Sounds and senses

Tonight I have my first performance of many pieces....Mirror by Edward Mebius, Reminiscences of Tranquillity by Yinam Leef and Tratti by Ig Henneman. My scores are still too low but I'm working so hard and trying my best - sounds obvious, but there it is!

Since my lesson the other day with Di Xiao, I have really committed myself to the interpretation of Leef's Reminiscences of Tranquillity, which is a really spiritual piece that requires a deep tranquillity to flow from within the performer. Tranquillity is not something that comes naturally to me, whilst running round like a headless chicken and feeling a bit panicky about a big competition, so finding my inner calm and allowing this music to flow through me has been immensely theraputic and beneficial to the rest of my practise, as well as my mental well-being!

I have also taken a lot from Di's inspiring advice on 'Mirror' by Edward Mebius, one of my two Dutch pieces. This piece is like a miniature play about a relationship that shifts through phases of peace, conflict and emotional numbness. It can quickly shift about ten gears and go from crystalline single harmonics...to rapid virtuosic feats where the hands seem to be trying to conquer opposing technical mountains!..and back to static, steady, semiquaver numbness. It's a really unusual piece. My son designs objects on Lego Digital Designer on the net, where you can build a model on the screen, watch it explode in 3D and then watch the pieces rebuild to form the model again. Mirror reminds me of this, in structure and meaning.

I have been emailing with Ig Henneman - the only female composer on my programme - about 'Tratti'. I should mention that I have a lot of music by female composers and I love playing music from the woman's point of view. However, when I was constructing my programme, there were certain pieces I had to include - for the requirements and for my personal passions about them - so it was a case of trying lots and lots of other pieces and finding the greatest possible variety of styles and expressions.

I am enjoying playing 'Tratti' for myself, and will find out in a mini preview of my programme for a few friends tonight, what it is like to perform it! 'Tratti' is Italian for 'features' and this piece has incredibly controlled, distinctive features - there is no room for interpretation here, I have to do exactly what the composer says!

Anyway, my practise beckons again, I was just taking a tiny break, and so back I go....

Ellie

Less than a month to go...things are hotting up!

I'm getting excited now about performing all this music. Just a few things to share with you today:

1. As promised, the scores so far:

I think there's now nothing lower than a 4, but obviously still a LOT more work to be done!

My new pride and joy, big orchestral bell tree:
and the new banana tree with three small 'bells' hanging from it.

My new ankle bells (vintage Indian dancing bells...they're already shedding bells left, right and centre and I shall need to get my needle and thread out very soon!)

 

Poster for first preview performance...only a week away now!

and last but certainly not least, a beautiful example of Practise Fuel, created by my lovely boyfriend Alex. 

PIE!

Coming up this week.....

Lots of practise

Lessons with Di Xiao and Alan Thomas, contemporary guitar hero who WON the Gaudeamus competition many years ago!I am so excited about these lessons :)

Also , a 4 Girls 4 Harps concert in Broxbourne on Wednesday 16th March (Hertfordshire, I think)

Bye for now!

Ellie

Long time no post!

Since my last post I have been practising....well, if I told you *HOW MUCH* I have been practising, you wouldn't believe me. I knew it would happen...it always does at some point....I hit the panic button. Not merely that, but my finger has been depressing said panic button continually since I last blogged. Here is a brief summary of recent events, including some milestones reached, some inspiration from friends, teachers and colleagues and (wait, what's that smell....ah yes, I know it well...) FEAR.

1.
'Real life' (inc housework, correspondance, dressing in the morning before taking son to school, etc etc) has been put firmly on hold. House is nurturing some odd smells and is essentially going to ruin, garden is threatened with deforestation, emails and phonecalls are being emailed and phoned to me umpteen times due to lack of response on my part.

2. Good news, I AM making ground with my preparation for Gaudeamus, I am loving my repertoire more and more every day and am feeling more inspired than ever to be performing this wonderful music.

3. Bad news, progress report (marks out of ten) fell a little by the way side but has now been firmly reinstated. I will capture the delights of this on camera asap for your amusement. Here's a taster from 2 weeks ago:

4. I went to the Netherlands and had an inspirational weekend with Erika Waardenburg. I won't pass on any of her tips via this blog as they are priceless, but do have a price, and I thoroughly recommend to any harpist a weekend with Erika or her Summer or Spring course. All details are on her website, www.erikawaardenburg.com

I was so motivated by this weekend with Erika that even after the long journey home, I went immediately to my harp on my return and practised for 2 hours before I had to cease fire for the neighbours. This motivation is absolutely keeping me going all the way through, now. THANK YOU, Erika!

As an aside, Erika had a fun and ingenious selection of percussion instruments for me to sample...here's a taster of them:

'Bell tree', mini cymbals, beater...

'large triangle' (sort of understudy for large triangle!...aka Big Brass Bowl - well it does have a beautiful ting)

Bongos, woodblocks, beaters.


Having to ad lib with Erika's selection of instruments, instead of my utterly boring ones, was illuminating, great fun and rather liberating. It showed me that the music is far more important than having the exact selection of percussion instruments and that often the sound of an antique bell, or a big bowl, can be far more attractive and evocative than a specially bought percussion instrument. I was particularly inspired by Erika's ingenious use of a banana holder to hang bells off (photos of my copy-cat version in next post)









Between practise sessions I now find myself walking or driving along tapping out R.M. Schafer's insanely complex 13/8 rhythms on the steering wheel/umbrella/my nose whilst grinding my teeth as a rhythmical replacement of the insistent ankle bell motif....apologies to anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, all will be revealed when you hear me perform this fabulous piece! Which I did, for the first time, last night :) At least, half of it....but it's a start - a breakthrough in fact.

Here's a poster for another performance I have coming up of my whole Gaudeamus programme:

I am aware that I'm rambling on a bit, so I'll sign off now and endeavour to be back soon. However, with only a month to go til Gaudeamus, I'm using every available second to live, breathe and feel this music. That doesn't always leave time for a blog post but sometimes it's fun to be able to share a few bits and bobs with you and to draw a line under something that I may have achieved...this week, definitely Ariadne's Dance!

Til soon, thanks for reading,

Ellie