Just a girl and her music--with a day job
It's been a while since I've considered something significant, so here is your much-missed deeper side of Good Excuse to Wear a Veil. ;)
I am absolutely in love with my position with York Steno. I love bringing documents in line with style guides and the rules of general good usage. I can think of no better outlet for my inner anal retentive grammarian to come out and play--and even get paid for doing it! At this point in my life, I can imagine no more perfect place of work for myself.
Shockingly, sitting at a desk all day did not cause all knowledge of music to leak out of my brain (my secret fear about getting a day job). I have found that entering the wide world of full-time work has done wonders for making me a more productive writer and musician. I am producing content and editing with a clarity and speed I have not seen in a long time. I am practicing more and more regularly than I have in a good while (not excluding my final semester of college, sadly).
Interestingly, though, having such concentrated time with my flute has thrown into very sharp relief the fact that my flute and I have some "issues" that need to be sorted out. Where is our place in the world? Clearly, it is the instrument I am best at. I 've been playing it for thirteen years and got a degree in it. I should hope I've picked up a thing or two along the way. But things no longer "fit" quite as easily with flute as they once did. In high school, it was terribly simple: I couldn't be in a band, so I found my way to orchestra. I fell in love with it, and with piccolo. College didn't offer many opportunities in the realm of orchestra, but I was principal in the wind ensemble and played in several excellent small ensembles.
That said, I really don't have a consistent classical performance outlet anymore. I do miss it. I miss being up to my eyebrows in classical music. I miss the immersion, the nobility, the beauty. Maybe I just need some new music. I have my eye on Pizzolla's Tango Etudes for unaccompanied flute. Maybe I just need to pick up my music for Lucia di Lammermore, which I'm playing in March with Center Stage Harrisburg.
At the same time, I've found a new, perhaps better-fitting, home in folk music. It's very earthy. I like that. Picking up my wooden flute is like putting on a new personality: the half of me that is in touch with the land and the people who make their lives by it. I feel like I've found a new niche in the folk, particularly Celtic, communities.
At the same time, it feels a little strange to be straddling these two worlds that, although similar, are usually so widely split. Let's admit it: everyone knows how stuck up the classical community is known for being. How cut-throat, how back-biting. But it conveys some of the deepest and most noble sentiments of mankind. It has a undeniable universality and beauty to it.
Folk music, on the other hand, has a level of personalization and intensity that I love. I feel connected to a glorious heritage that really belongs to all humanity, not just those wealthy enough to afford Beethoven. It really is the music of the people. The joy, the sorrow, the pain, the beauty of just being alive. I can relate to that with less of a stretch than I can to some of the ideas and stories in the great classical music.
To complicate things further, I am currently searching for a guitar teacher, so that I can explore another side of folk music--and in theory, vastly open up the role that I can play within that community.
Let's not even get into liturgical music. I currently have no connection with that beyond a great love and desire to reconnect with it as soon as an opportunity presents itself. That will just have to be in time, as God sees fit.
I wonder if I will continue to straddle so many worlds, or if I will ultimately pick one and abandon the others. The thought of such a choice saddens and frightens me. They are all beautiful and noble in their own way. How can I pick?
The better question, perhaps, is do I really need to? At the end of the day, isn't it all music?
I am absolutely in love with my position with York Steno. I love bringing documents in line with style guides and the rules of general good usage. I can think of no better outlet for my inner anal retentive grammarian to come out and play--and even get paid for doing it! At this point in my life, I can imagine no more perfect place of work for myself.
Shockingly, sitting at a desk all day did not cause all knowledge of music to leak out of my brain (my secret fear about getting a day job). I have found that entering the wide world of full-time work has done wonders for making me a more productive writer and musician. I am producing content and editing with a clarity and speed I have not seen in a long time. I am practicing more and more regularly than I have in a good while (not excluding my final semester of college, sadly).
Interestingly, though, having such concentrated time with my flute has thrown into very sharp relief the fact that my flute and I have some "issues" that need to be sorted out. Where is our place in the world? Clearly, it is the instrument I am best at. I 've been playing it for thirteen years and got a degree in it. I should hope I've picked up a thing or two along the way. But things no longer "fit" quite as easily with flute as they once did. In high school, it was terribly simple: I couldn't be in a band, so I found my way to orchestra. I fell in love with it, and with piccolo. College didn't offer many opportunities in the realm of orchestra, but I was principal in the wind ensemble and played in several excellent small ensembles.
That said, I really don't have a consistent classical performance outlet anymore. I do miss it. I miss being up to my eyebrows in classical music. I miss the immersion, the nobility, the beauty. Maybe I just need some new music. I have my eye on Pizzolla's Tango Etudes for unaccompanied flute. Maybe I just need to pick up my music for Lucia di Lammermore, which I'm playing in March with Center Stage Harrisburg.
At the same time, I've found a new, perhaps better-fitting, home in folk music. It's very earthy. I like that. Picking up my wooden flute is like putting on a new personality: the half of me that is in touch with the land and the people who make their lives by it. I feel like I've found a new niche in the folk, particularly Celtic, communities.
At the same time, it feels a little strange to be straddling these two worlds that, although similar, are usually so widely split. Let's admit it: everyone knows how stuck up the classical community is known for being. How cut-throat, how back-biting. But it conveys some of the deepest and most noble sentiments of mankind. It has a undeniable universality and beauty to it.
Folk music, on the other hand, has a level of personalization and intensity that I love. I feel connected to a glorious heritage that really belongs to all humanity, not just those wealthy enough to afford Beethoven. It really is the music of the people. The joy, the sorrow, the pain, the beauty of just being alive. I can relate to that with less of a stretch than I can to some of the ideas and stories in the great classical music.
To complicate things further, I am currently searching for a guitar teacher, so that I can explore another side of folk music--and in theory, vastly open up the role that I can play within that community.
Let's not even get into liturgical music. I currently have no connection with that beyond a great love and desire to reconnect with it as soon as an opportunity presents itself. That will just have to be in time, as God sees fit.
I wonder if I will continue to straddle so many worlds, or if I will ultimately pick one and abandon the others. The thought of such a choice saddens and frightens me. They are all beautiful and noble in their own way. How can I pick?
The better question, perhaps, is do I really need to? At the end of the day, isn't it all music?
posted by Anna Clare at 7:17 PM
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