Last concert!

Our last concert with the ESNCM symphony orchestra was in Hebron on the newly build Children's Center. It is so new that the people in the city hardly know it (and of course our driver didn't have an address for it and had to ask for directions), and the area around it is also only half build. Despite the playground with basket field in front it looks more like a congress center where grown-ups hold meeting about children, that a place for children.

The view from my spot in the orchestra. We're rehersing, probably tuning the strings here. The piano here is an upright and hence not so full of sound, so they had to take of the front. And our conductor spend a lot of time tuning it.

We played for a full hall of Arabs, and apparently we played the very first classical concert ever in Hebron. I wonder how many were there for the music and how many were there to say hello to each other and be seen. They behaved like they would during an Arabic concert; walking around and talking to each other and on the phone, or walking in and out of the hall. It was a bit disturbing, I'm used to a well-behaved audience sitting still and listening, but I enjoyed playing the music so much that I didn't care what the audience thought, and they were free to leave if they didn't like it. But they did like it, especially that we had the Palestinian girl on piano and that the Palestinian basoon player conducted Valse Triste, and the applause after Dvorak's Finale was resounding.

It was a bit sad when it was over, that was it for now. Many of us ran around with a piece of paper and asked for contact information for each other, and we had a group picture taken. I joined the teachers in Bethlehem at Casa Nova Restaurent for a drink and after-party, and that was a good way to gear down from an intense but wonderful week.

I wish the orchestra would meet regularily so I could continue to play in it, but I realise how difficult it is to gather students from Jerusalem and Bethlehem and Ramallah in the same place. If the rehersal is three hours and transport is one hour each way plus waiting at checkpoints, then it's a full day project each time.

Second concert

Second concert evening was in Ramallah, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hope (which we couldn't find an address for from home, and our driver from Jerusalem had problems too finding it - so it's not just me!). It's a beautiful church with mosaics - and I have a weakness for mosaics, probably because they look best with light from outside. Our rehersal was early, because there was a one and a half hour mass just before the concert, and everybody (here) knows that friday afternoon is the time where people have time to go to church (they are working on sundays, being the first day of the week).

The concert went well, though I was a bit tired from yesterday. The program was the same, but tonight the basoonplayer conducted the Valse Triste as part of her conducting exam in France (it was recorded on video).

First Concert!

Today was the first concert of three with the ESNCM symphony orchestra. We started with a late lunch at a restaurent close by (and then people had time to be late without missing the rehersal) before we went to YMCA in East Jerusalem.

Full hall and our conductor introducing the Piano and the Piano concerto.

We tried out the hall and our conductor had some last comments and corrections to how we should play the music. The hall filled with people, and we played a great concert! Our conductor introduced the pieces more to the Arabic audience than I assume he would to a European. We started with Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni, then the Piano Concerto no.29 with our 15-year old Palestinian soloist, then Valse Triste preceded by the story from the opera of the old woman dreaming and waltzing in her dreams with her husband, and then suddenly she wakes up and remembers he has been dead for long time. Before the Dvorak suite, he introduced all the instrument(group)s of the orchestra with each instrument (group) playing a short frase so the audience could hear the sound. I was nervous for my solo in the third movement (Sousedska), but after it went well in the presentation all my nervousness was gone.

The concert finished with the fast and festive Finale, and I was high on music the rest of the evening. What a wonderful feeling!

More from the symphony camp

Today with second clarinet, yay! Our combined clarinet sound is making BIG difference! And everybody knows that the more clarinet the better! She gave me a new trick with folded plaster on the teeth so not to damage the lower lip too much - my usual cigarette paper is ok but too thin when we're playing so much. She's a teacher at ESNCM, like 14 others in the orchestra, and then we're some other Western people "doping" the otherwise Palestinian orchestra. But classical music is Western, and not many Arabs enjoy it (though I know some Danes who also dislike it), and even fewer play it. But we're some (Western) people who really enjoy to play in a big orchestra!

