Urban Tapestry practice

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You can see my other handwritten Blatherings entries in this Flickr set.

Aug/Sept 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

star wars concert

As soon as I walked into the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall last night for the Star Wars concert, I knew I should have brought my camera. Princess Leia and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (with a working light saber) were walking around in costume, for example...and those were just a couple of the concert attendees! Concert goers were also greeted by Storm Troopers, Darth Vader and a furry Wookie, and we could also gawk at an amazing full-size R2D2 and Darth Vader constructed completely of Lego.

Debuting in this city last night with a repeat performance tonight, the Star Wars concert is being performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and The Mississauga Choral Society, conducted by Erich Kunzel, a long-time friend of Star Wars composer John Williams. Anthony Daniels, the actor behind the android C-3PO in the movie, narrated the concert.

I attended the concert with Luisa, Walter, Hrach, Vartan and Julie. We opted for cheaper seats ($30 incl tax) which overlooked the stage. I've never seen an orchestral concert from this perspective before, and really enjoyed the view of the conductor and performers, especially the percussionists. The only downside was that we couldn't see a few of the brass players, but I found it didn't detract that much from my enjoyment of the experience.



Anthony Daniels was a brilliant narrator, and highly entertaining. Whenever a mention of C3PO came up in the narrative, for example, Daniels would take great pleasure in adding an embellishment. Once he rambled on so long about how important and wonderful the android was in the story that Eric Kunzel, who was waiting to cue the orchestra, turned around and mock-glared at him.

:-D

Hearing the musical highlights from the six movies was a wonderful experience, particularly those from A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Not only did the music remind me of my various favourite scenes from the films, but also evoked a strong sense of nostalgia from my childhood. I remembered Ruth and I going to see Star Wars for the first time at Shopper's World in Brampton. I remembered how my brother had a small figurine of the evil emperor which he used as a Christmas ornament; I have it now. I can still quote part of the final climactic scene between the evil emperor and Luke Skywalker:

EVIL EMPEROR: "Young fool...only now, at the end, do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the Dark Side..."

Yes, I'm a Star Wars geek. :-)

One of my favourite musical bits, though, was from the newer movies...the music while Darth Maul and Qui-Gon are duelling. VERY cool to have such a great view of the percussionists, and the excitement generated by the frantic beat of the music and choir singing made me feel as if I was watching that scene for the first time again.

I think the performers were a bit taken aback by the strong positive response of the audience at the end, more like a rock concert than for a symphony orchestra performance. Lots of clapping, screaming, about 4 or 5 standing ovations (I lost count). To the immense delight of the audience, one of the encore pieces was the music from the Cantina scene in A New Hope, where the aliens are performing in that seedy bar. It was the first time I'd ever seen a symphony conductor actively encouraging the audience to clap along with the music.

After tonight's performance, the Star Wars concert is off to Chicago, Seattle, Cleveland, Denver and Cincinnati.

Thanks so much to Walter for organizing this outing!

June 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

tranzac, postcards

My irises are blooming!

Last Tranzac session for the summer took place last night; I didn't realized this because I had missed the last session (my tendinitis was acting up).

Seems like ages since my first Irish music session at the Tranzac, but it's actually been a little over six months. I remember how scared I was back then!

Back then, I only knew a handful of tunes and had very little experience with sessions. Half a year later, I'm at the stage where I can play on at least a few of the tunes each session from memory (with varying degrees of competence), recognize others well enough to play along with sheet music, and can recognize many more by the sound of the tune though not yet well enough to look them up or play along.



Last night, I brought along copies of the sheet music to St. Mary's Polka, also known as Gurteen Cross and Paige's Polka (the tune Dave Clement taught me). I used the sheet music from TheSession.org since that was closer to the version that some people at the Tranzac seemed to know. Denis went through each part of the tune slowly with the group, we played through the entire tune several times.

I still feel incredibly lucky to have picked the Tranzac as my first Irish session experience. The group is friendly and welcoming to newcomers, and I've found the learning sessions led by Denis Lyons and Bob Gardiner to be very instructive. Denis was at the session last night, and I made him a little thank you cartoon. :-)

After Jeff and I move to North York, it will take me a bit longer to get to the sessions but it would take more than mere distance to keep me from attending. :-)

Thanks so much for the postcards, Parki, Becca, Gary and Ju! It was a nice surprise finding them in my P.O. earlier this week. You can see their postcards in my Flickr Postcard collection.

June 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

POLL: music lessons

I'm learning Peeler's Jacket and Red-Haired Lass this week, plus reviewing tunes I've already learned. I'm starting to spend part of each penny whistle lesson learning a new tune by ear.

