New Music

Saturday we had our first orchestra concert of the season, which went pretty well, except for my walking on stage when I wasn't supposed to.  The orchestra played five pieces, but I was only in the first and last, and I apparently need to get more sleep, because I walked up there after intermission with the rest of the section. Thankfully the basses were still coming on stage so I slipped back off behind them. The viola section will be laughing about that for a long time.

Before we even played the concert they gave us the music for the next. That was slightly depressing. We barely got "the satisfaction and pride of a job well done" before we were given our next assignment! On the other hand, that is the most efficient way to handle it. No wasting rehearsal time handing out parts.

Yesterday I listened to a recording of one of the pieces, Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla. I recognized it immediately, and my heart sank. I had noticed when I got the sheet music that it starts out presto, but I didn't remember it was THAT degree of presto. Sigh. (Presto is the second fastest tempo marking, 168-200bpm, outrun only by prestissimo, more than 200bpm). I'll have to give my fingers caffeine injections.

My parents and sister came to the concert, but were surprised at how different the music was. This is interesting, because it didn't seem that unusual to me. If you have the time, could you please listen to these pieces and tell me how they sound to you? Are they hard to listen to? Do they sound like they have no center or base, or both? I've become used to listening to this kind of music, so I'm not sure how they sound to the casual observer anymore, and I would like to hear what you think.

Here are the pieces, composer then title:
Castellanos: Santa Cruz de Pacairigua
John Adams: The Chairman Dances (Foxtrot for Orchestra)

Thank you!

Transitions

Freshman year: done.

Hold on while I go run around the lake a couple times in utter, joyous exhilaration. (Side note: it took me three tries to spell exhilaration correctly. *sigh* Apparently four days without school and I'm already losing knowledge). 

It strikes me how important transitions can be in certain periods of our lives. When a gradual transition isn't possible, the result is either high stress or a better result because I didn't have time to worry. So, how am I transitioning into summer?

By working, using up my hours in the conservatory office. I had three days at home before I was back at school, haha. It would have been nice to be at home this week, but I'm staying with one of the ladies from the office. She and her husband have a beautiful house beside a marvelous lake. To top it off, her husband loves to cook! I had a cornish hen, brown rice, and corn on the cob for dinner. Right now, I'm watching a cake show on TLC. I feel like I'm already on vacation.

The sad thing is that I'll only have one day at home before we're on the road again. Friday I work in the office, Friday night I work at a dress rehearsal for a dance concert, then I drive home for some sleep. Saturday morning my whole family leaves at 7:20 a.m. to go pack meals at church. After that we leave for the beach.

Hopefully sometime this summer I'll just...relax.

But why would I want that? Hahahahahaha.

Happy summer!

"I get down, He lifts me up/I get down, He lifts me up..."

That's the song that comes to mind right now. When I start to get overwhelmed by this semester, God brings along someone to cheer me up. I came back to school after being home for the weekend and my roommate had the flu, and now I'm getting it, but I'm sure something will happen to keep my spirits up. In fact, something already did, because campus was closed until 10 today. I didn't have to go to my 8:00am modern dance class, which was sad but nice. I still walked over there, not having checked my texts. So sad.
But still, I didn't have to move around.

There are so many things I need to do right now. Everything has homework. All 10 classes have homework. Hours of it. Interesting and good-for-me homework. Long and tedious and tiresome. Songs in foreign languages to memorize, abnormal psychology terms to import into brain, folk songs to learn, scales to write down, work study that involves more work than study, plain-old practicing, and things to mail! (Sorry Mattea, your letter really is coming. Truly.)

Looking on the bright side, I love my new roommate. She makes me tea :) and is very perky and fun. <3
Prayer answered the way I wanted it, haha. Thank You, Lord.

Wednesday is Cornerstone, the young adult Bible study. I'll be playing a Bali instrument named a Gamelan on Thursday night with the world music ensemble class I'm in. Saturday I'll be playing a nursing home gig with some of the music therapy students. So that's me at the moment.

