I've always had this feeling in me that I play violin, and really well. Like I'm supposed to be able to walk around the house fiddling away as I'm talking with Nettl or while partying with friends—really natural, you know?I've played a little bit of violin/fiddle throughout my life, although I've never taken lessons of any kind. It was just for fun, mostly jamming with artists after we performed in coffeehouses, or just dinking around alone at home (and sometimes with Ville, who'd dink around on either my piano or my clarinet)...
Once, back when I was working with Maestro Salazar and the symphony in the late 1980s, I told him that I really wanted to learn the viola. He said he didn't have a viola, but I could use his violin. (Later, when I tried to give it back to him, he told me to keep it, "To remember me by". It's now my #1 prized possession.) Trouble was, as thrilled and honored as I felt to have his instrument, I didn't really buckle down and teach myself to play it because, well, I wanted a viola; I preferred its lower, warmer tone. Now I want to teach myself violin—really get into it and learn to play. Frank's poor violin needs new strings, however, and the bow needs rehaired and repaired, something that's going to have to wait until after we move and the money pressures have been relieved somewhat.
Last night, Nettl and I were talking about little pieces we could perform together, one of them being Mozart's Oiseuax, si tous les ans. All primed to get going on my new endeavor, but unable to actually get to the instrument, I decided to reduce the piano part of Oiseaux to violin accompaniment. It took me about an hour and was about the easiest composition work I've ever done. Maybe this break from composition was good for me. Maybe I just needed to get away from it for a while (er, like a decade?). I mean, I've been writing music since I was a child and I'd seriously burned myself out. In the past year I've tried to get back to it a number of times, but it never took hold. Suddenly, without pomp or warning, it was back as if it had simply slipped in through the door and made itself at home again.
Here is Cecilia Bartoli performing Oiseuax, si tous les ans:
Next pieces to reduce:
- La ra, la ra by Antonio Salieri
- When The King Enjoys His Own Again by Martin Parker
