1/
Modern music is my passion. Musicians are collaborators.
*Starting in 2019, I’ve been working towards making an album of David Jaeger’s viola music.
This thread (1 tweet per day) will
feature all aspects of the process.
*actually the story starts in 2014, maybe 1986?
Modern music is my passion. Musicians are collaborators.
*Starting in 2019, I’ve been working towards making an album of David Jaeger’s viola music.
This thread (1 tweet per day) will
feature all aspects of the process.
*actually the story starts in 2014, maybe 1986?
2/
In 1986 a (vinyl) record fell into my hands…
In 1986 a (vinyl) record fell into my hands…
3/
I was in high school in Hamilton, Ontario and was playing weekly in the McMaster Symphony Orchestra. It was a community organization, however the standard was very high for a mostly amateur group. I was truly out of my league, seeing Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony on my stand.
I was in high school in Hamilton, Ontario and was playing weekly in the McMaster Symphony Orchestra. It was a community organization, however the standard was very high for a mostly amateur group. I was truly out of my league, seeing Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony on my stand.
4/
If you have never seen treble clef and 7th position in a piece before, you would be frightened as well. Anyway, in one rehearsal the spring of 1986, the conductor Lee Hepner held up something and asked: “Does someone want this record?”
If you have never seen treble clef and 7th position in a piece before, you would be frightened as well. Anyway, in one rehearsal the spring of 1986, the conductor Lee Hepner held up something and asked: “Does someone want this record?”
5/
This. High school 1986 me hadn’t known violists made solo records.
This. High school 1986 me hadn’t known violists made solo records.
6/
Had to have that vinyl record. Was compelled. So I was strangely not shy at that moment of that ask, and I said “yes, please.” So I became the new owner of this viola recording. This changed the trajectory of my life. However, not right away.
Had to have that vinyl record. Was compelled. So I was strangely not shy at that moment of that ask, and I said “yes, please.” So I became the new owner of this viola recording. This changed the trajectory of my life. However, not right away.
7/
..because I didn’t listen to this record right away…
..because I didn’t listen to this record right away…
8/ Many times in life and certainly in studying, we don’t know what will become valuable. A future gift. Sometimes the gift will stay dormant, waiting for the right time and place to reveal itself. Maybe days, or years.
9/ In fact when I listened to the record for the first time a month later, I only lasted one track. Was so confused by the new sounds and musical language. Didn’t make sense . Wasn’t ready. Put it back on the shelf for another two years.
10/
It’s easy to dismiss something artistic after hearing or viewing only a part. Sometimes that may be it, and one may never return to reexperience.
It’s easy to dismiss something artistic after hearing or viewing only a part. Sometimes that may be it, and one may never return to reexperience.
11/ So two years pass....end of high school, beginning of university...
12/ I had a lot of catching up regarding playing the viola in those next few years, learning the extensive techniques of scales, double stops, and studies.
13/ During those next few years, anytime I encountered a piece of contemporary music in the library, it was like a puzzle: the harmonic language, the notation, the use of lots of high positions ;).
#viola #newmusic #challenge #studies
#viola #newmusic #challenge #studies
14/ Therefore, I played little contemporary music except for an occasional piece in youth and undergrad orchestras. Indeed, no solo music. #viola #beginnings #student #music #solo
15/ So anyway, I get to my third year of undergraduate music studies—flash forward to one day in January 1990. There was a lot of upheaval in my life that school year…
16/ Basically that year I got way off track in so many areas. Most significant was that I overbooked myself by not setting boundaries so much that I was neglecting growing my own viola playing and hurting my health. A thread someday on that…anyway…
17/ I finally pull out that record, that unheard gift from all those years ago. The Viola Nouveau record. And I listened to the whole thing. Hearing those unfamiliar sounds for the first time. It was amazing.
18/ (Getting to the good part…)
19/ Two pieces stood out for me on that album's listening: Milton Barnes' "The Lamentations of Jeremiah" and David Jaeger's "Favour."
20/ The second piece, Favour, just stunned me. There were tons of sounds I have never heard before, the space machine, the delays. BTW, this was the same year I was getting into Erasure and Depeche Mode, so this was totally my aesthetic.
21/ So I repeatedly listened to the Viola Nouveau album over five to six months.
Because of that listening, I now liked contemporary music.
Because of that listening, I now liked contemporary music.
22/ In a movie, that last tweet would be a nice ending, a tied-up bow, for that chapter of my life. However this is not a movie, it was more complicated than that.
23/ In a movie, I would have made a road trip in the summer of ‘91 to Toronto to get music. And would have learned and performed Favour the next year for my 4th year recital. However…since real life…I had absolutely no idea where to go next.
24/ Could have said that it was life interfering that prevented me from getting the sheet music. However the truth is that I talked myself out of learning the piece. I saw the “gap” and thought it was too large.
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