Music Ed?

Honestly, it's much too late to be starting something like this, but I thought since I haven't written anything in a good long while, it's probably time I updated it.  These past two weeks and weekends have been insanely busy!  Yesterday (Saturday), a bunch of us helped out at the Junior District auditions with MENC, which was like a much less crazy repetition of the All-State auditions of the previous Saturday.  We didn't do much all day.  But All-State auditions were great fun!  I ended up running score sheets back and forth between two rooms with a judge in each room.  One of the judges is a teacher at school, so it was lovely working with her all day.  The other judge I didn't know, but she was very nice, so it was an excellent opportunity to meet new people.  I had a great time talking to all the students auditioning, many of whom assumed that I was just a high school student that had volunteered to be there.  While the volunteering part was true, the high school part was not, and they were often surprised to hear that I am in fact a junior in college, not a junior in high school.  Oh well.  I guess there's not too much of a difference in appearance between those two ages....?  Who knows.  

Aside from that, it was a great experience, and I really enjoyed being on the other side of the audition process.  Auditions in high school typically didn't make me too nervous simply because of the number of them I participated in - there gets to be some sort of normalcy and routine because of their similarity to each other.  Some general observations: most of the kids were very concerned about whether the judge was nice or not, and seemed exceptionally relieved when I told them she was.  She was very amused by the fact that they'd walk out of the room exclaiming, "She is SO NICE!"  At one point she said, "Wouldn't it be awful if they walked out and I overheard them saying, 'Ugh, she's such a jerk!'"  Another thing: your attitude about something, even if it's incredibly tiring, has an enormous effect on the way the day is perceived at the end.  I smiled all day, and I thought it was the most fun I'd had in a good long while.  Maybe I just smile too much...like my oboe teacher freshman year told me...but I like smiling.  It's been scientifically proven that if you smile, you feel better.  So if you feel unhappy, smile anyway, because it releases endorphins, which make you happy.  And lastly: I like being a music major again.  I feel like I've gone through a roller coaster ride coming to that conclusion, and I've certainly involved enough (if not too many) people in deciding, but maybe I just had to find the right niche.  All-State auditions combined with my Elementary Methods class have really reinforced that.  I don't want to teach elementary school students, but the advocacy part of the class has been very, very informative and also a good reminder as to why music is such a vital part of a child's - or anyone else's - education.  

Ok, too late for any more now.  Time for bed. 

Scattered Ramblings

The past few days have been quite nice, especially considering that we've had a three-day weekend.  Four, in my case, because I have no classes except for rehearsals on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  This is the first and probably the last time scheduling has happened like that, and I plan to fully enjoy it, despite the fact that I've been going to bed so early.  Nothing of particular importance has happened recently (except for the day in Boston, of course), so here I present a list of random things that I've been thinking about as of late.

1)  We've been trying to come up with a list of people for our apartment next year, which is always somewhat stressful.  There are four of us that are definites, which leaves two open spaces with many suggestions.

2)  I've managed to avoid eating in our school's cafeteria almost entirely this week through a combination of eating off-campus and cooking my own food, which is delightful.  

3)  A few self-discoveries/observations: I ALWAYS read the end of books before I read the whole thing.  If the ending is good, I decide to read the book.  Surprisingly, that does not ruin the book for me at all; in fact, I even read the end of the seventh Harry Potter book before I'd finished it, and I still enjoyed every sentence.  Also, I love cooking my own food.  I've been experimenting various recipes, and so far everything has been delicious.  Thank you, Fannie Farmer!  I'm a complete grammar nerd, and the "there is (plural noun)" epidemic bothers me exceedingly.  I love rooibos tea; it tastes like vanilla cake.  I have just discovered tea lattes, and they're amazing.  I can solve a 3x3 Rubik's cube in under two minutes, and I'd really like to invest in a 4x4 or a 5x5 so I can start working on a new challenge of the same nature.  I've always loved raw, fresh green peppers, and find it mildly amusing that not many other people really like them.  My friend and I plan to open a bakery when we retire from working in the real world.  I've always wanted to go to/live in Mongolia (weird, I know...).  I've been to several foreign countries, but I've never traveled further West than Carlisle, Pennsylvania in the US.  I like both the country and the city.  And this is far more information than I was planning on writing on this particular bullet point.

