The Lark is ASCENDING!!!!

I always wished that I was able to play the violin. My great aunt played violin with the New York Philharmonic back in the 60s and 70s I think. Maybe it was earlier. Anyway, when it was time to pick instruments in 4th grade, my school, in Jackson NJ, only had wind band available. It wasn't until I was in high school in a different school district, East Brunswick, that I realized some schools had orchestras. I think hands down, I would've picked violin. There are millions of violin players, though. And your chances of getting into a symphony are so rare. But shit, it ain't like I'm getting into a symphony on flute! I'm a bad sight reader. Nothing changes that. I can play something perfectly that is considered difficult, but I still will bomb sight reading. I just don't have THAT talent. I have a shitty attention span lately. I was told it was cuz of stress. What ISN'T cuz of stress nowadays??? I try to avoid situations where I have to sight read.


So anyway, last spring at a NJ Symphony Orchestra concert, there was a violin soloist who played a piece called "Lark Ascending". It was performed by a chinese girl. The song sounds very chinese. Surprisingly, its composer is NOT chinese, but british or american...not sure. I remember this piece because I really liked it #1, and #2 it's a popular song for figure skaters to skate to. I still watch figure skating competitions on tv, if I know they're on! I recently saw a program by Yu-na Kim (current 2009 World Champion, and my fave skater at the present time), where she skates to this song. I decided to try my luck to find it free online. Some sheet music is out there, if you have patience (I don't lol) and look for hours. I wasn't able to find it, but I did find this sample on a sheet music ordering site. It shows the first page only. Its such a pretty song. Here is a youtube of the song. It's long, but you can follow along w/ the first page if you read music. Hint: Its a long cadenza which means its not really following the music exactly. Its left open to interpretation. If you don't know what I mean, you probably aren't a musician or a singer, so just listen to it instead! =)






I'm debating on buying this piece. Its for violin, and I play flute. They both are concert pitch, meaning they are both in the same key. For those non music people... not all instruments play the same notes. Clarinets, Saxophones, Cellos and Violas for example play in different 'keys', or notes. A Flute's "D" would be an "E" on a clarinet or trumpet. I'm not sure about the other instruments. But I know they're not concert pitched. Sooo flutes can play violin music with an orchestra. This probalby wouldn't happen in real life just cuz you can find so many violin PLAYERS but it wouldn't be off key if a flute played a violin part. I remember in school I was in the symphony orchestra and we had to play with the violins sometimes just so we wouldn't have a million measures rest waiting to come in. I have some violin music in my music binder. One of my faves is "Meditation" by Massanet. That's another story though.

So yeah, I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy this piece. It's very long. It seems a lil' repetative. I'll have to listen to it again to see. If I decide not to buy it, I at least have the first page to use as a warm up or something. LOL!