Our conductor is also from outside Palestine, as far as I understand Colombian living and teaching in Switzerland. I think he's great, so tense and alive and seeing everybody in the orchestra, which makes everybody more alert on what he is trying to make us play.

Rehersing the Piano Concerto.

We played (click on the title to hear the music on youtube):
- Mozart's Overture to Don Giovanni. This was the one I looked most forward to playing, but Dvorak's Czech Suite, especially the Finale, ended up as my favorite after the weekend.
- first movement from his Piano Concerto no. 29 k.466. No clarinet part in this one, but with a talented 15-years old Palestinian girl at the piano.
- Sibelius' Valse Triste - also used as conducting exam piece for the Palestinian basoon player for her studies in France. Lots of cameras recording her and the orchestra. And then I realised that one of them was from MBC (tv-station), so we might have been on Arabic television.
- Dvorak's Czech Suite op.39, Pastorale, Sousedska, Romance, Finale (link til hver). I looked most forward to play Mozart, but it's Dvorak's Finale I'm singing now.

Symphony Orchestra camp!

This weekend I spent in Birzeit, a village in the vicinity of Ramallah, on a rehersal camp with the Edward Said National Conservatory for Music's symphony orchestra. The music school is part of the University of Birzeit, I think (but maybe I'm just mislead by the official name Edward Said Conservatory).

It's a 3 day camp friday to sunday, but Palestinian kids are off from school friday and sunday (muslim and christian holidays) so they need to be driven back to school for saturday, which gives an awkward break.

The facade of the music school - I love the decorations!

It's the first time I play in a proper symphony orchestra; It's strange to be a lonely clarinet, when I'm used to big clarinet flocks in harmony orchestra, but nice to try to be THE principal clarinet.

And I've figured out that winds are as important as strings in a symphony orchestra, or even more: the winds have all the beautiful fill-ins, give the strings' sound more colour, and they are great for solos because there's more sound in one wind instrument than in one string-. So now I'm even more proud of being a clarinetist!

Maundy Thursday Choir

This evening I joined a first rehersal of a choir, which is going to sing on Maundy Thursday (skærtorsdag) in the Redeemer Church and then walk to the Mountain of Olives (to commemorate where Jesus walked and were betrayed).

The songs of course were connected to Easter and its story, but I was amazed how good the amateur singers were. I managed to sing the alto voice, but mainly because I could listen to the ladies around me.

Here's a link to one of the songs we're going to sing.

Tel Aviv on a shabbat

Today we celebrated that we've been married for three months by biking to Tel Aviv (60km, 800m down) and spending theday there. We thought of going all the way on highway 1, but got stopped by a police officer, who told us we were not allowed to bike on the highway... We kinda knew that, but today was shabbat and that means not many cars on the roads (observant Jews are not allowed to drive on shabbat).

The landscape on the way to Tel Aviv almost look Danish.

So we found another route - which was actually more scenic, which was nice - and after 4 hours we were in Tel Aviv, and headed straight for the beach and the water. Oh how wonderful to swim again, and for free! The beaches there are public (as opposed to around Lake Kinneret, and the indoor pools in Jerusalem for 35-50 shekels each time). Lunch at the beach, and then one more swim, just because we could and it's wonderful.


We biked around the city and it's small. Tried to find the Botanical Gardens, but the were behind closed gates. But we found the Wolfnights Chef Burger bar, where we had a bacon-and-cheese burger! Very non-kosher; bacon is not kosher, milk products and meat together is not kosher and the place was open on a shabbat!) - but we enjoyed it very much!

Preparing the burger - note the vampire-smiley at the corner of his dish! ^^

We rested on a lawn for half an hour before going on the the Immanuel Church of Jaffa to listen to an organ concert on the Book of Job played by a Danish guy we had met in Jerusalem at the Church. It's composed in the 1970's by Egil Hovland and is so modern that it uses cacaphony more than harmony... Between the seven movements were readings from the Book of Job - in Hebrew, but I found an English Bible so I could follow the story.
It was nice to meet the Danish priest in Tel Aviv and his family, and to say hello to the people we already new.

