I'm calling this clearing my head. It might just be procrastination. Actually, it's probably procrastination.
Its been a long day and it's not over. Thankfully, I've had the energy for the whole thing. Today's the first day my heart hasn't raced upon my standing up. I also ran (a very short distance) today to catch up with someone and took stairs almost normally with no pain in my knees. I'm getting stronger!
It's 9:30. I'm sitting at my desk drinking tea (I must wake up!) and eating an apple and peanut butter. I'm enjoying the gorgeous tulips my friend Anna gave me to thank me for accompanying her performance of Mendelssohn's violin concerto next week. I'm also enjoying Mahler's Resurrection symphony for the first time in my life, having heard Mr. Amundson praise it today in theory class. Apparently it uses the VI chord as a pre-dominant so powerful that it nearly brings tears to Mr. Amundson's eyes every time he hears it. Music is good stuff.
I haven't written in awhile. I've been busy and weak and tired and struggling with a lot of things. In all my spare time I attend concerts. 10 each semester is the requirement for a music majors. I've already been to 10 this semester. So far I've enjoyed all but last night's: Harp Ensemble Concert. Never again. 45 minutes of harp music (sometimes as many as 5 harps at once) is more harp than the human mind has the capacity to appreciate or even assimilate during any length of time .Many incredible concerts already have included a stunning junior violin recital featuring Bruch and Grieg, a concert in Boe by the Oslo Kammerkor, and dedicatory hymn festival (with Ferg) and organ concert (with Rodland) for the new Boe and new organ. The best to come will be in three weeks: the first orchestra concert in Boe, featuring the new organ. On the program: Barber Concerto for Organ and Strings, Beethoven Piano Concerto #4, and Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. I've been sneaking in on a lot of orchestra rehearsals to feast my ears on the Saint Saens.
Sunday we had a huge snow storm and church got cancelled. I attended the service here and felt rather alone all day. Sundays are my hardest days, even though they're always full of delightful rest and enjoyment and always several recitals. They're hard because I'm not just alone--which I am all the time--but because I'm not used to being alone on Sundays. A Sunday when I'm not at CPC makes it worse. Hopefully this coming Sunday will be the last of those this year. In the afternoon I went with Tegan (with whom I have manifold forthright conversations that just amaze me) to see Hotel Rwanda, playing here on campus. I am very glad I saw it. I would recommend it to anybody who wants to watch the hardest movie they've ever watched.
My studies are going pretty well. Ferg is very happy with my organ work and so am I, except for how very little I've been able to practice recently. But even that Ferg is so understanding about--given my weakness this past week. Piano is a huge challenge. I feel like I'm learning a completely new instrument. Most of what I'm doing in the practice room right now is slowly thinking about the physics behind the motion from each note to the next--where my hand needs to be to support the impact it is receiving and how, most ergonomically, to get there from one note to the next. It's intense. Composition is hard, time-consuming, challenging, but finally fun. My first piece is half done and on the back-burner. My second is almost finished and in progress. My third I'll be working on over this weekend. Theory is a joy. I love it so much. It's still easier for me but not as easy as last semester. But it is much more exciting now. The ear training component stays embarassingly easy: I don't know if anyone else in freshman class has perfect pitch. My biggest victory this semester may be the conquering of my rhythm problems. I'm finally getting rhythmic dictations right and I'm finding that side of my musicianship is developing quickly. Choir is fun--we're doing some beautiful stuff including a Christina Rosetti poem and a Copland/We Were Soldiers-esque setting of Holst's tune, to the words I Vow To Thee My Country. Very cool.
My days are all full and all fun, though a lot of time I'm having trouble seeing the fun. I'm working at stepping back and seeing that this is that amazing place--St. Olaf. Everything about it is pretty amazing and I need to be loving this life. It seems every morning I wake up either eager to take on the day and sensing God's presence or depressed and disinterested, but always definitely and vividly one or the other. This morning was one of the latter but I managed to whip it. After "sleeping in" (my friends think I'm crazy) till 7:30, cleaning my room, having devotions, talking to mom for awhile, and doing other odd jobs, I went to chapel. Then to theory class where I ate a sack lunch and sight-read the Rex Tremendiae from Mozart's Requiem for the class to hear the harmonic progression. Today we learned about the VI chord. I feel like a very privileged child who gets to sit at the grown-ups' table now, or perhaps stay up till 8:30 instead of 8:00. It's that huge. "I know you aren't all as passionate about theory as I am," Mr. Amundson apologized today. Well, not ALL.
