bka

I must have seen it on TV in the 90s.

At the end, the commandatore stays like a statue, and giovanni gets taken by the hand and led to hell by a little kid. was super effective visual...

and i think the dinner table slides away to reveal the portal to the underworld?

Since then I always thought using a child as a proxy was pretty common way to stage it, and I thought i'd seen it done that way more than once... but now i can't find any vids that do it that way...

Any ideas which production(s) i might be remembering?

according to imslp, the first edition of schumann's marchenbilder contained a violin part as an option to the viola version.

http://imslp.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rchenbilder,_Op.113_%...

but i've never seen anyone play it on violin.

(assuming this is because violins have enough rep today that they don't feel the need to steal more from violas)

does anyone know of it being played on violin?

is it a proper thing to do?

or shall we assume it's not the composers intent and this is something the editors did to give it wider sales?

looking for a good recording of the planets by holst, but i'm finding my usual favorite orchs don't play it as convincingly as i'd have hoped.

is there one i've overlooked?

something explaining the ratio of the length of the string behind the bridge to the vibrating length. and specifically what problems come up if it is wrong, due to fine tuners, tailgut length, bridge placement.... ?

i dont know as much as i would like to about this :(

but i do know enough to send my students to a luthier instead of just guessing at it.

i have an assumption that when an instrument is in tune and the strings are not false, but it "rings funny" ... maybe it has to do with this.

is that right?

wondering about our orchestral tuning ritual.

i know its useful for the strings... and maybe the winds..

but do the brass really get much out of it?

a student group, i kinda get it... but for pros... when i work in smaller ensembles with brass... it kinda seems like thats not how they work.. and they adjust actively while playing as needed. and in orchestra i notice them rolling their eyes at the violinist who makes them "take another A" when the conductor complains about intonation...

so how about it, horn players.. are you just going through the motions and laughing at the front of the orchestra?

wouldnt you want to strap them down and force them to listen to:

corelli

telemann

biber

cima

buxtehude

marais

schutz

quantz

oh its late... who am i leaving out....?

choosing a piano for rehearsals and student accompaniment.

i wont play it much myself though.

thinking a small grand gives a better sense of balance, but i'd be affording a lower quality one than if i got a console.

i know an upright can have stronger low end due to string length/soundboard, but don't really want an upright because of the difficulty of seeing around it in ensemble settings.

wondering what pianist opinions are on this comparison? midrange console vs cheap grand?

string players, do you teach these? if so, at what level?

i used to mainly do it only with advanced students that seemed like they would continue to the point where they would run into them...

but feels like they are getting more common...

and lately i've brought it up with a lot of near beginners as a way of stopping them from playing "medium 2" in place of high or low 2.

give it a name and a symbol and tell them to only play it when they see that symbol, and then point out that vivaldi and haydn never wrote it...

could it be a bad idea? confusing?

i wouldnt think it would weaken their diatonicness... since they'll be enculturated to 12 tones from their normal surroundings?

thoughts?

since chinese is a tonal language, how does that affect setting words to music?

is there something similar to declamation in european languages? like where we have certain syllables that make more sense on downbeats, or words like "the" that make more sense on upbeats?

does chinese music have those kind of considerations in pitch?

i have a viola/violin student who is also a very talented singer.

recently she's been complaining that a few of the other kids in her small ensemble are singing "wrong"

her background is a few high level local choirs, but not private voice lessons.

the girls she complains about are around 11 or 12 and study solo classical singing. they use vibrato and have a more operatic and less blended sound.

their private teacher has a VERY good reputation so i wouldn't expect her to be doing anything damaging to them, but i have heard elsewhere that it is controversial to try for vibrato at a young age, so i'm not sure what to believe.

is this just a different teaching style between solo and choir training? or is something really wrong here?

i have also asked her before why she doesn't take private voice lessons and she has said "theres no point, because anything you learn before you get your adult voice will stop working anyway" (she's 13)

seemed odd to me, because i'd think diction and such would still be worth training, and you could at least build some repertoire... but she claims to have heard it from multiple sources, so it's not just one cultish choir director who doesn't want another teacher influencing their students.

any insights as to why she's being told this?

she says she won't bother doing private lessons until she is 16.

she's really good, should i be encouraging her to get a vocal teacher now?

or can she get enough technical training in choir until then?

(are little kids who do take voice lessons really wasting their money?)

as a string player, i compare it to someone planning to just play in orchestra until 11th grade and then getting private lessons, which tends to lead to problems! but... voice is different?

any one else having this issue?

when i record my students at recitals, sometimes they like to have their performances uploaded to youtube to share with relatives out of town.

frequently this triggers an automatic copyright infringement issue. the vids still play on the site, but not when embedded into emails, and i get a warning.

it seems to happen most with telemann and bach as opposed to classical composers or later...

i dispute it and it never comes back, but i can't figure out what makes it happen in the first place.

anyone else notice this happening frequently?

any ideas why?

insights into their automated process and what triggers it?

carbon fiber bows for string instruments have been around for quite a while now.

originally they were ... not quite there, or gimmicky, but things seem to be improving.

their predictability, and the fact that they don't break as easily when mistreated, has led me to appreciate them for students when compared to wood bows in the same price range.

and i use them professionally now in situations where i may not be as careful as i'd like with a nice pernambuco stick...

but now there are whole string instruments being made out of carbon fiber. and... they don't sound as bad as i'd expect...?

and i'm realizing other instruments are being made this way too... flutes? bassoon bocals?

i'm curious, whats the vibe on these things...?

starting to become normal? or still offensive to traditional sensibilities?

as successful for other instruments as with strings?

any other unexpected instruments you've heard of made from this material?

in this style of violin playing, is there one common tuning for the violin? or does it change depending on the mode used?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajtglYDxIxs