As you may already have guessed,
I am on the run, once again.

That means I get to do less production work.

But, I did "make the time"
to put the six pavanas in one file,
for your listening pleasure.

I think,
at least, according to recent traditions
(i.e. past 100 years),
that all six are played
and listened to all at once.

I'm not sure that was the intent of the composer.

As a matter of fact,
I find that very doubtful.

The Pavane was a common dance form
at the time these were written.

And people did not, to my knowledge, play collections of them.

Normally they are fairly slow and stately.

But Milan has taken the form
and adapted to the Vihuela,
which requires that the composition be played
a little bit faster,
due to the inability of the strings
to sustain tone for more than a few seconds.

So, it is a little bit faster
and more snappy than normal.

Although, it can be played any of numerous ways,
I am sure.

In that regard,
I should like to remind everybody who reads this,
or who otherwise cares about such matters,
that the Renaissance and Baroque music
was meant to be used as a basis for improvisation.

This is an art which has sadly,
for the most part,
become lost.

Todays musicians and orchestras
tend to be much more slavish,
it would seem.

This tends to destroy all of the spontanaeity,
while crushing most,
if not all of the life out of the music.

I was taught that my job is to breathe life
into the little dots on the page.

Not destroy them.

I still take those ideas very seriously.

At any rate, it's been fun.

As usual I have much more I would like to say.

But I really do have to get going.

Am heading north tomorrow.

Probably won't have a lot of time to do much.

But, we shall see, shan't we?

Am still working on Bach Cello piece.

I want it to have a certain polish
that can only be gained over days and days
of repetitive
(and rather insane)
practice,
while recording every single bit of it,
and then liberally deleting everything,
until the perfect take finally "happens".

It is part of a recording technique I am inventing.

Oddly enough,
I have really bad stage fright
once the recording machine goes on.

I can fight it all I want,
but it has never gone away
during the many years I have been doing this.

I can do ten perfect takes in a row,
and be so ready to "kick butt"
that you wouldn't believe it.

Everything exactly perfect,
over and over,
and over and over.

Until ---------

That little red light goes on.

And then I just fall apart.

I can't even get the first notes going.

It is totally pathetic.

But, also, totally real.

So, technique, technique, technique.

Yes, there are ways to work around such things.

But you will most certainly
have to figure it out on your own
if you are ever going to have an answer
that is worth all of the effort.

So, just as an aside,
that is what I am talking about.

Is it?

I don't know.

Maybe you do.

w/love in even more abundance


vw

11-01-12
3:52 p.m.
Wednesday

Ventura, California, USA