Arts Alive

A belated update on a couple of June concerts. I played cello and flute with the flute choir on a Saturday, three weeks ago. All went reasonably well, though I was thrown off balance when a piece we had been playing in 4 was counted off in 2, and went along faster than we had previously played it.

We had six flutists and me, playing mostly cello, sometimes flute.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, rare in these parts in June, and we had a great time. I spent most of the rest of the day listening to other performers.

On Sunday, it was overcast. I performed with the fiddlers in the morning, though did not get a photo. Playing with the fiddlers is always fun, in part because there is no sheet music, and always, for me, a bit intimidating, for the same reason, because there is no sheet music. People do not necessarily play the same versions of each tune, so there is a certain freedom, and, as the sole cellist, I can choose to play melody (if I know it) or some form of accompaniment.

After the fiddlers, my friend Laura and I hosted an instrument petting zoo, giving kids the opportunity to try out violins, violas, and a cello. One of the moms told us that her daughter had her first encounter with a cello at an instrument petting zoo three years earlier, and had been taking cello lessons ever since. It is always nice to hear that these events have some impact.

Getting ready for the chamber concert.

After the petting zoo, Laura and I joined Marv and Joyce to play chamber music. By this time it was sprinkling. Laura and Marvin, on violins, and Joyce, on keyboard began the concert with a trio:

Laura and Avis.

Then I joined them for Pieces en Trio by Marin Marais (1656-1728).

The Marais suite is easy and has a good cello part, as Marais was a viola da gamba player. It is also in the key of C, mostly first position, and the cello part doubles the keyboard left hand. The only problem was the way the keyboard was miked. Unless the speakers were turned toward us, we could not hear the keyboard. And if the speakers were turned toward us, the audience couldn't hear the keyboard.

So since the audience, by this time, because of the increasingly heavy rain, consisted mainly of our spouses, we opted to turn the speakers toward ourselves. Even so, the keyboard played as a harpsichord, when amplified, takes on the sound of breaking dishes, at least to me, and it was difficult to be sure I was always with the keyboardist.

We had two hours of music planned, but, after a piece by Marv and Joyce, we called it quits and headed home, through the raindrops. It might have been better with sunshine and an audience, but I enjoyed it nevetheless.

Waltzing Frenzy!

Our big waltz event was last night. Our little band (4 fiddles, guitar, cello, drum, and tin whistle) played five waltzes and kept the dance floor crowded (until another band took over for the contradances). It was somewhat terrifying, but we all noticed that it was easier to play, and we played better, when there were people happily moving to the music.

I took this photo from the stage, during a tin whistle guitar solo. Beyond the dancers are tables; there were about 200 people, and they all loved to dance. It was a wonderful first performance for our group, a great alternative to either being background music or a concert performance, with all eyes on us. At the dance, we knew people were listening--they were twirling about--but we were not the focus of attention.

These were fast fiddle waltzes, not "slow dances," though still relatively slow for fiddle music. I did bring my sheet music, but I did try to play without looking at it. Sometimes, I completely forgot what note was next, but often I it was easier to just go with the flow, without the music.

The party celebrated the 88th birthday of the father of our tin whistle player. An enthusiastic contra-dancer and all-around good person, he was awe-inspiring, and I was happy to be part of the celebration.

A table centerpiece.

Fiddle-dee-dee

The fiddle performance is next Saturday, and, while I can play the tunes, I still do not have them reliably memorized enough to play them without the music though. I am fine alone--but sometimes fall apart when playing with the others. And we added two tunes, making a total of 6. One is Ashokan Farewell, which I can play from memory (and I am playing the melody in this one, not a harmony part), but I am not familiar enough with the other new one, Midnight on the Water, to even attempt memorizing it in a week.

So, I will play with sheet music. All the others will play from memory. In my defense, the cello parts are harder than the fiddle parts, which are all played in first position, and the fiddlers are all playing melody parts. I am disappointed to have to use sheet music, but my practice time has been so limited that I am quite happy to be playing at all!

End of May progress report

Though it seems as though May began only yesterday, it is coming to an end and June is about to burst out all over. A progress report seems in order.

I had an ambitious plan for May and June cello practicing and performance and started out in a frenzy (for me) of practicing. Everything, every day. For one reason or another, I missed a couple of cello lessons and a few practice sessions.

I started to concentrate on the first performance, the fiddle group performance on June 13. I am making progress on that. I have the four tunes mostly memorized, but there are still a few spots where I hesitate, there are a few intonation issues, and there is one tune that is just going by awfully fast.

