Syrinx

I have decided to post my arrangement of Debussy's Syrinx that I performed at my recital last month.  And don't worry, the original composition is in the public domain!  (I checked)  People seemed to love it, and a couple people told me that they would be interested in playing it themselves!  So here you go:

Claude Debussy - Syrinx (A Clarinet)

I tried to go through it and make sure there were no errors, but I'm sure there still is!  Please let me know if you find a typo.  Also, my only request is that if you play it, please send me a recording!  I want to hear how other people interpret the piece.
If you are interested in comparing the score, here is the link to the original score on IMSLP:

Claude Debussy - Syrinx (Flute)

And there are tons of videos of this work (played on flute) on youtube, so if you want to hear how it sounds you can check it out. The clarinet version doesn't really sound like the flute version, and I don't recommend trying to make it sound like it.  While I was arranging the piece, I began by trying to match the sound of the clarinet to the sound of the flute.  But I quickly realized that was going to be an impossible feat - I would actually recommend making it sound as opposite to the flute version as possible.  The result is an extremely dark and beautiful piece - I would describe it as a "shadow" of the flute version.  I hope to have a recording of myself playing this at my recital posted in the media gallery soon!

And if you are wondering what the heck "syrinx" is or means, here is the Wikipedia article, which actually mentions the piece by Debussy.

Anyway, enjoy and I hope to hear some different takes on this awesome piece.

starting fresh

If I can after a big event, usually I like to take some time completely away from my clarinet.  Although I love playing (and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to not pick up my instrument!), time away from the instrument allows me to de-stress and recover faster and better.  Usually I will take a week off, sometimes two depending on how long it has been since I had a break.  This time, I took just one week off - yesterday was my first official day back in the practicing grind since my recital.  Last week I was able to get a lot of non musical things done...including updating my blog site!!  Oh and I did another 5k on Saturday - this one was a lot harder...it went up Cobbs Hill in Rochester, which is a insanely steep hill and it goes on and on!  I felt like I would never get to the top!  But I still ran it under 30 minutes, which was great!

 

The great thing about taking time off from practicing is that it is like a reset button for me.  Any bad habits that began to creep up seem to just go away!  Stepping away and then coming back really helps to create a sense of starting over.  I like starting on a new project with a fresh perspective.


Anyway, the next thing on the agenda is the DC Navy Band audition in January.  I literally have not seriously practiced any excerpts in many, many months...longest time I've ever gone since I started working on excerpts!  I played through them yesterday, it wasn't too painful...ha.  There are a lot of common excerpts between these excerpts and the Marine Band excerpts from January...which conveniently is the last audition I did!


I am also contemplating submitting a video to the YouTube Symphony auditions.  If you don't know what that is....click here.  If I make it, I'll get to go to Australia, and that would be cool.  The excerpts are pretty simple - Mozart Concerto, Beethoven 8, Mendelssohn Scherzo, and Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol.  There is also an audition for Eb clarinet - Berlioz Symphony Fantastique and Strauss Till Eulenspiegel are those excerpts.  The deadline for this is November 28 (ahem, which is also my golden birthday), so its coming up fast.  I'm going to decide for sure if I'm going to do it next week after practicing the excerpts.  


Today at work, I finally heard back from people about doing a performance for the hospital's recital series (yes-they actually have a recital series!!).  Looks like it might happen!  There are a lot of things that need to be finalized before anything can go forward, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Its really funny, a lot of the people that I work with have no idea that I am a musician, let alone graduated from Eastman!  They are amazed at what I do - I think it would be so great to play for them!  I need to start thinking about a possible program...this time I won't be limited by time/pianist since I live here!  I'm hoping to get to play with the wife of a research doctor in the Neurosurgery department, I heard her play a recital at Eastman last spring and it was a-freaking-mazing!  I would be honored to play with someone of that caliber.  So I hope everything works out!


On a completely different note, I voted for the last time in NY today!  I messed up my first ballot, so I had to fill out a second.  Yes, I was that girl.  LOL.  Also, tomorrow marks 200 days until I leave for the Navy!  Yoohoo!  Its getting closer and closer!

updateage

So instead of practicing this week, I have filled my evenings with updating my blog site!  I have gotten my own domain, which is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now.  So now my blog is at www.sandyclarinet.com!  Woo so exciting!  I have also posted my resume, and I figured out how to post some recordings of myself.  I only have a couple pieces posted that were recorded from my dress rehearsal of my ESM recital back in January of '09.  I'm going to dig around for some more recordings that I think is decent enough for posting, but I think most of what I had was lost from when my hard drive committed suicide back in December.  Wah.  I also hope to post some pictures and video of this past weekend.  As soon as I get them from various people!


I know it doesn't look like much, but I have spent a lot of time perfecting the site...and it has forced me to get back into coding and stuff (I was an expert at html back in college, but I have long since forgotten most of it) which has been pretty fun.  And annoying at the same time, because I'm a perfectionist!  For now, since blogger is dumb and won't let you make a "home" page, I'm keeping it mainly a blog site.  But I think its useful to have other information about myself and what I do other than my daily musings.


Anyway, enjoy sandyclarinet.com!