Pat's Journal

Faking it

Tonight we have yet another orchestra rehearsal - strings only! Since Sharon and I play string instruments, we don't get out of this one. It's a Mozart violin concerto and isn't too difficult except for the first movement, which is filled with sixteenth notes that fly by at the speed of sound. I'm sure I won't get them all by concert time - less than three weeks away - but hopefully I can play enough of them and "fake" the rest.

One thing that non-musicians may not know is that almost every musical group "fakes" or doesn't play all the notes of a piece when the piece gets difficult. This usually is OK because of two reasons.

1) The audience is not usually familiar with every note of a composition and only notices when something is out of key or doesn't sound right.

2) Some of the parts were intended by the composer to create a certain feeling, such as gentle waves or the sound of a clock, and as long as enough of the correct notes are played to create that feeling, the piece will still sound good.

Some of the classical composers knew their music theory and placed notes where they should be in their compositions. But that doesn't mean that they ever tried to play the notes they wrote on the instruments they were written for! There have been many pieces I've played that I looked at and said, "What drugs was (insert composer's name here) on when he wrote this?" Mozart, however, rarely made his pieces difficult to play, and they are usually very well structured and pleasant to listen to.

In other family news, I'm relearning physics all over again, since S is taking it this semester and I'm helping him with the homework. I like to call it "Late Night Physics" since S usually asks me for help about 10 PM, when I'd like to go to bed. I also took the first step in applying for S's college financial aid, filling out the FAFSA form. I was more than a little disappointed when the calculations showed we will get little to no aid, since our salaries are too high and I was mistakenly responsible by saving too much money for college. Well, maybe if we're lucky we can still get a low-interest student loan.

Got to zip home now for a quick dinner and then to play Mozart.

Labels: 'S', college, music, orchestra

posted by pat @ 4:10 PM