Finally did laundry last night - hooray!

Also, I've been quoted in Arthi's profile. Oh dear... there goes my reputation. ;) On the other hand, Peter's quote far surpasses mine in amusement value... and it also took me off her profile. Hooray! -grins-

John, the really awesome community bassoonist, came in and worked with our trio yesterday. It was amusing, because he was impressed with how well we could read the pieces (but... you're supposed to be scientists, not musicians! ;). I don't think we were very clear in communicating with him at first - he was also a little confused, as he didn't realize that we already intended to play the Quantz Triosonate and Mozart Divertimento, and only needed to decide between the two modern pieces (Flor Peeters and Zaninelli).

I finally figured out what the Peeters is supposed to sound like - John mentioned that the opening sounded like a documentary from the History Channel. Then it hit me - it sounds spot on for a soundtrack accompanying a documentary on the Roman civilization. You have the legions here, and the panoramic city shot of Rome, and then the pitched battle... it finally made sense. For some reason, I have trouble performing a piece if I can't put emotions or an image to it - it just doesn't make sense, and I often dislike it at first if it doesn't intuitively make sense. But once I can identify what's in the music, I have no problem playing it to convey that image.

I remember one encounter with an audience member after an orchestra concert last year (the one with the Louchouarn Time Pieces). He said that we must have felt quite honored to perform a piece by such a renowned composer. I countered by noting that I'd hated those pieces for quite some time before I figured out what they were supposed to represent, but after that, it wasn't a problem. He seemed somewhat puzzled at this... I don't know. Perhaps I'm just a basketcase for performing with these images in mind (do any other musicians use this technique?)... but it works for me.

Ok, that's enough fun writing for now. Off to work on that E...