IrishOboe

There is simply not enough time in the day or in the week.  Today I slept in until 9, but other than that, I’ve been working without hardly any breaks and it’s 10:30 and now I understand why I can’t keep my room clean or get practice in.  Today I gave practicing a priority and in addition to that I ran errands but now my Saturday is over and there was no time for writing updates, emails, or relaxing.  When I choose to do those three on Saturday, inevitably the practicing goes out the window.  Somehow I have the idea that all I want to do can actually get done.  I wonder if that’s a pipe dream.  Despite that potentially devastating realizing, I’ve had a good last few days – great ones in fact.

Thursday I got through my long morning classes by looking forward to lunch with Stephan’s Mom.  It was lovely, and not only did she treat me to lunch, but she brought me candy because of my accident.  I’ll have to be careful how much I complain on my blog now or I’ll take advantage of her attentiveness.  She also gave me the newspaper article on my renaissance dance teacher.  I find it fascinating that there’s yet to be an article that doesn’t get something major wrong.  I really don’t trust newspapers.  I hope they were more studious in the medieval period or everything that we think we know about the time is probably wrong.  Anyway, I haven’t sifted through the article yet because for some reason I find newspaper German hard to read, yet with the picture and the title it gives bad information.  I know, I should just be happy that it’s getting publicity, but the picture is not of Renaissance dance at all – it’s simply one of our warm-up exercises which is decidedly more like yoga than anything from the 15^th century.  So much for getting an idea of what the dance looks like.  Why didn’t he use one of the pictures from when we had the sticks?  Anyway, the subtitle of the articles states that Veronique Daniels teaches Renaissance and Baroque dance, which is 50% true.  I suppose that’s good enough for the modern reader.  She knows little about Baroque dance and certainly doesn’t teach it.  I suppose it doesn’t matter, but somehow I think those kinds of details should be accurate, otherwise what can you trust?

Okay, enough of that, and I am happy to have the article and look forward to reading it, but related the rest of the week might explain why I haven’t gotten to it yet.

In the evening I met with another first-year gal in the medieval department who sings and plays hurdy-gurdy and some harp.  We met to play through music together and boy am I glad we did!  She brought some monophonic songs and spent a lighting-quick 2 ½ hours improvising and playing with them.  Call me primitive, but I love monophony and I love modal music.  It’s where it’s at.  This polyphonic stuff is too intellectual and complicated for me.  Sure, it’s fine, but it’s not what really gets me going and it’s not why I came here.  I’ve been rather wondering why I’m not so inspired to practice and why the music isn’t speaking much to me, and Thursday I realized why.  It was so wonderful to just let loose and play around with another musician.  One might question how medieval it really was, but I won’t worry about that.  I was please that I could look at a single line and improvise some sort of harp accompaniment that sounded halfway decent.  Better yet, Lisa liked it so much she wants to do the piece with me for ensemble class.  You have no idea how it feels to be wanted by another musician.  Wow, I am getting somewhere.

We also played some pieces with hurdy-gurdy and fiddle – what fun!  I retuned to have a fourth below my ‘D’ and I’m wondering whether I’ll keep the tuning of the fiddle I’m ordering.  It is so nice to have some fourths.  It’s much easier to sight read with fifths, though because somehow my violin knowledge has stuck with me.  Interestingly enough, when I’m working out a melody in my head or thinking of chords or otherwise picturing music I use oboe fingerings in the air – funny how the mind works.

So I can’t properly describe how much fun it was to jam with Lisa but be content to know that I had a blast and was re-inspired to practice and study.  That makes a huge difference, of course!

Friday I was not so lost in History class as I have been and in German class I got help with how to say certain things that I find myself often trying to say but not knowing how, like “Veronika is not here right now, but if you call again right now I won’t answer the phone and you can leave a message on the answering machine.”  I’ve tried that a number of times in my own German and I think 10% of the people have understood correctly . . .

This week I’d been efficient with my time, using every little space to get work done as quickly as possible.  I’d planned to do personal work Friday night after all the school work was done, but Rebekkah invited me over and I couldn’t refuse.  It was the first time the two of us had hung out and it was good to talk.  For some reason she was interested in how Stephan and I got together and though it might be hard to believe, I was somehow able to talk her ear off about it . . .

Well, that meant Saturday would have to be full of good work so I could be ahead when Stephan comes back, but though I worked all day, I still have much to do!  I went to school and practice harp for nearly two hours and did some other work there, then I went shopping to return my borrowed phone and ask what was up with my returned one.  There was something funky with the screen again.  A white strip showed up in front of the background so I couldn’t see the clock.  Despite claims it was a hardware failure we managed to find an easy solution – hit the hang-up button and it disappears.  Don’t ask me why it didn’t do that before and why the solution is so mysterious, but at least it works and I don’t have to send the phone back.

I also realize that I should never go shopping at 5pm on Saturday – that’s an hour before closing and all the foreigners are out because the suddenly realized they won’t be able to shop again until Monday.  Okay, some Swiss were out, too, but the crowds were amazing, and I’m pretty sure a good 50% of them were not Swiss.

I got home at 6:30 feeling great for having done so much work, including a number of little errands that weigh on the mind and feel great when they’re finally done.  I had dinner with Veronika and her friend, then Skyped with Stephan who was in the Vienna airport.  2 for 3.  Then I practiced fiddle until 10 and also played a little bit for Veronika’s guest.  She really liked my playing and I could tell she was sincere.  It’s a bit odd to think that someone thinks I’m really good at fiddle.  However mistake she is, I’m at least making progress, whahoo!  Another interesting anecdote: there’s nothing new under the sun.  All those tricks Bethoveen uses to write a symphony out of four notes?  Medieval composers used all the same tricks.  Surely John Cage was original?  I just came across a 14^th century piece for three voices with no notes.   It has a title, a text, and everything.  4’ 33” was done 700 years ago . . .

Well, now I have the update done but there are papers all over my room and laundry that needs to be folded.  My room has been worse, but it aught to be much better!!!! 

Somehow I don’t feel this post reflected my good mood.  I suppose I can’t emphasize enough how things with music effect how I feel.  Now do you still wonder why I was always leery of marrying another professional musician?

I failed to mention how I’m feeling from the accident.  That’s because I can hardly tell I was in one.  I’ve just started to show a few faint bruises, and I only feel a little sore in the hip.  Other than that, I’m back to normal!  That amazes me.

Have a blessed Sabbath!  I will.  My special someone is back. :) :)