Last trip was to the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, which is big and grey and ugly, but we managed to find our platform 607 on the 6th floor and get on the bus back to Jerusalem, despite many warnings that this bus station is very confusing and non-logical. But I still think it's weird to have 6th floor on a bus station, and busses departing from there!

All in all a wonderful day!

My first concert with HarEl

Today I played my first concert in Jerusalem with the Israeli wind band HarEl, that A got me in touch with. It was a concert on a school for children aged 6 to 12, where girls and boys are divided to seperate classes and areas - and therefore we played two concerts, first for the girls and then for the boys.

In the hall - I liked the decorations on the walls (not so clear in this picture).

We played a variety of music to show the children the different instruments (Pink Panter on saxophone, Trumpeter's Lullaby, drum-solo in Sing Sing), and hopefully they've been inspired to start playing themselves. Though at home in Greve when I've attended this kind of music-promotion, the children had a chance of trying the instruments afterwards, and we didn't do that today - maybe because there were so many children. I fled the hall during the break, it was way too noisy for me, even with my earplugs; and it was not only the children's sreaming talk, but also my fellow musicians who contributed to the noise.

Once again I was reminded how well we've been brought up in the music school in Greve; to not play in the breaks so our ears can rest from all the sound, to play not only notes but also give them full and nice sound so the music is worth listening to (I even saw some of the kids, who're used to this way-too-high level of noise, stick their fingers in their ears, because the sound was bad), not to sms during the concert - and other small stuff like this.

But the kids were cute, I especially wanted to take one red-haired girl with me home, she was adorable! The girls were mainly in pink and purple colours, the boys in blue and black - and every one of the boys had a kippa on, some also the four set of strings coming out from under their clothes, that their more religious fathers and uncles also wear.

Saba for sadness

My 3oud teacher have told me to practise on a piece called "howa saHeeH al-hawa ghallâb" (هو صحيح الهوى غلاب) [It is true that love is irresistible], composed by Zakaria AHmed and sung by Um Kalthoum. It's on maqâm Saba, which is one of the most sad maqâmât.

Saba contains of the following notes: d; e half-b; f; g b; a; b b; c; d b (or re-mi half flat-fa-sol flat-la-si flat-do-re flat as I've learned to say here):

In other words it's a very Arabic maqâm with both quartertone and with a 1½tone interval (g b; a), and my teacher warned me that maybe I couldn't listen to it, cus it sounds so different than our Western minor and major scales. But he gave me a recording of it (thanks to Bluetooth on cellphones! Another recording can be found on youtube here) and complained that the 40 minutes of music was too short time for Um Kalthoum to sing.

He played it for me once (it's repeated in my notes) and then stopped, saying he would start to cry if he continued. "You have to feel the sadness when you play." And I should try to ornamentate it, not just play the written notes.

More music, now symphonic

I was asked today by one of the teachers at ESNCM if I would like to play principal clarinet in the conservatory's symphony orchestra. Yes please! He would leave the notes for me at the reception, and first rehersal will be on this coming sunday. In Birzeit University, which is close to Ramallah, and where the the main branch of ESNCM is.

I've now got the notes for the Overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni, Sibelius' Valse Triste, and a suite by Dvorak. The only problem is that they are so symphonic, that they are for A clarinet - as is usual for a symphony orchestra - and mine is a B flat clarinet. But I'll transpose them (thanks to Finale for helping!), and I look very much forward to rehersal on sunday!

Palestinian orchestral challenges

Today I rehearsed with the wind band at ESNCM. That is, we 10 people rehearsed in one of the three fractions of the wind band. The other two fractions, with 30 more people all in all, are in Ramallah and Bethlehem, respectively. It would be convenient to meet in Jerusalem to rehearse all together, but not all the kids from the Palestinian Territories are allowed to go to Jerusalem. So we meet in Ramallah. But only when we have a sceduled concert to get ready to, which we don't have now. But our conductor tries to get one, if not for anything else then for us to try to play in a bigger orchestra.