After theory I attended my writing class where we continued our discussion of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and talked about the paper we're to write this week. I love my writing professor but I'm feeling crazy that I managed to sign up for such a demanding writing class. She teaches like I think Dad probably taught at Covenant. I have a feeling she's the English professor that the majors avoid if they don't like work. Today she handed out "writing tips," devised from collecting problems with our first papers. The writing samples (from our papers!) were so horrible. In a way I was frustrated again to have to take this class. Then she handed back our papers. I got an A- and there was one grammatical error--a result of mis-splicing a sentence in haste. That sounds pretty arrogant, but what I'm trying to say is (well, maybe arrogant!) that in a way I feel like this class is a waste. But as I look over my paper and as I enjoy our class discussions I realize that I'm going to learn just as much from her--but on a different level--as the people who don't know how to. Write a proper sentence. I really like her. I had a good talk with her after class about the challenges I'm facing to put time into this class as a B.M. Comp/Organ student. She understands perfectly. Our reputation gets around. :)
After writing class I re-read our dramatic criticism book (which I LOVE) to try to come up with a paper topic for Midsummer Night's Dream. Then I went back to my room, reading as I walked, to save time, to change bags and then over to the music building again. I heard the last four of the 16 senior soloists auditioning to perform the senior soloist concerto this year--a little impromptu concert of snippets from the concerti they've prepared. Then I practiced piano--Mendelssohn violin concerto, Bach French suite, and Debussy Arabesque--for an hour. At 5:30 I ate with a bunch of friends and then practiced organ--Vierne symphony, Jongen Priere, Bach trio sonata/Schubler chorale--from 6:15 till 8:45.
Now I must do a bunch of theory homework and then get started formulating my paper. It's going to be, I think, on the fairies of MND as god-figures, and comedy as an exploration of "little man's" interaction with the gods. (Trygeus riding to Zeus on the back of a dung-beetle, if you will.)
Its been a long day and it's not over. Thankfully, I've had the energy for the whole thing. Today's the first day my heart hasn't raced upon my standing up. I also ran (a very short distance) today to catch up with someone and took stairs almost normally with no pain in my knees. I'm getting stronger!
It's 9:30. I'm sitting at my desk drinking tea (I must wake up!) and eating an apple and peanut butter. I'm enjoying the gorgeous tulips my friend Anna gave me to thank me for accompanying her performance of Mendelssohn's violin concerto next week. I'm also enjoying Mahler's Resurrection symphony for the first time in my life, having heard Mr. Amundson praise it today in theory class. Apparently it uses the VI chord as a pre-dominant so powerful that it nearly brings tears to Mr. Amundson's eyes every time he hears it. Music is good stuff.
I haven't written in awhile. I've been busy and weak and tired and struggling with a lot of things. In all my spare time I attend concerts. 10 each semester is the requirement for a music majors. I've already been to 10 this semester. So far I've enjoyed all but last night's: Harp Ensemble Concert. Never again. 45 minutes of harp music (sometimes as many as 5 harps at once) is more harp than the human mind has the capacity to appreciate or even assimilate during any length of time .Many incredible concerts already have included a stunning junior violin recital featuring Bruch and Grieg, a concert in Boe by the Oslo Kammerkor, and dedicatory hymn festival (with Ferg) and organ concert (with Rodland) for the new Boe and new organ. The best to come will be in three weeks: the first orchestra concert in Boe, featuring the new organ. On the program: Barber Concerto for Organ and Strings, Beethoven Piano Concerto #4, and Saint-Saens Organ Symphony. I've been sneaking in on a lot of orchestra rehearsals to feast my ears on the Saint Saens.
Sunday we had a huge snow storm and church got cancelled. I attended the service here and felt rather alone all day. Sundays are my hardest days, even though they're always full of delightful rest and enjoyment and always several recitals. They're hard because I'm not just alone--which I am all the time--but because I'm not used to being alone on Sundays. A Sunday when I'm not at CPC makes it worse. Hopefully this coming Sunday will be the last of those this year. In the afternoon I went with Tegan (with whom I have manifold forthright conversations that just amaze me) to see Hotel Rwanda, playing here on campus. I am very glad I saw it. I would recommend it to anybody who wants to watch the hardest movie they've ever watched.
