Tag Archives: Midsummer Night’s Dream

Day 123 – January 31st – Two Thirds

Posted on by
Reply

The last day of January marks two thirds of the way through the flute studio course! A little more if we’re splitting hairs, since February is short. After a rather turbulent January with classes being shifted around, lots of trips up to London and then a particularly crazy last two weeks, today was a good moment to stop and collect myself a little in preparation for the remaining two months. In aid of that, I took myself off on a long and blustery walk across the Downs this afternoon. It was chilly, and the melted snow made for very soggy ground, but there is something wonderful about squelching through mud. I got back just as it began to snow again, and had a lovely practice session while watching the farm outside turn white!

After the last few days of particularly noticing nervousness and tension, my goal today was to practice well and without tension. I think that in my panic to get things prepared this last week, I’ve tended to note bash, learning in mistakes and then tension associated with them. Not good at all. Anyway, hopefully now that I’m a little more aware of what I’m doing, I can stop doing it an practice a little better.

I’m preparing Andersen No. 13 for Monday, which is a chromatic study with the odd whole tone put in for good measure (to trip us up!). After doing so much practice of patterns and scales, I am noticing that much more of these studies falls under the fingers easily. I suppose that’s why this one feels so devilish – I fall into the pattern and then it changes.

I’m supposed to be doing Altes No. 20 and 21 for Monday, but keep jumping ahead and practising no. 22 as well. It’s a duet arrangement of the Mendelssohn Scherzo from Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I really enjoy playing it. Getting through the whole thing is a tongue stamina challenge rather than (apart from one or two tricky passages) any problem of notes. The first flute part (which I play) doesn’t get the main solo until the very end, after seven pages of double tonguing, and the challenge is to make it still sound fresh, clear and bouncy. I’d like to think I can manage all three studies for class, but we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

Day 37 – November 6th – Jack Frost

Posted on by
Reply

Mist of dawn,
And up winding hedgerows,
‘cross hill and field,
Down the garden path,
Jack Frost danced.

How,
In such a whimsy, merry flight,
To coat each grass blade,
Nettle,
Earthy ridge,
With a dust of sparkling white?

I, racing morning sun,
Try to squeeze heavy boots
‘tween glistening spires,
Yet my footfall only quickens
A miniature spring.

The child of five takes my hand,
Wide-eyed with carefree wisdom.
“Jack Frost,” says she, “will return –
Come now, for in such a chilly morn
We must play at dragons.”

 

As for the rest of my day, class was mostly positive. Trevor’s only comment on my Scherzo from Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mendelssohn) was that the quality of my double tonguing needed some work. Everything else – tempo, dynamics, breathing, phrasing – all seems good, which was heartening.

Similarly, the slow sections of my Damase met with general approval, though I wasn’t terribly confident with the faster passages. Despite managing everything quite well during my practice sessions, I’m generally struggling to play fast passage-work on class if it’s relatively new. I’m not sure that it’s nerves so much as a lack of confidence in my abilities after such short practice periods, and it’s definitely something I need to work on.

I had another tune this week, Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, and while I am generally improving with the exercise Trevor made a very interesting comment. I had proposed Ulpirra, a little piece by Australian composer Ross Edwards, as a potential solo in our Christmas concert, and got up to play it directly after Salut d’Amour. Trevor noted that my performance of the two pieces was hugely different – Ulpirra had so much life, expression and (by contrast) a full tone with more varied dynamics. His conclusion was that I play expressively when I really love the music, but don’t understand ‘normal’ tunes because I’m so fixed on contemporary music. I rather disagree with the whole of that statement – I don’t just love contemporary music, and am much more open-minded that he seems to be giving me credit for! However, it is a reminder that I can’t let any reservations I do have about certain pieces get in the way of my performance – I have to play with a full commitment to every note.