And once again I feel fortunate at home to play in a big orchestra, that can meet without thoughts of checkpoints, permissions and big distances.

Oriental music concert

We went to a student concert at the Centre for Middle Eastern Classical Music, an Israeli music school close to the Old City. All the musicians did a good job - though the hall was too small for all the many people wanting to listen; maybe they heard about the concert via couchsurfing.org, as we did. I enjoyed 3oud and qanoun sounds, and the oriental rhythms, I was carried away by one of the group songs in two voices (I guess it was Hebrew; in Arabic you normally don't use harmony). It was funny to hear Israelis sing in Arabic (I knew "Zourouni" originally sung by Fairouz), because the r's are different, and Arabic have some more guttural sounds.

I wonder if this school knows about ESNCM and vice versa - and if they would be interested in making concerts together... Their interest area is the same (music, more specific Oriental music), though the students at ESNCM are considerably younger than those at this centre. Language might also be a problem, though maybe not the biggest.

Concert with Goldschmidt, Singh, and Irshed!

Two of my musical "heros", Henrik Goldschmidt on the oboe and Bilal Irshed on the 3oud, were in Jerusalem tonight to play a concert in the Bible Lands Museum, together with their long time partner Singh on accordion (but I don't know so much about him).

It was a fantastic concert! Goldschmidt was, as always, very expressive and beaming with life and musical joy, teasing the audience with breaks and changes in the music so everybody stayed alert on what would happen next, his sound on the oboe as soft and charming as ever.

The seccond piece they played were a combination of an Arabic love song, a Danish psalm, and a Jewish traditional song. It started out very softly, the 3oud enchanting me with its deep, full sound, and the xaphoon (as I think the recorder with clarinet mounthpiece is called) took over with soft, sweet tones, the accordion being a harmonic drone in the back. I was moved.

And the rest of the concert continued with happy, fast Yiddish tunes, Goldschmidt singing about the teacher teaching his students the Hebrew alphabet (and we, the audience, we the students, who had to repeat after the teacher), Danish folksongs played in Arabic style, a bit of taqsiim [solo improvisation] on 3oud (not enough for me!), and other lively pieces.

It all ended too soon, but we had had a great time - and I almost feel sorry for all of you who missed it! For those in Denmark check out Singh&Goldschmidt's turnéliste, if you want to hear them (without Bilal on 3oud), or Bilal Irshed's page on when he plays. I recommend Fatma Zidan Group as much as Middle East Peace Orchestra - Fatma is my former teacher in Arabic singing.

First 3oud lesson

I had my first 3oud lesson today (the teacher was ill last week), and it went very well, though I had to borrow my teacher's rîsha [plectron] because I had forgotten to ask for one when I bought my 3oud. The teacher said I had a good way of holding my right hand on the neck, and showed me how to properly hold the rîsha, and I could hear the difference in sound at once.

I read some notes and played them the same time (luckily I avoided to sing them - but I might have to get used to singing before playing), we talked a bit about maqamat, and he instructed me how to make my own rîsha out of plastic cable ties (or those used by the police as handcuffs) by putting it in olive oil. Very important that it's olive oil. I aked why, and suggest myself it's because we're in Palestina, famous for its olives.

I enjoyed the lesson and the teacher seems very nice and skilled - I just don't like the time on late friday afternoon. Our roommate had invited us for "Kabbala Shabbat", Shabbat celebration with lots of music, but I couldn't attend because of my lesson. And later on, when we want to go on longer trips to see the country, it could be nice to leave friday morning (A's weekend from the university is friday and saturday), and return sunday (none of us have classes sunday, the first day of the week). So I'll ask to get another time. But then it has to be with another teacher, cus this one only teaches friday...

First lessons on ESNCM

Today I had my first lessons at the ESNCM. First one was "Maqamat 1", which is about the Arabic counterpart to scales. Here, the different maqâmât are thaught, their intervals, starting note, which two half-scales (ajnâs) they are build of, and their behavior (tasarruf). The behavior is the most important part, all the rest is just "facts". The music and the expertise lies in knowing how and when to use which maqâm, to know it's mood and colour.