4)  While reading Exodus the other day, I came across a very interesting quote: Exodus 33:12 - 13, to be specific.  In this passage, Moses is talking to God about leading the Israelites in the desert, but before they were condemned to wandering around for 40 years.  Moses says, "'You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.  You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.  Remember that this nation is your people.'"  I just think that it's really interesting that here is Moses, the man who repeatedly talked to God face-to-face, and he still asks God to teach him so that he can know him.  I think that this statement so quietly and yet so forcefully points both toward God's omnipotence and holiness as well as his incredible nature as a relational, personal God who desires us to know him.  "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen."  If Moses, the man who had daily discussions with the Lord, prayed for a deeper relationship with Him, I would venture to guess that it's important for us to do so too, and to study Scripture in a way that sheds increasingly greater light on God's character.  

5)  Today we watched the first 45 minutes of "I Hate Valentine's Day."  Don't watch it...it's not worth the time.  However, we later watched "My Life in Ruins" with the same actress, and it was really cute! 

6)  I once started the Count of Monte Cristo last semester, and I really need to finish it, because I really enjoyed it.  

7)  Today we went shopping at the mall, and Gap had some of the best sales I've ever gotten there!  I got some staples for my "teacher clothes" wardrobe, which will be very handy in the near future seeing as All-State auditions/festival are/is coming up, and I'm going to need to look professional.  

8)  I love church more than anything else around here.  I love the people and the music and the sermons and the weekly Sunday morning breakfast between services and everything associated with it.  I haven't loved church this much in....well, ever.  

9)  I want to learn the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1.  I am quite certain that I am utterly incapable of playing anything remotely near the difficultly of this particular music, but hey, I can dream, right?

10)  Target should really, really, really have a store in Vermont.  I mean, it's actually ridiculous to have to travel to another state to get to the nearest one.  

11)  Boots, in my mind, until now, have been seriously overrated.  However, today I repeatedly got snow stuck in my shoes, and I was unable to help unearth a car from the measly five inches of snow covering it.  This needs to change.  My mom was right.  I need boots.  

12)  Why on earth would a store sell leggings with pockets?  Leggings are meant to be worn under articles of clothing that have their own pockets, so pockets in the leggings themselves seem to be unnecessary.  

13)  I do not understand why 13 is supposedly an unlucky number.  I rather like it.  

    

Boston Day

It's been awhile since I've written anything new here.  I'm finally back at school, and just getting back into the swing of things.  My roommate and I have been trying a new experiment where we get up at 7:30ish even on the days we don't have to, so that we get tired early enough to go to bed on time.  Right now it's 11:51 pm, so I'd say that today we failed, especially because I have to leave for church at 7:30 tomorrow morning, which means getting up at 6:30.  That's right.  Less than 7 hours of sleep.  But I think for today, that's alright, because we spent an excellent day in Boston!  We skated on the Frog Pond in the morning, then went to Fire and Ice for lunch, followed by a quick stop at the Steinway store where we were politely but firmly told to only play one piano at a time... After that, we took a long T ride to where we thought the Garment District was, but it turned out that we had gone too far in the right direction.  We had to backtrack almost as far as we'd come.  In any case, while it was an interesting experience, I would have to caution against it if you are the sort of person who enjoys hygiene and cleanliness.  Once we left the store and had sufficiently Purell-ed our hands, we started the walk back to the T station.  On our way there we passed a Starbucks, and ended up spending a full hour and a half lingering over our respective cups of steaming hot Rooibos tea, London Fog, and Java Chip frappachinos.  Finally, we left Cambridge and headed back into the city.  We split up, one of us going to a BSO concert while the other two of us shopped around Quincy Market.  When everything started closing there, we hiked to the Prudential, where we found the Cheesecake Factory still open, and took some to go.  We ate it in front of yet another Starbucks, and, when the concert was finally over, we took the T back to the station where we parked and drove back to school.  Overall, we were in Boston for around 13 hours, which can be a little draining, but will be a memorable experience nonetheless.  

