Musical Munchies

 For two months I have not had the ability to play my violin. Sure I had been doing bowing exercises but was very limited in scope of my practice because I couldn't use my left hand. That was probably the most challenging time for me. I have built a large part of my identity around playing the violin. Everyone in my music classes knows I'm a violinist. Even people who don't have music classes know that I play the violin. It's as much a part of who I am as any of the sports I've played and institutions I've been a part of. So being unable to play and having to miss a concert I was looking forward to was a real bummer. Not only did I have to miss an orchestra concert, but also the only chamber concert that I was going to have this semester.  However, I had one last opportunity to play my instrument this academic year. I had surgery to put screws and plates on my two broken metacarpals. However, it wasn't as easy as I was hoping it would be. The surgery went gr...

 i have spent the last two years of my life more committed to music than anything else. since i was in high school i've always wanted to do something in life that was music. music has always been a part of my life to varying degrees, but as a senior in high school i decided that i wanted to make music my sole purpose in life. at no point did i think that violin was going to be what kept me going in music, but i always recognized that it was at least a little important to me.  so much of how ive approached music has always been through the violin once i started learning it. i learned so much music just because i wanted to play my violin, but that can be said for any of the instruments i have attempted to learn, such as piano. however, violin has been the guiding factor in a lot of my musical decisions. until recently, i had no idea if i would ever be in a position to make any sort of money from music, let alone not playing my violin.  i never really played many gigs on my ...

 As anyone who has created something can attest to, things need names. Some things we create only have common names of which we refer to as generic place holders. Some things that we create require specific names, or proper  names.  Naming music has always been somewhat weird to me. When you look at the music you most often consume, everything has a name. Most pieces of music have names that convey a character of the music. For example album names are one of my favorite ways to name music. The art and meaning from albums titled things like RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART  or sour . The names chosen for works of art determine so much about how music will be perceived. It is often how we first come in contact with a song, its name. This is especially the case in orchestral concert music where there is often a program handed out as you entire a venue. In a lot of orchestral music, especially in older styles such as Baroque, Classical and to a lesser extent Romantic, pieces w...