Cello+Thoughts

by Alistair MacRae I'm a cellist. These are things that get me thinking. www.alistairmacrae.net www.facebook.com/macrae.cellist twitter.com/MacRaeCellist

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Good cello playing is physically simple.

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Musical extremism--often, we have to do things on stage in a way that is larger-than-life in order for them to come across to the audience.  Check out this phenomenal performance, which follows through on musical gestures and intentions to the hilt (and does so without interruptive physical tension).

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In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility.

Joseph Conrad

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This video (link below) is a great example of Alexander Technique applied to the performer.  Watch especially from 5:55 for a succinct explanation of the goals and focus of AT.

Video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201955911529877

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Revealed: the violent, thuggish world of the young JS Bach

John Eliot Gardiner's research has shattered 'sanitised' versions of the composer's life

His music, too, should not be overly sanitized. It should be performed with vigor, drama, and personality.

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As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives

Henry David Thoreau

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Heifetz playing Wieniawski Polonaise No. 1: watch throughout but especially from 4:00 and notice his shifting in double-stops.  The left hand stays extraordinarily light even though the bow is boldly engaging the strings.  The left hand is not stiff but has enough muscular support to keep its shape stable as it advances up the fingerboard in a single, smooth gesture.

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Great old videos of some of the titans of conducting.  Every orchestral musician should watch this.

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Ustad Zakir Hussain

Good musicians access (and communicate using) their innate sense of speech rhythms and their linguistic/rhetorical mind.  Watch, in particular, from 37:00!

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An excellent essay on Beethoven in the NY Review of Books.

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If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my ax.

Abraham Lincoln

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My suggested bowings and fingerings for the audition excerpts required by the Carnegie Hall National Youth Orchestra (NYO):

http://bit.ly/Qtq56Q (PDF file)

Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Second Movement

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Scherzo

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5, Second and Third Movements

Alistair MacRae www.alistairmacrae.net alistairmacrae.tumblr.com twitter.com/MacRaeCellist www.facebook.com/macrae.cellist

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This is a video of Bruce Lee doing a screen test at the very beginning of his American film career.  

[video was removed, but can now be found at http://www.firecold.com/videos/bruce-lees-screen-test-for-the-green-hornet]

Watch especially from about 4:30, when he starts demonstrating kung fu.  Notable details: speed, fluidity, and economy of motion; stillness and ease in the parts of his body not in use; balance and poise: a true master of himself.  Also interesting is his description of kung fu starting at 2:00: images of water and flexibility that, in my opinion, apply well to playing the cello.  Bruce Lee's deep study of martial arts led him to many truths of self-mastery.  A fantastic read: http://bit.ly/TaoOfJeetKuneDo

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"πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει" καὶ "δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίης" "You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you;" or (variant translation): "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

Heraclitus of Ephesus as quoted by Plato in his Cratylus

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Maxim Vengerov Masterclass: imagining a story (41:54-46:20)

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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau sings "Mondnacht" (Schumann).  A great musician to hear, imitate, and internalize.

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David Finckel on the variable and excellent vibrato of the renowned baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau