I played a series of concerts this weekend. As seems to be my most frequent M.O., I had never played the piece before a couple weeks ago. I figured if I practiced it once before Friday night's rehearsal, and listened to it on YouTube a couple times, I'd be fine. And I was right! (This would be why it's my frequent M.O.)
Please feel free to listen to this lovely piece while I tell you the sad, sad tale (not tail...tale! about a neck) of the weekend.
You can, of course, click through to hear all 12, er, XII, lovely pieces from Mozart's Requiem in D minor. Lacrimosa's my favorite of them all, but I love certain phrases in each of the movements. For your listening AND viewing pleasure, I'd recommend starting with this next one if you're really in the mood to listen to the entire Requiem. Which I did. On Saturday. Twice. 'Cause you know: last minute ear training always works like a charm. Um, or something like that. Anyway, ignore the 1991 hairstyles, but all XII are worth a listen and watch.
Now for the sad tale.
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A Sad Tale
For all of these semi-annual chorale concerts, a very lovely girl named Johanna plays the bass viol in our little ensemble. She does not have her own bass, so she usually borrows one for these concerts. Well, having done so for this series, she left it backstage after last night's concert rather than lug it around with her only to have to bring it back today. Unfortunately, though, this afternoon she discovered that someone had knocked it over and taken out the neck. Like, folded-in-half kind of broken. It was a distressing sight. Especially when someone suggested duct tape...and tried it.
Internet, the moral of this story* is that duct tape cannot fix everything. Indeed, there is something that duct tape cannot fix. I must tell you that it is the bass viol.
So we played the last concert this afternoon without a bass, and Johanna got to sit in the audience and listen to the rest of us have fun with Mozart.
The End**
*Um, besides the obvious ones, like: hardcover cases are best; and, I don't care how big it is, you always take your instrument with you (possible exception: grand piano); and, don't leave your instrument in a high-traffic, low-light area (like backstage in a theater)
**At least this is the end of the story I'm going to tell you. I'm not sure what Johanna and the owner are going to do about the repair of the bass. But it won't involve duct tape, I can assure you.
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And now on to other mixes of Lacrimosa, which, let's be frank, is really the point of this post. Internet, I am now on the hunt for the perfect remix of Lacrimosa to add to my workout playlist. One with sufficient beat (and how could you not turn this into the perfect beat?) that keeps you moving, but still uses real instruments? Is it really that hard? I will have to say yes because so many people seem to get it WRONG. 100%. But here are two remixes that I found not entirely dreadful. Only Evanescence seems to spell it wrong (at least according to my score this weekend) and I've chosen the instrumental version of it. And even then, I'm still not sure I like everything they do. The other remix is just a hair too European techno for my tastes. But neither sounds like they're too extremely fake. I hate remixes that sound like they were produced on a two-octave casio in 1988. These seem to still understand the point of a remix - a beautiful combination of the original with a modern twist.
Internet, if you can point me in the right direction of the perfect mix, I'd be quite happy. In the meantime, I will continue to listen to the classical version. Because, even though the concerts are over, I've discovered I quite like the Requiem, and have high hopes that if I listen enough now, I'll remember the next time that I've actually played this before.
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