Tenor Viol's musings

[Tenor Viol]

Those lyrics for O Fortuna looks like a list of Harry Potter spells.

It's a Medieval Latin poem. There's a wiki about it here including a translation. Many of the Latin words in it have related English words:

O Fortuna - O fate (and we use 'fortune' to mean 'fate'
luna = moon hence lunar
variabilis - changeable hence variable
obdurat - oppresses = obdurate

etc.

EDIT - posting with Targa crossed

 

[Vetinari]

Doesn't sound as good in english.

 

[Targa]

Many English words are related to Latin, amongst the best known are those from when Caesar first saw the Britons and declared "weeny, weedy, weaky".

 

[Tenor Viol]

Many English words are related to Latin, amongst the best known are those from when Caesar first saw the Britons and declared "weeny, weedy, weaky".

I did wonder about veni, vidi, vici...

 

[Tenor Viol]

Last night was my regular Thursday evening orchestra. We don't do concerts as we have gaps in the orchestra so not practical, but we rehearse a 'programme' for about 6 or 7 weeks, then change to a new set of music. This half term we have a couple of short pieces by Mussorgsky and Grieg, Schubert symphony #2 and Mendelssohn's Hebrides overture (aka "Fingal's Cave").
The Mendelssohn is a marvellous piece, written by him during a visit to Scotland, but the string writing, including the cello line, is fiendish.

 

[Tenor Viol]

My turn @MandyH for G7 theory and Bach chorale style harmony...

 

[Vetinari]

@tenorviol , if you want the septet to play that, please convert bari line to treble clef cos I cant play from F clef

 

[Tenor Viol]

@tenorviol , if you want the septet to play that, please convert bari line to treble clef cos I cant play from F clef

How about a C4 tenor clef?

 

[Vetinari]

How about a C4 tenor clef?

Nope!

 

[Tenor Viol]

Nope!

No sense of adventure!

As a cellist, I have to read bass, tenor, and treble clefs and it can switch between all of them rapidly. Bassoonists have the same issue.

Here's a bit of Dvorak wandering from bass to tenor clef...

 

[nigeld]

if you want the septet to play that, please convert bari line to treble clef cos I cant play from F clef

Add 3 more sharps to the key signature and then play it on the bari sax just as if it is written in the treble clef.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Add 3 more sharps to the key signature and then play it on the bari sax just as if it is written in the treble clef.

I had to do that in summer school - was given a bassoon part to play on bari, and bizarrely I had to do the opposite of playing an Eb bass part on cello, so add 3 flats and read as if in bass... accidentals get messy

 

[nigeld]

accidentals get messy

Yes. I've only tried it once, trying to play a Bb clarinet part on bassoon. (As far as I remember, I had to subtract two sharps and imagine it was in tenor clef.) I gave up after the first accidental.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Torn Achilles' tendon progress: another trip to physiotherapist yesterday which resulted in angle of the boot being lowered to 10 degrees. Next week, the wedge sole plate comes off the boot to be replaced with a flat one and the angle is reduced to zero/level. I then see the consultant orthopaedic surgeon again the following week. After another two weeks, the boot should then come off and I will finally be able to sleep properly (I tore it on 31 July). Then physiotherapy starts in earnest...

 

[Tenor Viol]

Went to a concert of baroque music played on period instruments earlier this week. Concert was in St. George's Hall in Liverpool. Here's a view of the outside:

 

[Tenor Viol]

This is a theorbo - it is a baroque bass lute which has two necks - one for the standard bass lute strings and the longer one for the diapason strings. The modern harp guitar is similar in concept. As it has gut strings, requires to be tuned a lot. The reason being that gut strings 'breath' and absorb or release water vapour, which affects the mass of the string. It takes several hours to reach equilibrium. In a concert hall, add hundreds of breathing humans and there is no chance to reach equilibrium, which means constant re-tuning.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Another concert this week, but in the Art Deco Philharmoic Hall in Liverpool. This was full orchestra (more in a moment on that). The programme was all works I've not heard live before. The first was a UK première of a work by André Previn written in 2016. That was followed by Gershwin's piano concerto in F. The second part, which is when the orchestra was put on steroids was Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which requires a huge orchestra: 4 flutes, 4 clarinets plus bass, 4 oboes plus cor angles, 4 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon) plus another contrabassoon, 7 horns, 6 trumpets, 3 trombones plus bass trombone, 2 tubas, 2 sets of timpani plus 4 other percussionists, harp, strings....

View: https://youtu.be/rP42C-4zL3w

 

[Pete Effamy]

I envy you having experienced The Rite live, it's one I mean to get to. There are some joke lyrics to the bassoon opening that I remember from college days "I'm... not an English Horn, it's just too high for me, I'm not an English Horn"

 

[Tenor Viol]

Foot progress. The angle was reduced to zero (i.e. normal) a week ago. At the same time the wedge-shaped sole plate was replaced by a flat one. So now my hips are much nearer to level and there is only about one inch / 25mm difference (unlike the 3 or so inches / 75mm previously).
Moving around is now much easier and over short distances, such as indoors, I can manage without a crutch. I need one crutch over modest distances, but over a few hundred metres it needs to be two.
Ten days until the boot comes off. Maybe I'll get a decent night's sleep then (I have to wear the boot in bed).

 

[Jeanette]

Good to hear things are going the right way at last

Jx