This is a new experience for me; I'm used to the security of learning from sheet music. After a successful learning session with Dave Clement before FKO where he taught me Paige's Polka (St. Mary's Polka) by ear, however, I'm encouraged. Learning by ear is more difficult for me, but I find I retain the tunes more solidly. I learned The Butterfly this way, a slip jig (in 9/8 time) in E minor, and last night Karen taught me Tripping Up The Stairs (jig in D).

I'm learning a great deal from Karen, not just what she explicitly teaches me but also from observation: watching how she plays, especially tunes she's re-remembering or trying for the first time, how she adds ornaments. A great deal of the lesson is sometimes discussion about tunes in general, session player etiquette, origin and tradition of tune-playing, etc.

Another thing I'm learning quickly is that playing WITH someone is a very different experience from playing on one's own. Since sessions at the Tranzac only happen twice a month (and sometimes I have to miss one, or even two in a row), having the chance to go through tunes with an experienced whistle-player like Karen has been helping a great deal.

Taking music lessons as an adult is a contrast to taking them as a child. I've been on both sides as a teacher and a student; when I was teaching piano, my oldest student was in her 60s. Some differences:

- Adults tend to take their lessons more seriously because they're paying for them themselves.

- Adults tend to be more self-conscious about making mistakes.

- Adults are often more motivated to practice BUT they also have less time because of everything else going on in their lives.

A poll question: Did you ever take music lessons? What type? Did you enjoy them? Are you taking any lessons now?

Wrote 850 words yesterday for my novel. Sent out a query for a non-fiction article and did some research for some reprint article markets.

Today we have our second of two official visits to the new house. This time we're bringing our contractor, an insurance appraiser, and someone to measure for carpets.

8 days until we get our house.

May 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

tranzac

Hey, my sister's book, Me and My Sister, is in its SECOND printing. How very cool.

Really enjoyed the Irish music session at the Tranzac last night. I had to miss the last two biweekly sessions, so was going through withdrawal pangs. Bigger crowd yesterday evening. We started off by learning Sweet Biddy Daly, went over Charlie Harris #1 (which they apparently learned last session), and then did a round-robin. I chose Dusty Windowsills. Also played along on several other tunes including The Butterfly, the tune I learned at my last whistle lesson.

Instead of leaving around 9:30 pm as usual, I decided to stay as late as possible. So glad I did! More of the seasoned pros started showing up then, and the session started speeding up and including lesser-known tunes. I put my whistle down and just listened for most of it, all the while feeling incredibly lucky to be in the audience.



Did pick up my whistle and play during St. Mary's Polka, though, which is apparently another name for Paige's Polka, the tune Dave Clement taught me at FKO! You can find a version of it at TheSession.org (it's also known as Gurteen Cross). Click on the tabs along the top to find the ABC transcription and sheet music. I updated the database to list its alternate name as Paige's Polka.

Anyway, Karen Light (my whistle teacher) led the tune and told the others I had taught it to her. :-D When the tune was over, Dennis showed us a variation we could add. I love this oral tradition of learning tunes, which I'm finding far more satisfying than learning tunes on my own or from a recording.

One challenge I'm finding is keeping up my tunes while still learning new ones. Attending sessions regularly helps tremendously because the tunes settle into your brain, making it easier to pick them up again. And I have much more sympathy for those who can play a tune but can't remember the name; I'm starting to find this as well. I'm also finding, as Mary Bertke described, that my ear is improving. I may not have purposely memorized a tune, for example, but find I can play along in a session simply because I've heard it so often and because there are certain musical patterns that occur frequently across tunes.

Also starting to recognize more of the players. Let's see (writing this list down for my own reference)...

Karen - my whistle teacher, also plays concertina
Dennis - banjo, one of the group leaders
Bob - pipes, sells the Black Book, one of the group leaders
Heather - accordion
Emma - whistle
Tim - whistle
Lisa - flute
Frances - flute
Nick - pipes, flute, whistle
Bob & Patricia - father (accordian) & Patricia (concertina)
Deirdre - flute
Nick & Jodi - whistle & concertina
Emily - whistle, the only other Asian I've seen so far
Adam - concertina
Mike - fiddle

There are others I chat with but don't know their names yet. And yet others with whom I've corresponded with in e-mail but haven't connected their names with faces yet. The group changes each session, and also changes over the course of each session as people come and go.

I am so SO glad I decided to open the door at that first session last December.

15 more days.

May 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments