The end of the season is always bittersweet. I enjoy my job and I get along with my colleagues so the idea of not having regular rehearsals makes me a little bit sad. At the same time, we are all exhausted and definitely in need of a break.
So what do the KSO musicians do during the off-season? Some people go to music festivals around the country, some stay close to home practicing, teaching and playing recitals, and some take a break from music altogether. Our orchestra is comprised of both full-time salaried players and musicians who are paid per-service. Many of the per-service musicians have jobs outside the KSO which continue through the summer.
This summer I plan to take a bit of a break from the viola and dust off my violin. Before I moved to Knoxville I split my time pretty evenly between the two instruments. Now summer is the only time I have to really focus on the violin. I like to switch in the summer primarily because it gives me a break physically without having to put the instrument down completely. The violin is smaller and lighter than the viola, the notes are closer together and you don't have to work as hard to get a good sound. The body of repertoire for the violin is a lot bigger as well. Beethoven wrote 10 sonatas for the violin, 0 for the viola. Mozart wrote over a dozen sonatas for the violin, 0 for the viola. Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Dvorak all wrote concertos for violin (and not for the viola). There are certainly great pieces for the viola (Bartok Concerto, Schubert Arpeggione Sonata, two Brahms Sonatas, etc), there is just more to choose from in violin land.
I will also be blogging here all summer, so be sure to check back every Monday and Thursday!
Showing posts with label athletic musician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label athletic musician. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Feel the Burn
The Seventh Symphony is one of my favorite Beethoven Symphonies to listen to. Whenever I have had the chance to play the piece I have really looked forward to it. After the first rehearsal, though, it always comes flooding back to me how physically demanding the seventh symphony is and I start to plan how to make it through the week without injuring myself. Tonight after the dress rehearsal, Concertmaster Mark Zelmanovich joked that there were two orthopedic symphonies: Beethoven's Seventh and Schubert's Great. I don't think he's too far off.
I know, “My, what an athletic group of people” is probably not the first thought that enters your mind when you see the Knoxville Symphony on stage. There is no KSO baseball team or even fantasy football league. But, like professional athletes, we have worked for years and years to train our bodies to do what we need them to do. The difference between, say, the KSO's viola section and the LA Lakers is that we in the viola section have spent our time honing our fine motor skills while the LA Lakers have been focusing on gross motor skills. All of the musicians in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are elite fine motor athletes.
The element that makes Beethoven's Seventh Symphony so physically challenging is rhythm. The entire symphony is driven by repeated rhythmic figures. In the hands of a lesser composer I could see this being boring or even irritating for the listener. Not so with this symphony. Actually, the repetition of rhythm is what makes the first and fourth movements so exciting to listen to. It is music that GOES somewhere.
Everyone sitting on the stage has a turn at driving the rhythm, but Beethoven seemed to be particularly fond of putting the second violin and viola sections in the driver's seat. In the fourth movement, the seconds and violas play pages of fast notes. This is after we have played everything else on the program. If the concert were a marathon, the last movement of the Beethoven would be right around mile 20 where people start hitting “the wall” and feel like they can't go on. Tonight during the dress rehearsal I hit the wall about half a page into the last movement. I had a cramp in the bicep of my bow arm. (I didn't know it was even possible to have a cramp there!) The muscle started twitching. My shoulder burned. But, like a runner, I powered through and felt exhilarated at the end.
I know, “My, what an athletic group of people” is probably not the first thought that enters your mind when you see the Knoxville Symphony on stage. There is no KSO baseball team or even fantasy football league. But, like professional athletes, we have worked for years and years to train our bodies to do what we need them to do. The difference between, say, the KSO's viola section and the LA Lakers is that we in the viola section have spent our time honing our fine motor skills while the LA Lakers have been focusing on gross motor skills. All of the musicians in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra are elite fine motor athletes.
The element that makes Beethoven's Seventh Symphony so physically challenging is rhythm. The entire symphony is driven by repeated rhythmic figures. In the hands of a lesser composer I could see this being boring or even irritating for the listener. Not so with this symphony. Actually, the repetition of rhythm is what makes the first and fourth movements so exciting to listen to. It is music that GOES somewhere.
Everyone sitting on the stage has a turn at driving the rhythm, but Beethoven seemed to be particularly fond of putting the second violin and viola sections in the driver's seat. In the fourth movement, the seconds and violas play pages of fast notes. This is after we have played everything else on the program. If the concert were a marathon, the last movement of the Beethoven would be right around mile 20 where people start hitting “the wall” and feel like they can't go on. Tonight during the dress rehearsal I hit the wall about half a page into the last movement. I had a cramp in the bicep of my bow arm. (I didn't know it was even possible to have a cramp there!) The muscle started twitching. My shoulder burned. But, like a runner, I powered through and felt exhilarated at the end.
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