My studies are going pretty well. Ferg is very happy with my organ work and so am I, except for how very little I've been able to practice recently. But even that Ferg is so understanding about--given my weakness this past week. Piano is a huge challenge. I feel like I'm learning a completely new instrument. Most of what I'm doing in the practice room right now is slowly thinking about the physics behind the motion from each note to the next--where my hand needs to be to support the impact it is receiving and how, most ergonomically, to get there from one note to the next. It's intense. Composition is hard, time-consuming, challenging, but finally fun. My first piece is half done and on the back-burner. My second is almost finished and in progress. My third I'll be working on over this weekend. Theory is a joy. I love it so much. It's still easier for me but not as easy as last semester. But it is much more exciting now. The ear training component stays embarassingly easy: I don't know if anyone else in freshman class has perfect pitch. My biggest victory this semester may be the conquering of my rhythm problems. I'm finally getting rhythmic dictations right and I'm finding that side of my musicianship is developing quickly. Choir is fun--we're doing some beautiful stuff including a Christina Rosetti poem and a Copland/We Were Soldiers-esque setting of Holst's tune, to the words I Vow To Thee My Country. Very cool.
My days are all full and all fun, though a lot of time I'm having trouble seeing the fun. I'm working at stepping back and seeing that this is that amazing place--St. Olaf. Everything about it is pretty amazing and I need to be loving this life. It seems every morning I wake up either eager to take on the day and sensing God's presence or depressed and disinterested, but always definitely and vividly one or the other. This morning was one of the latter but I managed to whip it. After "sleeping in" (my friends think I'm crazy) till 7:30, cleaning my room, having devotions, talking to mom for awhile, and doing other odd jobs, I went to chapel. Then to theory class where I ate a sack lunch and sight-read the Rex Tremendiae from Mozart's Requiem for the class to hear the harmonic progression. Today we learned about the VI chord. I feel like a very privileged child who gets to sit at the grown-ups' table now, or perhaps stay up till 8:30 instead of 8:00. It's that huge. "I know you aren't all as passionate about theory as I am," Mr. Amundson apologized today. Well, not ALL.
After theory I attended my writing class where we continued our discussion of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and talked about the paper we're to write this week. I love my writing professor but I'm feeling crazy that I managed to sign up for such a demanding writing class. She teaches like I think Dad probably taught at Covenant. I have a feeling she's the English professor that the majors avoid if they don't like work. Today she handed out "writing tips," devised from collecting problems with our first papers. The writing samples (from our papers!) were so horrible. In a way I was frustrated again to have to take this class. Then she handed back our papers. I got an A- and there was one grammatical error--a result of mis-splicing a sentence in haste. That sounds pretty arrogant, but what I'm trying to say is (well, maybe arrogant!) that in a way I feel like this class is a waste. But as I look over my paper and as I enjoy our class discussions I realize that I'm going to learn just as much from her--but on a different level--as the people who don't know how to. Write a proper sentence. I really like her. I had a good talk with her after class about the challenges I'm facing to put time into this class as a B.M. Comp/Organ student. She understands perfectly. Our reputation gets around. :)
After writing class I re-read our dramatic criticism book (which I LOVE) to try to come up with a paper topic for Midsummer Night's Dream. Then I went back to my room, reading as I walked, to save time, to change bags and then over to the music building again. I heard the last four of the 16 senior soloists auditioning to perform the senior soloist concerto this year--a little impromptu concert of snippets from the concerti they've prepared. Then I practiced piano--Mendelssohn violin concerto, Bach French suite, and Debussy Arabesque--for an hour. At 5:30 I ate with a bunch of friends and then practiced organ--Vierne symphony, Jongen Priere, Bach trio sonata/Schubler chorale--from 6:15 till 8:45.
Now I must do a bunch of theory homework and then get started formulating my paper. It's going to be, I think, on the fairies of MND as god-figures, and comedy as an exploration of "little man's" interaction with the gods. (Trygeus riding to Zeus on the back of a dung-beetle, if you will.)
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