Singing and Stradivarius

ELECTION 2006: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is hope for a change of direction, and I'm relieved and elated about that hope.The men and women who were elected and re-elected have a lot of work to do. Let's collectively support them in the effort and be involved, concerned citizens of our democracy. We don't have to wait for elections to speak our minds...that's one of the most precious things about our nation.

And THANK GOODNESS we will all get a lengthy break from those nasty, maddening campaign ads!!! Hallelujah!

Okay, enough about that.

Happy Friday, gentle readers! I'm very glad that this welcome day of the week has returned again. It's been a busy but good week around this corner of the Shire. I'm looking forward to a long autumn's sleep tonight. Since the temperature is dropping again after some perfect, balmy, early-autumn days mistakenly occuring in early November, the quilt and blanket will be wonderful to settle under for unconsciousness tonight. But it's not bedtime yet.

This past week saw me committ to yet another musical activity. I wouldn't blame you if you wonder if I've lost it...after all, I'm already singing in two choirs and conducting one! But I just couldn't say no to an opportunity to sing in a small group with other trained singers who are several steps beyond the amateur level. A new friend of mine here, MH, decided that she missed singing and wanted to do it again. But she, like so many singers with lots of training, gets tired of all the note-pounding that goes on in many choral rehearsals. So she decided to start her own group and choose only singers who were at the level that they could do their own note-pounding at home; rehearsals would only be for turning the notes into music and enjoying singing together. I am really excited that MH asked me to join her group! Right now, we're only a quartet, two altos, two sopranos. We may decide to get bigger, and we may also decide to ask some tenors and basses to join us. But right now, we're just having fun the four of us, and I think our voices have real potential to sound good together. We're still brain-storming about what this group will be (and that's a lot of fun, too), but one thing we all seem to want to do is go into schools and sing--cool! The way to make more adult singers is to get people excited about singing when they are children. So I don't know where exactly this group is going or what is in store for it, but it could be really fun! I'm psyched! Even if we just sing for each other for fun, it would still be worth the time as far as I'm concerned. That reminds me of something I hadn't thought about for a while: back in our D.C. days, E and I organized a few gatherings of musical friends to sight-sing cool music just for fun. We all had a blast doing it. At heart, I'm a big music nerd, and proud of it! ;-)

More music nerdiness: four Stradivarius instruments (a string quartet--two violins, a viola, and a cello) are in town right now and on display at the U of IL art museum, and E and I went to see them on Wednesday afternoon after our weekly lunch-date. Antonio Stradivari was a 17-century stringed instrument maker in Italy. He and his sons made instruments that produced tone of such high quality that their craft has yet to be superseeded, even more than three centuries later with a host of new technological advancements. Stradivarius (the Latin form of Stradivari's name, and the signature he placed on all his instruments) instruments sound better and better with age, too. As their wood ages, they improve. Perhaps the most marvelous thing about these rare and remarkable instruments is that no one can figure out why they sound so much better than other instruments. What was the Stradivarius touch? Was it magic? Was it the wood, the varnish, the loving-care with which the instruments were created? We don't know. We only know that Strads are works of art, the ones we saw especially so. They are engraved with designs of animals and plants; the detail of the decorative artwork is really beautiful. I walked round and round the display case, taking in all the instruments, simply spending a little time with history. Granted, the Strads are not without their bits of modernity; their necks have been lengthened to allow for easier playing and better sound (they did not use to look so much like modern violins, violas, and cellos). They have also been fitted with modern soundposts and pegs. But the perfectly curved bodies of the instruments (and their lovely scrolls) have not been tampered with. And it is in these wooden bodies that the sounds that identify a Strad as a Strad are produced. We will get to hear the Stradivari quartet in concerrt on Tuesday night before they return to their home at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. After spending so much time soaking up their aesthetic beauty, I'm really looking forward to hearing them and understanding what makes Strads some of the most sought-after instruments in the world. Wow.

Happy weekend, friends!

LOTR update:
I think I'm going to just read for a while. The lack of commenting on my book-related posts makes me think that few are reading with me, and everyone is too busy to really do more than read and enjoy. So please just do that, either with Lord of the Rings or another book you can dive into deeply. Perhaps we can try again another time. Feel free to mention favorite Tolkien moments or quote on my blog ANYTIME, though. This is always a Tolkien-friendly zone. :-)