On April 10, Hannah and I played with the Georgetown Bach Chorale. We played The Don Quixote Suite. Don Quixote was one of the first fiction books ever written(1605.) A synopsis of the story line is; the main character, Don Quixote of La Mancha in Spain imagines himself as a gallant knight fighting the evils of the world. His comrade, Sancho Pansa, and well in years horse, Rocinante accompany him on his wild journey. He fights with windmills, steals from innocent citizens, and falls in love with a peasant farmers' daughter, who he imagines is a royal princess. Through all Don Quixote's escapades, Sancho Pansa stays with him through good and bad. The original novel is more than 700 pages long.
The composer George Philip Telemann created an orchestral suite consisting of eight movements, each outlining a different aspect of the original novel written by Miguel de Cervantes.
The rest of the program was centered on musical pieces written by Antonio Vivaldi. They played the Four Seasons, and many other pieces written for choir. The ensemble was a baroque ensemble and the musicians played on period instruments. Here are differences between baroque and modern instruments.
- A baroque violin does not have a chin rest
- A baroque violin's strings are made out of animal guts instead of synthetic material like the modern ones. Gut strings untune easily because of different temperatures, humidity, and the pressure of the bow on the strings.
- Baroque violins don't have fine tuners.
- A baroque bow is lighter and shorter than a modern bow. Also, the tip of a baroque bow is pointier that a modern one.
- The fingerboard on a baroque violin is shorter than the modern violin.
- Cellist's in the baroque period had to hold their cello between their legs.
That sounds really fun! Neat story, too!
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