I am inspired and challenged by working on the "Messiah" music. The cello part sounds magnificent (not necessarily when I am playing it) even by itself. I am learning some new positions for playing in four sharps, and that is very valuable. Kind of like puzzle-solving. But, it is still a lot of music for me to learn in a short and busy time period.
Today, my friend Carol and are are playing three simple cello Christmas duets with beginning piano students at a nursing home. I have yet to decorate, buy presents, or otherwise get involved in the seasonal festivities (except for attending a fair number of holiday concerts and fairs), so this will be my season opener.
Then, it is back to work. :-)
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4 sharps, eek! It sounds like you are playing more parts than what I needed to, since I don't recall doing a piece with 4 sharps. I was in the "tutti", so I only had to play the choruses plus the movements that used the orchestra only. I didn't play during the arias or recitatives, just the 1st stand played those.
I bet your duets at the nursing home brought smiles to the residents. What a nice way to share the holiday spirit!
The four-sharp one is "Every Valley Shall Be Exalted," and it is the one that I tend to sing most often, in my somewhat limited way.
The cello part for this aria (and for most of the 24 sections we are playing goes back and forth between "Senza Rip." and "Con Rip. sections," and I will probably play only the "Con Rip" parts, depending on how many other cellists there are. For now, I figure I might as well learn it all, just in case, and so I have a better idea of where we are, and because I am intrigued by these fingerings.
Senza rip. means only the first stand plays; Con rip. means all play. Yet there is also a part in this aria marked both Senza rip. and Tutti, so I really have no idea what is going on there.
At this point, I don't even know who else is playing cello, and the concert is a week from today. There may only be one or two others. It is a little crazy, my attempting this, especially in this "sing-ing/play-in" fashion, but the music is so lovely.
(More on the nursing home concert in another post.)
Wow whenever I check in you sound so busy! and happy!
Have a great Christmas and New Years!
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