Violin Concerto

I have been toying with the idea of learning a violin concerto.  For fun.  Not to perform for people.  The question, though, is which one?  If it's too hard, then I will give up.  I went through the music I already own and flipped through it and came up with Mozart's 3rd.  I watched it on youtube with Gustavo Dudamel conducting and Hilary Hahn playing.

This morning I followed a link on Twitter from Southwest Strings to take a quiz to see "What Violin Concerto Are You?"  I answered some personality questions, and what do you know?  Mozart #3 popped up as the answer!  Karma?

Song for Women's Choir

This morning I started working on a song for our newly-formed Women's Choir at church, and since I want to take a little break from the arranging mode, I am working on an original piece.  I started by looking through old files and coming across something that I had "jotted down" in 2008 that I had called "Hymn."  I took that 40 seconds of the D-dorian tune and started some harmony, then added a refrain.

The difficult part for me is to come up with lyrics.  I started looking through hymn books to get some inspiration, and, at first, I came up with some words based on the Beatitudes.  I don't think the mode of the song fits the words especially well, so I kept looking.  Although I have not written any more lyrics, I think I want to work on some that are based on Psalm 137 - the poem of longing by the Israelites held captive in Babylon.  You know the one - By the Waters of Babylon, or On The Willows in Godspell.

Question and Answer

Working on the question

Completed q and a

 I have been working with the upper grade students on the concept of a musical conversation - Question and Answer.  I like using these cards which give each rhythm a different color.  This photo on the right shows the two students' completed task of creating a question, and then an answer that uses the same rhythmic material, but in a different order.

Bell Ringer

I chose the photo where I am hiding...

This morning in church I resurrected an instrument from my past.  Okay, the instrument was not dead, but I have not played in a bell choir since high school.  This month in church we are highlighting the music ministry, and I volunteered to be part of an ad hoc group of children and adults in a version of the 150th Psalm.  It was great fun to ring the bells in a cacophonous sound which ended on a C Major Triad.

Arranging....

Here's an update on what I've been working on since the new year in the arranging department:

• Finished the first draft of the jazzed-up version of Sheebeg and Sheemore I am calling Sheebeg Some More
• A recorder version of the Scottish tune Kelvingrove for SAT
• An SA version of In a Land Where We'll Never Grow Old for a new Women's Choir at church

Sheebeg Some More

So, here's how I'm coming along on my goal to do more arranging/composing.  As of this morning, I now have about 1 1/2 minutes of a jazzy rendition of O'Carolan's Sheebeg and Shemore.  My inspiration has been Dave Brubeck's Kathy's Waltz (which starts out in 4/4) as performed by the Quartet San Francisco.  The texture has to be much thinner in my version since it is only for violin and cello, though I may want to make a trio or quartet version of it, too, someday.

Tomorrow we play through what I have written down so far to see what works and what doesn't, and then....expand!

Tiny Desk Concerts

Oh, my.  I think I've found another time-sink.  While browsing my cousin's facebook page, I saw a link to a video that her son put there which included Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile and Stewart Duncan. I wasn't very aware, I guess, of this NPR series of short concerts.  Here is a link to the archive of the 150 or so videos of these little concerts since 2008. Maybe I'll surface one of these days after immersing myself in these videos!