Yesterday, at rehearsal, I used sheet music because I did not feel secure without it (I tried not to look at it), and the others (who do not use sheet music) said it would be fine, if I used it during the performance. I have two more weeks, though, and am really going to try to get to the point where I am ok without it.

The fiddlers were more complimentary about my playing than my intonation called for, and, when we were listening to a tape of our session, and I was thinking, gosh, I need to play softer, one of the fiddlers said, "we need to mike the cello." I don't think this is in our best interests.

I am playing with the adult piano students on June 12, and have a rehearsal with them this week. The music is easy (including the Berceuse from Suzuki, book 3), so I am just working on making it sound expressive and musical.

I have not done much on the cello duets or Marcello in the last two weeks (very busy work weeks for me), but for a time there I was feeling competent.

The Haydn trios are coming along for the June 20 performance. Still a couple of fast parts to bring up to speed.

Tomorrow, I plan to attend a performance of a string orchestra that I am considering joining for the summer. It starts June 8, and runs for 10 weeks, which is a little more of a commitment than I wanted to make this summer. But, the conductor is an excellent cellist, and I might learn a lot (if I practice).

The Plan for May and June

After our orchestra concert the first week in April, I focused on non-cello things for a few weeks, maybe a month, and though I continued weekly lessons, there were some weeks when I didn't practice at all between lessons. One of those times. But my cello teacher was understanding, supportive, and encouraging.

I think I am mostly back on track now, or at least edging toward it. I have several performances coming up in June, so really need to buckle down and find time to practice every day. Well, most days.

The first event is a fiddle performance in mid-June. The group I play with (women fiddlers) is performing four waltzes, and I have written harmony (second) parts to three of them, to accompany the fiddles. The music is easy enough, but it has to be played from memory, which tends to take time, and it will be tricky playing the harmony, with everyone else playing melody. I will have to focus! This is in mid-June.

The following weekend, I am playing with three groups during the arts festival: the larger fiddle group, the flute choir, and a flute, string, and keyboard group.

The larger fiddle group plays many tunes that I still do not have memorized, but I can usually play some sort of improvised pizzicato accompaniment.

In the other groups, we can use sheet music, and I am grateful for that!

The flute choir is playing trio 1 and 4 of the Haydn London Trios and Vivaldi's Goldfinch concerto (plus others in which I play flute), and we have not yet determined the program for the string group, but it may be a piece by Marais, Purcell (Golden Sonata), and/or flute sonatas by Marcello, in which I play the continuo. I have also played these on flute and enjoy them, particularly the first one, which I played recently (on flute) at church. In another context a flute-playing friend of mine remarked that she had played them when she was 10 years old. Ah, well.

In addition to that, I am working on a DeFesch sonata with another cellist, and, because it and the Marcello flute sonatas, reminded me of the Marcello piece in Suzuki book 4, I decided to go back and learn/polish that too. (I abandoned Suzuki about a year ago, to work on other things.)

Then, for intonation and related issues, I am working in the Piatti cello method. My teacher mentioned trying another duet with another of her students, and there is always something that looks interesting, so I am sure the list will grow.

But I am trying to focus.

The Soloist, review

I wrote this review of "The Soloist" for the Falmouth Enterprise, which no longer publishes articles online. I could have written my own book about "The Soloist," but compressed it here.

Because I read the book first (and because my sister graduated from Juilliard), I was interested in how accurately the movie represented the book. (There is also the question of how accurately the book represented the true story, but I can't answer that).

I searched the web for reactions from musicians, mental health people (those with schizophrenia and those expert in schizophrenia), homeless people and experts, and newspaper columnists, for other views, but found very little. The book/movie raises many interesting discussions about music, mental health, homelessness, and the current state of the newspaper industry, so I do think it worthy of discussion.


‘The Soloist,’ In Praise Of Friendship, Music

“The Soloist” is the mostly true story of the real-life relationship between Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a homeless, schizophrenic musician whom he befriends, initially for a story, and, ultimately, because he cares about him and values his friendship. Mr. Ayers, in turn, accepts Mr. Lopez’s friendship and is transformed by it, as both are transformed by the healing power of music.

It deals not only with mental illness, homelessness, and music, but also with the financially crumbling newspaper industry, urban politics, work and family issues, and the attack of aggressive raccoons. I thought the latter had been thrown in for comic effect, but in fact, Mr. Lopez has also written columns about these mangy creatures, so there was some logic to this otherwise irrelevant subtheme.

