dcseain | Cinco de ogam*

1. Chamber Music
The other day i told you a bit about me and music, complements of five from

badmagic. So, i started studying violin at age 9, when i was in fifth grade, in my last year at Dale City Elementary School. Grade six found me at Mils E Godwin Middle School, studying under M. Trowbridge, who is retiring this year. I'm performing at the retirement concert in June of this year.

The Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association (VBODA) sponsors Solo & Ensemble - a blind-judge competition on a regional basis. When i was growing up, Districts 9 & 11 were one unit, today they are separate; i grew up in District 9, and went to HS in District 11. Results from Solo & Ensemble lead to applying for Jr (middle school) or Sr (high school) regional orchestras.

Mr Trowbridge referred me to M Hall, who became my private tutor for several years, and starting in Grade 6, i participated in Solo & Ensemble and Regional Orchestra. I won consistent awards for my playing from then through graduating, both solo & in ensemble. En ensemble, i was in a string quartet or quintet through middle school and part of HS.

I'm classically trained in violin and viola, as you may have gathered. I have extensive orchestral experience, both in string and in symphonic orchestras. I enjoy orchestral playing a lot, and enjoy orchestral performances. But, it is en ensemble chambre that i am most at home. I love the intimacy of playing with the smaller group - the deeper mutual cooperativeness it breeds, the deeper insight into the roles of the instruments generally and with in a piece it reveals, the flexibility of instrumentation it allows.

Let's look at a piece that most everyone knows and likes, and most musicians i know play but hate, is Pachelbel's Canon in D, or properly, Canon and Gigue in D major for three Violins and Basso Continuo.
With two violins, a viola, a cello and/or bass, we perform as written. With a violin, two flutes, and a viola, the viola part is dropped, the flutes and violin take on the violin roles, and viola picks up the cello/bass part. A trio of violin, viola, cello yields Violin I, Viola, Cello.

In a chamber group, at least in rehearsal, players may swap parts to gain better understanding of timing or parts where you will see revealed how your part should be louder/softer/faster or what.
And in a chamber group, there's a bit more time for silliness, which is always a happy.

Starting in 9th grade, i paired up with Buffy Beverage, a cellist for chamber work. We had various violinist with us through the years. We performed all of us for 5 years. I do so miss Buffy, though i also have a wee bit of frustration in knowing that her death resulted in part due to her mismanaging, or not managing, her diabetes. Ah well, i enjoyed my time with her on this plane, and am sure she is well where she be.

In attending a chamber group performance, usually the venue is smaller and more intimate. As an audience member, you not only hear the music, you see the camaraderie of the musicians, get to see who the lead player within the group is - the one to start the playing and guide the others as needed.

Here in Washington, DC, the National Gallery of Art, for 67 years now, has maintained a schedule of concerts, usually of chamber groups, in the Garden Court of the West Building. The concerts are on Sunday evenings, and are free. One of the many, many, many free cultural gems that we here in DC have the benefit of.

2. CUUPS
As most of you know, i'm a Unitarian Universalist with Friend(Quaker) leanings. CUUPS is the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans, a group that is no longer affiliated with the UUA, the Unitarian Universalist Association. The UU congregation with which i was last affiliated, the wonderful UU Church of Silver Spring, MD, does not have a CUUPS chapter, but rather has Gaia Circle, a member-led pagan group. As a result, though i'm sure they're a fine organization, i have no personal experience with CUUPS aside from knowing they exist.

3. Dadaism
De do, do, do, de da, da, da is all i have to say to you. Wait, no, that's not it. This movement, along with surrealism, make me happy. That is all, for now. No reason, just happiness.

4. España
In grade 8, was sent off to Spain. My Spanish accent and usage solidified there. I speak Castillian with a ceceo - meaning lisped - accent. I was there just as my dad was diagnosed and beginning to fail physically. It was there, for the first time in months and months, i could forget about that. There i saw the breathtaking beauty that is La Valle de los Caídos, which despite the controversy round its construction, is a beautiful and fitting memorial. There i met Sonia, with whom my friends and i danced the zarzuela and tarantella and played crack-the-whip in the plaza where Bar Carlos V was in 1984, and may yet be. There spent i 8 hours in the airport in Palma de Mallorca because ETA terrorists blew up the TWA office across the street from where we lived in Madrid, and next to the Burger King where we sometimes ate lunch. But for that vacation, we too might have died in that bombing. There, in i think it was El Corte Inglés, E bought that lovey white skirt with the black pinstripes and the pink and blue polka dots that i still remember fondly.

There i spent a couple weeks in Barcelona, a beautiful and vibrant city that i feel rolls together the best of New York City and Washington, DC. Walkable, with palms in the harbor and along Las Ramblas, and cacti in a garden on the mountainside of Montjuïc. Something to do 24h day in a reasonably compact, nicely walkable city. I'd like to go back there, as last i was there Sagrada Familia as yet had no roof, and its spires were still not all complete, yet it was stunning in the way that Gaudí's buildings and works always are. Barcelona, as Montreal, are places i feel at home in as DC, which says a lot about both places, at least to me.

I remember the barren desert plain of La Mancha, flat, grey-brown and empty but for the occasional olive grove or vineyard. I remember the tiny, medieval streets in Toledo, which still then looked enough like El Greco's Vista de Toledo as to be recognizable on approach, centuries after he painted it. I remember how in each church we visited, the docent would always proudly show the 1 or 2 windows that survived the Civil War, and how all the other windows are replicas of the originals, and how they each took the time to point out how the replacements differed slightly from the originals, in that larger glass could be used due to advances in glazing. I remember the sadness in the voices of the docents at the few churches where no windows survived the Civil War. I remember the majesty of the still-in-use Roman Aqueduct in Segovia.

And most of all, in hindsight, i remember the lovely respite from dealing with life at home and Dad's illness. And i wish i'd thought to get Jonathan's phone number back then. More about that another time.

5. Kyrie/Κύριε
The beauty and simplicity of this pleases me much. I find it meditative, grounding. And, it's ancient Greek - hello!

*Ogam is not a month, but a man.