*sigh*

Over and out

The End Is Near

This is the last day of regular classes for fall 2010! I am so happy! My first finals are half over, since I've already had my piano juries. Yes, they count as half of the work and stress. But they're done, and my grade is okay. 

Now for random stuff I would like to write down, to amuse myself later:

-I just realized I can see my dorm room window from this window across campus. Huh.

-at this moment I can hear a tenor, a violin, a piano, and two people speaking Chinese. Oh, there's a horn of some kind too.

-Friday I got sick. Saturday morning I had my piano jury. The one time in the semester that I got sick! Thankfully, God worked things out okay for that and kept it from going to my throat, which would have made singing in Lessons and Carols a might painful. Yay for His Awsomeness.

-Today we're having lunch in FYS. I think this will be the only Monday all semester that I will have eaten lunch. :)

-I will miss having access to online radio stations. I feel spoiled right now.

When my head comes back up on Saturday, I might post. I might not. Am I prepared to deal with the freedom that will come from completing 18.5 credits? That is the question.

~HalifirienPilgrim

The Days are Just Packed

This is me. In my mind.
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"Do you think he plans it all out or just makes it up as he goes along?"

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Here's my schedule for the day. Just so I know.

10:30 - Write Afghan Women paper

11 - lunch

11:20 - Research childhood in Germany, find pictures, add to iMovie, do voiceovers

12:00 - Finish Afghan Women paper/statistics homework

12:45 - play bubbleshooter :) If I don't schedule this I'll just be doing it the whole time.

1:00 - get ready for Chimers concert

4:30 - change out of concert clothes

4:45 - vacuum/homework/write letters

6:00 - dinner

6:20 - practice

8:20 - homework

9 - watch Raising Hope :D

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This picture should have gone with the previous post, but here it is.

~Halifirien Pilgrim

"Let Us Not Be Hasty"

It bothers me when people jump into things without thinking about the consequences. It really bothers me when people don't set themselves up for success. It really REALLY bothers me when people do all this and hurt others in the process.

Come on, people. Live like you value every minute. If you don't value your own time, consider the people who do. You would have an easier...hold on while I stuff envelopes.

Done. I love work study. To be honest, it's quite refreshing to work with people who have already graduated college. It gives me hope for the world. And they're all so positive, it's just great. I've met a lot of the teachers thanks to having this job.

I shall get off my soapbox now. :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fall break was nice, and it made for a very short school week. I don't have any homework save practicing and working ahead on math, so I am going home for the weekend. I get to see one of my brother's baseball games. I miss those. He was going to have a tournament up here, which would have been very fun, but it was moved. Big bummer.

Things are going smoothly with school. I got my midterms and my grades are fine. Stats could be better, but it might in the end. Part of the problem in that class is that the prof's voice is so soothing. I have a hard time staying awake!

It has been beautiful up here. I went for a bike ride yesterday and found a nice housing development. It's fairly hilly, which is good because you can't go all that fast in neighborhoods. It would also be good for rollerblades, I think. Oh joy, another thing to store in my dorm room.

Okay I must shred paper now. Bye bye.

Free At Last!

I am officially DONE with midterms. At least the ones that haven't been postponed. Tomorrow I have guitar class and FYS, and then I get to go HOOOOOME! Well, first I have to go to the bank and Toys R Us to pick up legos for my bro, but then I'm zipping down the highway. Oh, I also need gas. That's kind of important. *mental note*

This week has been crazy, but it was a little easier because I'm rather used to the craziness now. It's predictable. Predictable craziness is not as hard to handle as unpredictable chaos. Just ask Satie.

So, what kind of break do I get? Just the weekend and two days, but that's okay. I haven't been home since...the first week of September. Wow. Time has flown, and been creeping along, at the same time. Typical school year.

