Stringwood

Wow, that might possibly be my most boring blog post title yet. Then again, for those of you who haven't heard my numerous stories revolving around my awesome, challenging, somewhat dorky, and altogether SWEET string quartet camp............well, "Stringwood" is a pretty interesting word for a post title.

Lately, I figured I should write a bit about this camp, since I think about it at least weekly, if not more. Something about the two summers I've gone has really stuck with me, which, considering I never dreamed I'd ever be going to some random two-week summer camp where I play my viola five hours a day, makes me stop and blink for a nice second. I started viola when I was in fifth grade, and originally wanted to play the violin...........HAAAAAAAAHA. I wouldn't trade playing viola for any other instrument........except maybe cello. Here, I'll let y'all in on a funny orch dork thing: every string-player wants to be a cellist. I swear to the heavenly Parents. Just recently I've fallen in love with the sound of the cello. I think it started this past summer, in early June, when I went to Stringwood for the second year in a row. The cellist in my quartet--an all girls quartet, mind you, which got to be veeeeeeerrrrrrrrrry interesting--was super super super amazing, and occasionally we practiced in the same room. Well, she would play the Bach cello suite--you probably know it, it's incredibly famous, not to mention GORGEOUS--and one other piece, and I would literally just stop practice myself to listen to her play. It was the most beautiful thing I've heard in my life, no kidding. It's like..................ah, I don't know, I can't describe it, really....only string-players can fully understand what I'm talking about. But that's okay. Everyone else can just imagine it all. :-)

But anyway.

Stringwood is, in a nutshell, a two-week string quartet camp in the southern part of the state where the only thing on your car's GPS is white space. More specifically, it's where you eat, play your instrument, have free time, practice by yourself, eat, have majorly fun group activites such as rock climbing or looking for wildlife, play some more, eat, maybe play a little more, and then have either free time for two hours till bed OR do the night activities, which are my favorites, like the night hike or the bonfire or just lying on the ground and watching the stars form the constellations. And all that's NOT counting the "field trips" you get when you perform in the towns or get to go to a LIVE RADIO SHOW (thank you, Stringwood '08!) and all that amazing jazz. Or classical. Whatever. (Pardon my lame string jokes--they're just too much fun to pass up.) So there's your introduction to the place I called home for two weeks out of my past two summers; I'll have more on it later. Man, do I have some great memories from SW!!!

By the way, the attached pic is from my first year.........and even stalkers wouldn't be able to depixelify (?) (me likey said word) it enough to see who's who, so yes. :-)

~Josie

Those classical guys were NOT respectful

In quartet music, why is it that the viola hardly ever gets cool solo parts?!?!? I mean, sure, I'm completely biased, I'm not gonna lie, but why are the violins and cello cooler than the instrument which is a combination of BOTH OF THEM??? (For those of you who aren't exactly sure what I meant by that statement, the viola is played like a violin, is almost the same size, and uses the same octave, but has the same strings as a cello. It's pretty hardcore.) Mostly the only pieces that contain kick-ass viola sections to play are contemporary ones, such as music by Shostakovich and John Mackey (Strange Humors is viola-central) and the like. THEY saw the beauty of the Outkast Instramint, THEY realized it had been in the shadows of the cozy closet for far too long and needed some light (unlike Daniel Craig :-) ). So I ask you, what was the deal with these classical guys and the viola? What was WRONG with it? I can think of waaaaaaay too many cool things about playing it, that's for sure:

-Nobody knows what it is. Well, sort of.

-It's got the same loverly strings as a cello but is far easier to carry around

-It's big and tough-looking next to a violin, but still appears sweet next to a cello

-It's got a C string (yesssss resonance is a good thing)

-People always need violists, it's just a fact of string life, so it's hard to be out of work with a viola

-It has its own clef that everyone but violists hate, so it's all ours

-It's just plain cool

So why was it the instrument to be sheltered, cast away, forever reduced to scratching out dull harmonies and accompaniments?

*Sigh*

Okay, I'm exaggerating (why does that tend to happen when I discuss my instrument?!?!). This past summer at string quartet camp (I know, right? HA) I played Mendelssohn 12, and it was like an equal, beautiful tapestry of sound and color, with all the instruments at some point becoming more prominently colored in the weaving. Last winter I played an AMAZING Shostakovich piece (quartet 11) that felt like, instead of a tapestry, a bunch of threads bunched together; it was so bare, I'd say, so individual and together at the same time (I adore that piece--check it out). But really, we just got a new piece in quartet today, and it's Beethoven, which I like a lot, but our coach chose it because the CELLO gets a cool part, because the VIOLINS got the last cool part in our other piece. So when this year is over, it's my turn. I shall rebel and demand we get a piece I can boast about.

HA--watch, it'll be too hard for me to play. :-)

I am done now. Violas are respected just fine, I know. Really, I know. I'm not pissed. It's okay. Classical music kicks ass, period.

Intense viola activist-ing,

Josie