Tiffany's birthday

whew, the last few days have been really exhausting for me for some strange reason. I don't know why I'm so tired but I am. Well, it probably has something to do with going to bed at 2:30 and waking up at 7:30 or 8. Even though I'm pretty tired, I've been having a lot of fun. My days have been sort of busy. Today I went to see "13 going on to 31" with Tiffany and Jen. It was a good movie, I enjoyed it. And afterwards we did a little shopping and got some Baskin Robin's ice cream. Other than that and a little practicing today nothing much happened. I'm still feeling really cheery and optimistic. Life's good basically...even though its moving at a slower pace. I'm used to a fast-pace busy life filled with many musical events. This slower pace feels so strange at times, but I guess its a good thing. After a busy school year I need some time to just relax and spend multiple hours practicing. I have been dabbling with a few of my compositions and projects this week. I actualy had time to orchestrate some more of the Beethoven Opus 127 quartet. That is going well even though I'm moving slowly. My very latest progress has a nice little English horn/ 1st violin dialogue and then a basson and clarinet dialogue. It sounds pretty good. In general, this movement is a little hard to orchestrate because it has a lot intense, yet at the same time transparent and delicate moments. I don't really want the full orchestra in those places but I do want something somewhat intense. The piece itself is a discreet theme and variations form. I'm on the 2nd variation right now and that's probably the easyest variation of all of them. Its much like a dainty march-like piece. Things are going very well here. What I'm worried about is the 3rd variation because its one of those transparent yet intense moments. And the other difficulty in orchestrating this work lies in the ranges. The first violin and cello parts in particular go super high at times. I'm just trying to figure out what to do for those moments. But I think this piece can sound great with orchestra, I just have to work and think through the difficult sections.

I have also been composing some more of my cello concerto but that is moving even more slowly than the Beethoven.

Practice has been going well too, I think I decided on a program for English horn camp...well almost. Here's what it looks like:

The 2 Etudes: 1) Telemann Fantasy #4 in Bb major (this is going very nicely and should not be much a problem, I'm just working on perfecting it now. 2) Ferling Etude #19. (slow g minor). (I'm not quite certine about this one yet only because I haven't played it yet for my lessons. I'm really considering playing this one next March, and if that is so, I would like to take it to work on it in the master class, I have to do a slow and a fast etude, but I think it would be best if I bring a slow one to the master class because I can work on vibrato and expression and breath control...I don't know I just think its a better idea to do a slow etude at the master class. If I don't do this one I will probably do slow D major, A minor or G major from Ferling.)

Solo piece: Bach 6th suite 2nd movement. ( I'm crossing my fingers...). Maybe my teacher has a more appropriate suggestion. I want something more challenging than last year's piece. The Bach is sounding really good and I just need to work on breath control and not stopping because of the triple stops. I would like to do this one but it might be risky doing a slow unaccompanied suite on English horn. I'll see what works out though.

2 excerpts: 1) The solo from the 2nd act of Verdi's Masked ball ( I'm doing this one for sure) 2) ???...I'm debating between Borodin's Steppes of central Asia solo OR the beautiful solo from the 2nd movement of Ravel's piano concerto. I know that Steppes will sound good at the master class because it already sounds great. I could also learn the Ravel piano concerto solo and I bet that would sound good too.

So that's basicly my life right now, there's a little more but I'm going to get to bed right now.

Later

~Ilana~