I'm going to miss all the people I've met here. And, I admit, a certain Kawai piano. It just moved from one of the teaching studios, which means it is fairly new, and I've fallen in love with it. I spend more time with it than any other, and I get jealous if someone else is around. Especially people who aren't pianists. It's really annoying to look in that practice room and see a flute player in there. Come on, people, if you're not going to use the piano, at least go to a room that doesn't have a grand!

Thank you. I needed to vent that frustration. Tomorrow in work study, I think I shall ask if I can make posters asking for non-pianists to avoid the grand rooms. Yes. I shall. A couple days ago we were researching tuition rates of other schools. If you want a complicated and confusing project, that's the one for you. I suppose having 3 people working on it at once didn't help, but still, how many different ways can a school display (or bury, disguise, or scatter as the case may be) tuition, room, board, and fees? It was rediculious. Rediculous. Redicoulous. Rediculus. Oh my. Ridiculous. There. Ah yes, phonics and the English language. It's...ridiculous.

I am now off to take a shower. After all, I do need to get up in 6 hours. Oh college life.

New Names and White Stones

¹⁷ “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”’ Rev. 2:17


That was my reading this morning. It was one of those times when part of a verse jumps out at me, and I keep thinking about it. I like the personalization that is implied here; God will give me a stone that has my name on it, and I'll be the only one who understands what it says. That part is a little confusing. What could possibly be written on my stone? But at the same time it's exciting to get a glimpse of how much more personal I can get with my Lord. There are some things I only share with Him, and I need to work on building more of those special things into our conversations. 


The other neat thing about this verse is what I learned from the footnotes (thank you Grandpa John, aka John MacArthur :D ) Here's what it says: When an athlete won in the games, he was often given, as a part of his prize, a white stone which was an admission pass to the winner's celebration afterwards. This may picture the moment when the overcomer will receive his ticket to the  eternal victory celebration in heaven. (The MacArthur Study Bible, c1997 by Word Publishing, a div. of Thomas Nelson, Inc.)


So that's what I discovered today. 


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This week was....amazing. My professors are great, everything I'm learning is pertinent and interesting, and to top it all off, I'm surrounded by music and people my age 24/7. I love it.


Today I need to do all my homework that's leftover, go shopping with my friends (yay!), and practiiiiiiice. A lot. 


First up is lunch. I love the food here. It's really good and there's plenty of variety. Thank goodness, because it's expensive. 


Over and out!

Standing on the Edge, Unfolding Wings

College really doesn't seem all that scary. Still, I don't want to brush it off. It's a big step.

So here I am, getting ready to move into my new life. It will take a while to get adjusted to everything, but I'm looking forward to it. I will bask in the joy of a consistent schedule, which has not been my lot this summer, or even this year. People are constantly changing the time they want me to come to babysit or teach, which means I have to change anything else that might be in the way that day. Unpredictability is the bane of a musician. I can't lug my viola with me everywhere, let alone the piano! Thankfully I had The Magic Flute rehearsals, otherwise I might have become stagnant. I shudder at the thought.

The Magic Flute ended the last week of July. That week was a little tricky, what with three houses, two pools, a dog, a cat, and three gardens to water. My circadian rhythm was set back because of the late night rehearsals we had for Flute, so I'd bike over to the houses around 10 am. I'd be done by 11:30, when my family showed up to go swimming. I love that glorious pool. That week the high was always above 95, so you can imagine how rewarding it was to bike there, get all sweaty walking the dog, cleaning the pools and watering plants, and then have a pool to jump into. It was the perfect scenario, and a great workout regimen. I hope I get to do that again next year. The only problem was how tired I was before the four-hour rehearsals. My arms weren't quite up to the challenge, but I made it. I really enjoyed getting to play with my teacher and her husband and the kids I know from youth orchestra.

It was bittersweet, ending my time under the direction of Mr. Wirth. He's the conductor I had for the last two years. I'll miss orchestra, but hopefully I can get into the one at SU next year. I'm going to miss you especially, Mrs. Tung. I couldn't ask for a better viola teacher. I love you!

In short, I'm looking forward to school, and I'm very thankful for all I've been given.

Thanks, Lord.