Flute as Cello

A few years ago, I played Haydn's London Trios (2 flutes and cello) as first flute, with another flutist and a cellist. I love these trios (especially playing with the cellist, who was very good, despite not having changed his strings in 30 years. Well, ok, that part annoyed me, but my hints that his tone might be even better if he bought new strings fell on deaf ears).

I am working on the cello parts now, hoping to play the trios with the flute quartet (all flutes). I play both flute and cello in the group, but have not played cello with them all winter, because sometimes it is just easier to leave my big bulky instrument at home and take only a flute.

So, I found a version of the London Trios for 2 C flutes, alto flute and bass flute. Alto and bass play essentially the same part, the cello part. We have an alto flute in our quartet, but no bass flute, so, right now, I am playing the bass flute part on my C flute, which makes it an octave higher than it should be, but it sounds fine. I am also enjoying doubling the alto, I who generally prefer not to play doubled parts.

Oddly enough, the flute/alto flute is a reasonable substitute for the cello. It is also helpful in terms of reminding me of the tempos, the rhythms, etc., and so my playing of the music on my cello is benefiting. Eventually, the weather will warm up, and I will bring my cello to play with the group. I will still be doubling the alto flute, but, this way, all four of us get to play these lovely pieces, and it can be comforting to hear someone else playing the same part.

The cello parts are both relatively easy and interesting, and I love the flute parts; and it is fun playing a piece that I know the other parts to. Sometimes, in sightreading unfamiliar music with the other flute quartet (flute/violin/viola/cello), I am so intent on my part that I can't appreciate the others (or even recognize the piece from the upper parts), so I am enjoying this.

Ensemble practice, and a birthday

What a glorious day of practicing yesterday was! I practiced a bit in the morning, Then my early music group meet at noon for a coaching session with my cello teacher. We are playing Corelli Sonata no. 1, Op. 4, for 2 violins, cello, and keyboard on two upcoming occasions. The first is this Sunday at a fundraising concert for a church, where keyboard will be played by an organist, and the second will be my cello recital, in which our second violin player will switch to harpsichord, and the second violin part will be played by a flutist. Thankfully, I am playing cello both times.

This piece has a interesting, fun-to-play, cello part, with just the right amount of challenge so that, if I practiced diligently, I could play it well. Unfortunately, I have not really had the time to solidify all the fingerings and bowings, and the intonation is shaky, in some parts more than others. So, I will play it on Sunday, in perhaps imperfect form, and "perfect" it for my recital.

The coached session was wonderful. My teacher gave us all lots of good advice and encouragement, and we are all sounding better. She was energetic and enthusiastic, and we were all receptive and responsive. We really should do this more often.

In the evening we met up again for our regular Thursday rehearsal, this time with the organist. I missed the vibrant coaching element, but we did well, and I am getting almost all the appropriate fingerings now. We are playing three instrumental pieces at Sunday's concert, and accompanying the choir on five or six hymns. (This is at 1 pm, after my fiddle group plays along the route of the Cape Cod Marathon from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Another music-filled day.)

After the evening rehearsal, my husband and I took our daughter out for dinner to celebrate her 19th birthday, even though she had already gone out to dinner with friends. She took home most of both meals, so should eat well for a day or two. A lovely day of music, friends, and family.

Musical medicine

I've been feeling under the weather the last couple of days. It is probably related to my daughter's weekend adventure. She went out to western Massachusetts to visit some college friends, and they went apple-picking. My daughter came home with a half-bushel of tart apples. That's a lot of apples. So, I think I ate too many apples. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but two or three a day...not so much.

I didn't practice much the last couple of days due to the apple-induced queasiness, and, when I did practice, I just sounded awful. I went to church concert rehearsal tonight, full of excuses and apologies. As we played, though, and the music enveloped me, I gradually felt stronger. The other instruments seemed to make my cello sound good, and I played better than I had at home. There remains one tricky part that I have to work on, but we still have a couple of weeks and another couple of rehearsals, so all should be well, so long as we all stay healthy.

So, back to the apples. We made an apple pie, but there are still numerous apples remaining. Tomorrow, we'll make applesauce, which is, coincidentally, part of the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) bland diet. Kind of like the hair of the dog that bit you.

Again and again and again

Often, I have found, the first time we (any chamber music group I play with) plays a piece, it sounds great. On our sight-reading nights, all sounds good, and we go on and on.

However, when we decide to work on a piece to bring it to performance level, it seems to fall apart, initially, sink into some sort of abyss, and I can't remember how I could have possibly played the piece previously. Sometimes I don't even recognize it. Gradually, the piece comes [back] together, and we are pleased with the result.

Most likely, I was not really hearing all the problems the first time through; it probably wasn't as splendid that first time through as I thought it was.

I enjoy sight-reading and I am one of the people who is always buying new music, but I would rather spend time with a piece than just sight-read, especially with the initially unfamiliar early music pieces we play, working out the fingerings, the articulations, and dynamics, and feeling how one's part fits in with the whole.

At a minimum, being able to recognize the piece! "Oh, that's the Canzona from the Purcell Sonata in F Major," I want to be able to say. Seems like a reasonable request. But it takes a deliberate effort to focus! I am recording all the rehearsals now and making CDs for everyone, which helps a lot, especially since I am playing cello and not always focusing on the flute/recorder/violin melodies.

Both the flute choir and the early music group are performing on Labor Day, and several of us are playing in both groups. I am happy to say that both groups are focusing now, playing only the music that we will be performing on Labor Day, seeking to perfect it. It seems like a long time until Labor Day: we haven't even had a good summer heat wave yet. But I'll be away two weeks (at Grey Fox and then at Scottish fiddle camp), and other people will be away too, so there are only a few rehearsals where we will have the whole early music group (2 flutes, recorder, violin, cello, occasional second cello, harpsichord) all together.

Last year, we only had three members in the early music group and patched together a program in about two weeks, some of which I barely recognized when it came time to play it! We're already miles ahead of that!