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky rocks my socks off

Yesterday I practiced for a good long time.  And for the first time in a while, I really enjoyed practicing.  I played through some new music, which was pretty exciting, and then I played through the oboe part to Tchaik 5, since we're playing it in orchestra this semester.  Random fact: Tchaikovsky is my favorite composer of all time.  This deep love for his music probably started when I was too young to think about it.  As a little girl I used to dance in a production of the Nutcracker every year, which I absolutely loved.  Sometimes I wonder why I ever stopped ballet; dancing is such a physical and yet beautiful method of self expression that I think everyone, regardless of age or ability, should try at least once in life.  Anyway...that's a side note.  Tchaikovsky wrote the Nutcracker ballet.  Also, every Sunday I would come home from church, turn on the record player, and dance around our kitchen and living room accompanied by music that I attributed to Tchaikovsky.  (I later found out it was Shostakovich...but this particular ballet suite does have significant similarities.)  After I stopped dancing I left Tchaikosky alone for awhile, not being at a level of musical ability that was necessary to play his music.  But later, I reencountered it in our state youth orchestra when we played the fourth symphony.  It was glorious.  I loved everything about it.  There is something about the music that makes it incredibly meaningful; it is complex harmonically (my youth orchestra conductor at one point shouted over the rehearsal, "I LOVE Tchaikovsky!  He just keeps modulating and modulating!")  and yet the soaring but singable melodies ensure that it is still accessible to both the musician and to the audience.  He is able to express both deep sorrow and extreme joy within the space of a few measures, and each piece, while not programmatic, tells some sort of a story.  During exam week this year, I discovered that the waltz from Eugene Onegin and the first movement of the piano concerto are excellent study music for the stressed college student, seeing as it is so heroic-sounding that I found myself singing the orchestra part while grandly conducting instead of writing my essay.  Overall message - if Tchaikovsky can write something like that in the face of the crumbling Russian political system, I can finish my homework and still make it home alive.  

So now in orchestra we're playing the fifth symphony.  Needless to say, I haven't been this excited to go to rehearsal since we first played Tchaik 4 in VYO senior year of high school.  I think that fact explains why my practicing was so much fun yesterday.    

A Vacation To-Do List

Well, there are now exactly eight days before the pilgrimage back to school occurs.  Ok, it's really not a pilgrimage - a four-hour drive from Vermont to Massachusetts could hardly even be considered a trek - but it's still something that requires some preparation.  This drive could be further complicated by the fact that we have now received approximately 13 inches of snow, and it's still coming down.  Although I'm sure that in the span of a week plus a half a day, the snow will have stopped.  I also need to see if it is possible to fit a lever harp in the back of my car, because it will determine who will be driving with me.  Finally, I need to practice a good deal, seeing as I've only done that ONCE over break - bad news for an oboe major - and I will have lessons starting soon after we return.  So here is my official to-do list: practice; attempt to fit the harp in the car; buy a snow brush; pack everything I brought home; make sure I do laundry while it's still free; figure out how to find a summer job in MA; bake some last-minute cookies to bring back to school and share with people; listen to a few more records while the opportunity is still available; build a fort with younger brothers (definitely a necessary part of vacation); and finally, fix the button on my coat that is becoming perilously close to launching itself into the unknown void.  That's pretty much it, I think.  It's probably not an exhaustive list, but I think that covers most of it.  Oh, and make braised pork chops with apples for dinner tonight.  That could be an adventure.

P.S.  The cake was a success, and was also an excellent way to ring in the new year!