The Sound Post: An Information Exchange
FROM JUDY GLYDE: CHAMBER MUSIC AT THE ISCHIA WORKSHOP IN ITALY
Aldo da Vero is a friend — and he has been trying to get me to coach and play at his workshop for years. I am finally (after years of being urged!) going to do the Ischia Chamber Music Festival from May 5-11! If you do not know about it, Ischia is a beautiful island off of Naples, close to Capri. A full-featured website, ischiafestival.it, provides photos, all the details about the other coaches, accommodations, and just about anything else you'd need to know about the program. I look forward to seeing many of my Sleepy Hollow friends there in the spring.
Judy Glyde
FROM TONY ARNONE: CHAMBER MUSIC AND GOURMET COOKING/EATING IN ITALY
Hello, all my Sleepy Hollow Friends! How many of you like chamber music and wonderful food (Suoniamo-Mangiamo)? Aren't they two of the best things in the world? I think it would be so much fun to combine them for a week in Viterbo, Italy, next summer. Is anyone interested?
I have met a gourmet chef, an Italian woman named Alessandra Meschini (Cooking With Alessandra.com), who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, for part of the year, but teaches cooking classes in Italy (Viterbo) during the summer. I know a few people who have gone there for her classes and absolutely loved it!
She and I have been planning for the week of June 18-25, 2012, to have 2 or 3 quartets come. The plan would be for all of you to be coached every morning by me and Kate Hamilton (viola professor at Concordia College and former Sleepy Hollow coach). In the afternoon, we could shop, sightsee, and then have a class with Alessandra. We would all eat together, enjoy a nice bottle of wine, and then maybe read some quartets, quintets, sextets, etc., in the evening.
The anticipated cost for this week would be $2,000/musician for a single room, $1,900/musician for a double room that you would share. If you brought a spouse or loved one, that person would have to pay $1,400 (for the room and cooking classes/eating). This does not include the airfare. I feel pretty sure we can find some cellos to borrow if cellists didn't want to travel with their cellos.
For the fee you will get:
- Your accommodations at the Domus La Quercia in Viterbo, not too far from Rome
- 4 quartet coachings
- 2 dinners out
- 5 cooking classes/meals
- Transportation in private bus with driver to/from Rome to Viterbo
- 7 sightseeing trips (Viterbo, bagnaia Villa lante, Caprarola, Bolsena Lake, Faggeta, San Martino, Bomarzo)
We now have a Suoniamo-Mangiamo PDF flyer containing the most pertinent details that you may view, print out, download or otherwise share.
This promises to be a wonderful experience for everyone, and I am eagerly anticipating this unique combination of great music and food! Feel free to email me at anthony-arnone@uiowa.edu if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!
Tony Arnone
A Tribute to Ed Gould
Ed played a big part in many of our lives throughout his years at Interlochen and other chamber music encounters. As many of you know, Ed found delight in joining a poetry club and creating a passion he could add to his love for chemistry and chamber music.
I was fortunate to receive an inscribed copy of his book of poems, Nearly Devoid of Profundity, and Ginny Burd suggested we read a few of them in his memory. I'd like to share a chamber music poem from a section Ed called "Staves and Clefs," just one of several music-related works in the volume.
By the way, Ed's poem on the 84 Haydn string quartets begins with a quotation from Jim Christensen's book, Chamber Music Notes for Players.
The poem I selected is called "Relaxation With Two Cellos."
—Karen Kramer
Our thanks to Carol Gould for permission to duplicate Ed's poem on this site.
© 2006 by Edwin S. Gould, from Nearly Devoid of Profundity:
Poems by Edwin S. Gould. Published by Kent State University
in Recognition of Dr. Edwin S. Gould. All rights reserved.
"Relaxation With Two Cellos"
Schubert's String Quintet, D. 956,
His most imposing chamber piece,
Requires 50 minutes for performance
And features, as its heart,
An extended and complex Adagio.
The work should not be the final offering
In a late-evening concert
Or in an amateur session lasting past midnight.
Nevertheless, on New Year's Eve,
When expectations were high,
Our local group embarked on a reading at 11:45 p.m.
Following a spirited (albeit approximate) rendition
Of the opening Allegro,
My viola part exhibited a full page
Of very sustained whole note ("semibreves")
While the remaining strings enjoyed
Long, beautifully embellished melodic passages.
After seven lines, my round notes became fuzzier
And my breathing heavier…
"Ed, wake up! You'll drop your instrument!
We're at the Scherzo!
The friendly banter pointed at me
By my confreres
For dozing off during Schubert
Persisted several weeks
But I reminded each heckler
Of my enviable position—
That on my awakening,
I remained in Paradise.
Inspiration and Fugitive Tones
A cellist who wishes to remain anonymous reports, "I schlepped my Sleepy Hollow folder to the gathering in September, and it included this set of homemade haiku from 5 years ago. They were a group effort that year out of condo #18! I thought it might be fun to post them. The nineteenth-century artist Thomas Moran is known for his watercolor illustrations of Yellowstone. Many of the colors used by Moran changed over time from their original appearance, and hence are called 'fugitive tones.' We liked the musical variation on 'fugitive tones'."
#18 Haiku Collection
Inspiration fails.
Joy flees, leaving in its wake
the fugitive tones.
Inspiration flags,
but happily returns with
its fugitive tones.
Inspiration calls:
intimate conversation
with fugitive tones.
Inspiration rings,
resounding with certain joy
from fugitive tones.
Inspiration shines:
evanescent mastery
in fugitive tones.
From the Sleepy Hollow Archive
Ted and Liz Kruzich pose in the old Sleepy Hollow dining room, all the way back in 1983.
From the Sleepy Hollow May 2011 Weekend
Ted and Liz Kruzich pose in the new Sleepy Hollow community room, all of 28 years later.
The Strad magazine website carries a bizarre story about a violinist who sues an 88-year-old judge in an age-discrimination case. Start with the Strad story, which links to a New York Daily News version.
What Do You Have to Share?
We would love to see your photos or hear about your special events. All you have to do is email them to the webmaster.
Or perhaps you're looking for a piece of music or hard-to-find recording. Again, just email your description, requirements and/or photos to the webmaster.
A Most Amazing Ensemble
All serious musicians will want to check out the video link to these remarkable Polish musicians who call themselves the Mozart Group.
If, by any chance, you don't think the group lives up to its billing, feel free to complain to Sam, who submitted the link to this YouTube flick.
It's the first page of the score for the Presto movement of Beethoven's Op. 130–as Written in His Own Hand
At right is the home page of the Library of Congress Music Treasures Consortium website from the LOC Performing Arts Encyclopedia, and it's loaded with images of full original manuscripts in PDF form for downloading at various sizes, copies of original letters of composers, oodles of research materials plus links to similar research materials at the British Library, Harvard University's Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, the Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace Library, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the New York Public Library.
A trip to this website is well worth the effort, but be warned: This site is addictive and we will not be responsible for lost time, lost meals, lost income or any other material loss involved in your going there.