Steve Lopez knows a story when he sees one, and did some research, discovering that Nathaniel had once been a promising scholarship student at Juilliard, but had to drop out when the pressure became too much for him and he had a nervous breakdown. His bad experiences with multiple forms of therapy led him to a homeless existence, practicing in noisy traffic tunnels, or in a downtown park, under a statue of Beethoven, and sleeping on the streets at night, scaring off rats with sticks.

His series of columns on Nathaniel convince the mayor to prioritize homeless-assistance programs (there are 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles). More importantly (to the plot of the movie), the reporter strives to get Nathaniel off the street for his own safety, partly to continue to have something to write about, but also, increasingly, because of his growing friendship and respect for him.

Both Foxx and Downey are excellent in this movie. Foxx is particularly convincing as Ayers, in part because he is an excellent actor, a fine musician, and spent hours observing the real Nathaniel Ayers to better capture his vulnerability, anger, confusion, and his passion for music.

But Foxx also had a personal connection with the role. According to The Los Angeles Times, when he was 18, and in music school himself, someone slipped a psychotropic drug in his drink, and he came close to losing his mind. Flashbacks continued for almost a year, and he spent hours and hours playing the piano in an effort to escape, an experience very similar to Mr. Ayers’s, but without the devastating lasting impacts. He did have panic attacks and bouts of paranoia during the filming of “The Soloist,” though, fearing his own madness could return.

“The Soloist” was directed by Joe Wright, who also directed “Atonement,” a movie that I thought was better than the book. This was not the case with the “Soloist.” I might have enjoyed “The Soloist” more, if I had not read the book first.

Mr. Lopez’s book, whose full title is “The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music,” tells a slightly different story, and the arbitrary changing of, for the most part, minor details in the story was unnecessary and sometimes annoying.

In the movie, Nathaniel Ayers is a cellist at Juilliard, and, when a kindly arthritic woman gives him the valuable cello that she has played for 50 years, he plays magnificent, ethereal music on it without the use of vibrato and without stopping to tune it. He fills the tunnel, and all of Los Angeles, with exquisite, uplifting music.

In the book, he was a string bass player at Juilliard, and taught himself cello and violin later. Though he is clearly uniquely gifted, the book makes it clear that his playing, like his personality, is a bit disconnected and rough around the edges. He forgets notes; he adds unwritten flourishes, playing the way he talks, sometimes making sense, sometimes off on poetic or incomprehensible tangents. In the book, the donated cello is a student cello provided by a businessman, and Nathaniel sometimes tunes it endlessly, as a nervous activity. And he overuses vibrato, rather than avoiding it.

These are many more examples, including changes in Mr. Lopez’s life. Sometimes these detract from the movie, making it seem that the only mentally ill people worth caring about are those with extraordinary talent.

In a recent “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Ayers was asked why he played in a tunnel, where the traffic almost drowns him out. He said, “It seemed orchestral: the commotion, the calamity.”

And it is “the commotion, the calamity” of Mr. Ayers’s life that makes the book so compelling. The flawless playing in the movie (actually the work of Los Angeles Philharmonic cellist Ben Hong) is unnecessary, and hokey.

To its credit, though, the movie does remain true to the book in that Mr. Ayers is not “cured” of his schizophrenia in the end. Music is healing, but it is not a miracle drug.

It should also be noted that considerable effort was made to make other aspects of the film accurate. A “character artist” was hired to duplicate the style of Ayers’s ubiquitous graffiti, and to replicate his shopping cart and clothing. Real homeless people were hired to play themselves, and the real Los Angeles Philharmonic performed in the movie.

“The Soloist” is a visually appealing film, if occasionally overly lyrical, and the subject matter, and the performances by Foxx and Downey, make the film well worth seeing. I also recommend the book, and the original columns and supplemental articles, which are online on The Los Angeles Times website. Also worth taking a look at is the foundation set up by Mr. Ayers’s sister to aid the artistically gifted mentally ill, at www.naayers.org.

"The Soloist," this weekend, finally.

"The Soloist," the movie about Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the homeless cellist and Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, is finally coming out this weekend. I am still only halfway through the book, but looking forward to seeing the movie. After watching this 60 Minutes segment, I am thinking a full-length documentary might be even better than a movie.

I love the quotes by Mr. Ayers in the clip. When asked why he played in a tunnel, where the traffic almost drowns him out, he said, "It seemed orchestral: the commotion, the calamity."

He also says, "Music is saying, 'Life isn't that bad.'"

Elsewhere I have read that one of Mr. Ayers' goals is to play in a community orchestra. (More commotion and calamity!) And another is to teach music therapy. Though he, himself, still suffers from mental illness, the music helps bring him peace.