Today was the start of the new semester. Snowy cold abounds, making it really pleasurable to sink into a one-armed desk chair or ensconce onself in a practice room with a battered Steinway.
My only class on Mondays is a Music Theory course in analytical techniques. This basically entails learning various ways of assessing a score. Today we talked about Schencker, a twentieth-century German theorist who boiled everything down to its simplest essence. For Schencker, there are really only 3 chords in a tonal piece: I, V, and I again. (I is the home chord in a key -- like CEG in C major. V is the chord built on the fifth note in a scale in that key. In C major, V is GBD.) Everything else is just a "passing tone" or elaboration. (This is only a slight exaggeration. His simplest level, called "background" really is just those 3 chords.)
The rest of my day involved some resume/cover letter crafting, a trip to the store to replenish my refrigerator that was left barren for the break, and some solid practicing. The opera goes up next week (eep!), and I'm trying to keep refining my character profile, polish my technique, and solidify and make organic my blocking (staged gestures and movements given by the director). This week, we'll dive back into rehearsals from the deep end, all in preparation for the first show next Thursday. Wish me well!
Hope your new year is off to a fantastic start!
~Hope
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