After a longer break and a date with my dear husband, the next class was "Introduction to Oriental Music". This one teaches the different types of Arabic musical pieces, both the instrumental and the sung, the various rhythms (and there are many!), a bit about the instruments.

Classes started after the summer holidays, so I'm jumping in in the middle of things and these two were in Palestinian Arabic, so I don't understand everything. But enough to get invited by my girlish classmates on a trip "to find food", food as in cake.

Last class was Harmony with an Austrian teacher, so this was in English, and a bit more easy for me to follow. It is Western music theory and how to use it when composing.

After all this (and I'm a bit sad that all my three theory classes are on the same evening; I would like to come twice a week instead) I biked (! ^^) on to the Jerusalem Music Center for rehersal with the Israeli wind band, HarEl. Long day with lots of music!

New 3oud!

I went on my new bike (! ^^) to Jaffa Street / Ben Yahuda to the music and instruments shop there - 3ouds starting from 790 shekels for beginners, but not very nice looking...
So I went to the old city to try to look for an 3oud there, though I doubted the quality of 3ouds available. But I met a guy in front of Jaffa Gate - one of those shouting "shoppin' today?!" after tourists, and whom I normally ignore with all my might - who actually knew a shop just in of Jaffa Gate, he played 3oud (or lute, as he said) himself, and didn't even charge me for talking to him.

So I got this nice 3oud, hibiscus coloured and with beautiful decorations on the front - and, most important, a label in the "belly", visible through the shamsiyat (sound holes), saying it comes from Bait el-3oud (the House/Home of 3oud) in Cairo, which I heard of when I was there, but unfortunately never got around to visit.

So yay! new instrument. Though I realised my tuner is with my other 3oud. In Denmark. But our roommate tuned it for me, with his tuner on his computer. =)

Music interview

Today I was at an "interview" with my coming oud-teacher at the Edward Said National Conservatory for Music. I was a bit puzzled about the purpose of this interview, but I think it was to test if I had any musical sense; if I could recognize minor and major scales (he played on his oud), if I had any rhythmic sence and could recognize the beats, if I could hear which tone was the higher of the two. After 14 years with my clarinet I passed all the tests "very good" - and I would have been surprised if I had failed...

But finally I've found a place to study music - and I've managed to explain what I want to study! - so besides 45minutes of solo oud-lessons once a week, I'm going to attend classes on Maqamat (Arabic scales and music theory), Introduction to Oriental Music, and Harmony (Western music theory). Most of these in Arabic, which will be a challange, but that's the way to practise my Arabic! I hope to catch up on what the others have been doing for the past half a year - but I look forward to start on wednesday! =)

Edward Said National Conservatory for Music

First orchestra

A. had a singing lesson at his Ulpan (Hebrew language course) with a teacher from the Jerusalem Music Centre. And as the good husband he is, he asked the teacher for an amateur orchestra for his wife. (Hihi, I'm still getting used to our new titles.) And so I went to look for this orchestra and their weekly rehersal yesterday's evening. I had an idea of where the Music Centre was placed, so I walked in what I thought would be the straightest way. But Jerusalem is very hilly, and it turned out the road I had to cross to where some 20 metres down - so I had to go back and start over.

But I found it! And enjoyed 2½ hours of music with this Israeli wind band called HarEl (which should mean God's Mountain). It has some 35 members, some years older than "my" orchestra back in Denmark. But some of the music was the same, even the same arrangements of Disney's Aladdin, and Leroy Andrson's Trumpeter's Lullaby (we also played The Syncopated Clock; I was happy!). And the conductor's great-nephew plays in the orchestra; family business as usual. ;) They even asked me to join them for a school concert on friday, so I must have done a good job.

It was nice to play again, and music is a universal language. I didn't understand much of the instruction, cus all was in Hebrew, though my staff-mate was helpfull with traslating - but all the musical expressions (mainly Italian) were the same. And I learned the Hebrew word for trompets: khatatot.