After 6 hours of Beethoven, I've been crawling back to my itunes to blast some non-classical music every evening. (Preferably with a bit of alcohol too, to wash down that mediocre camp food we've got going on.) Here's the secret-Beethoven is great and all, but he is not god. 6 hours of any composer might be excessive, but hello, 6 hours of Beethoven is a great amount of torture for you're truly. Here's the daily schedule:
8:00 Wake up and do some yoga to prepare for the long haul of sitting that awaits. Shower, breakfast.
9:15 After some wasted time on the internet, snooping on other people's blogs, it's time to warm up.
10-12 Beethoven 18.3 Fun, light, and bubbly, like an aero bar, or cheap champagne
12-1 Entirely mediocre lunchtime food. Truly disappointing salad bar, and the rolls are prepackaged.
1-1:30 Pre-rehearsal cram practicing.
1:30-3:30 Beethoven Op 135. Only like the world's most bizarre piece and kinda awkward and unsatisfying. Every time we rehearse, I feel like I can't play the viola. Great.
4-6 Ensemble rehearsal of Grosse Fugue (AkA. the Big Ass fugue) By this time, I'm checked out, and I just don't care. Lots of notes and stuff going on, but I'm super spacey and tired.
6:00 Dissatisfying Meal Again. Followed by drinks, and sorrow on the state of the food and excesses of playing so much beethoven.
See? That's a whole lotta Beethoven. I could really go for some Bartok right now, Webern perhaps, or something crunchy. I'll settle for popular music, I suppose, since my arms might fall off if I try to play something. This gets back to the more troubling issue-how do I reconcile my obsessions with popular/indie/alternative music with my classical music chops? I've wondered that off and on these last two years, and managed to avoid dealing with that particular issue. I've never really felt inspired to write songs. I can't play guitar well, and my voice is only good for harmonizing. No one would want to hear me lead a band. I'm no Andrew Bird either-can't whistle while playing viola or violin. But I really just love non-classical musics to a point where it is positively troubling. Since school's been out, I'm just scouring the internet for music and news and new releases. I love being an avid listener of the indie scene, for sure, but I just wonder if it will ever be possible to me to part of a non-classical (and sometimes classical) scene. I have no idea what to do about it-I haven't written for a paper since high school, so I probably won't get hired by any music organizations any time soon. It's truly an odd thing, though, having trained for 16+ years in the classical discipline, but craving the aural sensations of another genre in such depth. I've talked about this with a few of my friends off and on, but it's really hitting me hard here, since I like this music enough, but I'd probably be a lot more enthusiastic if I was learning Ligeti, Bartok, Webern, Glass, or something in the last hundred years. It's like I'm unable to relate to more traditional Romantic period musics. It's truly fascinating, and slightly distressing, I must say. How did I get here, and what do I do from here? I suppose only time will tell.
Currently listening to: Sleigh Bells' "Treats" Check it out-it's got some sweet MIA style lo-fi jams.
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