melodyisageek

I am going to let this video speak for itself, for it is GLORIOUS.

I'm not sure what's stranger: the article that KC just emailed me from a 1983 New York Times (WHAT she was researching, I have no idea, but her degree is based in digging up obscure articles, so I'm not going to ask.) theorizing that Shostakovich received inspiration for his compositions from a piece of German shrapnel embedded in his brain during a battle in Leningrad; and that a portion of his compositions were ghost-written as propaganda while he recovered

...

Or that Google's ads are offering me flights to the Soviet Union. I dare not ask.

I'm quite sure this is the first update since November. Let me try to be brief: got pwned by my Grade 7 RCM violin exam, procrastinated like mad, still managed to get decent marks, visited Concordia and fell in love, had a car crash and got grounded for a month, started the new semester, had a love/hate relationship with Writer's Craft and proceeded to switch into Challenge and Change, and uh... that's about it.

So the point of this post? Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet is the greatest thing EVAR (though easily rivaled by his Violin Concerto! The evening I saw that was just AWESOME.) and therefore, my next goal in life (once I get accepted into a music program somewhere - I've applied to Concordia, York, and Queen's for music) is to perform this.

I don't care how long it will take me to learn the piece, I WILL play this.

(Using Shostakovich's DSCH motif as the basis for my composition in music class last semester was nerdocity defined in 16 measures.)

Enough procrastinating, though whether I'm better off practicing or finishing off all of my assignments that are due tomorrow is still undecided. Boooo homework!

Christ, I haven't even tried playing through any of the Bach Sonatas and Preludes for Solo Violin yet, and I'm already stressing out. Since I bought it Thursday (before heading off to see the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the NAC, so I was trucking around the NAC carrying a bag full of sheet music, nerd that I am :D)

It seems that Project Be Prepared For A BMusic Audition Even Though I'm Most Likely Not Going To Major In Music is stressing me out before I've even started. I think I might be tackling a bit too much on the violin right now, as I'm planning on doing my Grade 7 in January instead of my customary June exam so I can catch up and be finishing off my Grade 8 (general entrance playing level) as I graduate.

It figures that as soon as physics has stopped frying my brain (for the moment), violin takes over. Right now, I've got this beastly mix of some presently unidentified Bach unaccompanied violin piece (can't be bothered to scroll through my playlist after I've taken the rest of the evening off from listening to Bach) mixed up with my Kreutzer study, while I'm listening to Godspeed You Black Emperor!

Car rally was too much fun, I feel like going out for a joy ride and blasting some Broken Social Scene, but instead I'm here on the computer, listening to my metronome tock happily away downstairs as Kreutzer beckons.

I'm going to cut this ramble off short now and start sight-reading through the aforementioned Bach Sonatas and Partitas. If I get too frustrated, then I'll switch over to the surprisingly easy-looking Shostakovich book that I bought at the same time. If I get REALLY frustrated, and don't show up to school Monday, then I probably blungeoned myself to death with the twenty-odd pounds of Salieri research I have laying around the house.