ve recently been cultivating a passion for Beethoven’s – Opus 61. The first time I noticed it I had just fallen for Tchaikovsky’s, and something about Beethoven’s seemed less spectacular. I don’t feel that way anymore – the themes in Beethoven […]
The Stradivari Society
Chicago fine violin dealer Bein and Fushi is one of the pre-eminent sellers of high-end violins in the world. I have not visited the store, on South Michigan Avenue, but I would like to soon. An outgrowth of the shop is The Stradivari Society. The Society acts as a broker between talented young musicians and […]
Getting Classical Up In Here
A supremely busy week has me just getting around to noting something wonderful. Twinkle Twinkle notwithstanding, I have begun to play my first classical piece of music – a Bach Minuet. When I started down the violin road, people would ask me, “Are you going to play fiddle or violin.” The answer is violin. I […]
Music and Mindfulness
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on Music and Morality, opening with a quote by Roger Scruton, “To suggest that people who live with a metric pulse as a constant background to their thoughts and movements are living in the same way, with the same kind of attention and the same pattern of […]
Ryan Libel 