Orchestrated Wisdom and The Learning Environment
A.T. and Rosin YEG-GA: The Rhetorical Tonic of a Demi-Ensemble?
The carving called Rosin YEG-GA began its travels September, 2016, just when A.T. became a fourth-year Arts student with a major in History and minor in English. While the History, Literature, and Culture of Medieval Europe, especially in the Scandinavian North and the area currently known as the British Isles, proved to be A.T.'s main focus of study within the university environment, she readily acknowledges that her interests were nutured earlier in life by music and the fantastic adventures found in "Tolkien's World". Her parents, she once recalled to the School of One Carver, played a great variety of music for her, and she soon developed a "huge love" for Medieval, Baroque and Folk music. Following years of training in the "strings", A.T.'s perspective continued to be shaped by her extensive background in music groups and programs found within the environs of Edmonton, including The Wye String Ensemble, La Folia (a Baroque ensemble), The Singing Strings (affiliated at the time with the Edmonton School Board), and the New Measure Orchestra. Her undergraduate experience was also enriched by her participation in two impressive ensembles: The Key of A Quartet and the University of Alberta Symphony Orchestra. The vignette found in "Set Two" below, undertaken several months after the successful completion of her undergraduate degree, documents how A.T. has maintained her pursuit of Medieval Studies and History, now as a graduatuate student at the University of Toronto.
Set One: Spring Movement through Summer, in A Related Key, 2016
As detailed above, A.T. and Rosin YEG-GA began their travels together in April 2016, a time when A.T. was finishing off course requirements for the Winter Term. The first vignette confirms that Rosin YEG-GA helped mark this important momement. Despite certain "institutional weariness" with the university environment, A.T. hinted at her potential for graduate study in Medieval Studies, especially since she was not quite ready to abandon her books or records for the lofty leisure and documentary respite readily available during an Albertan Summer. And while her extensive participation in one prominent part of the "music scene" in Edmonton kept her busy, she also embarked on a new experience within the management of records and archives for one government agency of the Province of Alberta.
Moomin Musing (#1)
7:10PM, April 22, 2016. 9°C
It’s the final day of the semester for me today and I finished my last take-home final exam a few hours ago sitting at this desk. The course was about Scandinavian Children’s Literature and it introduced me to new worlds, wonderful places (like Moominvalley), and wonderful authors (like Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren). I will forever appreciate the literary works and the topic. The authors truly acknowledge and capture the agency and troubles of childhood, amd the journey to adulthood. Do we every stop being children in some way? Now, I'm feeling kind of lost because suddenly there’s no school work and this last exam also marks the end of my third year of university. I find myself feeling quite "done" with the institutional framework of university, and yet still very much tied to it. Within my current trajectory as a History student, I’m likely going to go to graduate school after my fourth year is completed, a prospect that is increasingly beginning to loom on the horizon as I try to figure out what that educational experience will actually entail. But, for now, this is my desk . . . and soon it will be cleared up and ready to face the next bout of exploits that come with the Summer. Hopefully, Moomins will be involved in those adventures!
Links:
For an introduction into Moominvalley, please see, Moominvalley
Maltese Peace
12:12PM, April 29, 2016. 15°C
This month is full of music . . . And I’ve spent the day printing and gathering together sheet music for the gigs coming up this month. One of the events features a Maltese piece called "Verso l’Aurora" by Carmelo Pace, a fellow that I’ve never heard of before who writes gorgeous melodies. It’s arranged for soprano and viola, but my friend and I are playing it as a string duo with violin and viola. Although the words will be absent in our rendition, the emotions will still come through. There are also a bunch of pieces that will be used for background music: pleasant, light works that will hopefully be unobtrusive to members of the audience, but still add to the ambience of the event. Amongst these pieces, we have a Mozart duet in G major for violin and viola and some music by a chap called Bruni. We’ll see how these go when we begin to rehearse them. As to the other gigs occurring this month, I’m going to be playing in an amateur symphonic group active in Edmonton called Nova Musica as a substitute violinist in order to help fill out the Second Violin Section. We’ll be playing pieces by Salieri, Brahms, Suppe, and Strauss. This means, moreover, that there will be a lot of pieces from the Romantic Period (with the Baroque exception of Salieri) and that will prove to be an interesting musical adventure for me. The groups I am associated with usually play pieces from the Baroque and Classical period. In any event, it’s going to be busy for the next month . . . but all in the pursuit of something I really enjoy.
Links:
The details of the amateur symphonic group may be found at: Nova Musica
Canada Day: Patriotic Movement
1 July , 2016. 16°C. Canmore, AB.
Today, my partner and I were travelling back to Edmonton from Canmore where we were attending a friend's wedding. Our "mini-"holiday (about three) days and adventure has been characterized by long road trips (squeaky cars, navigational challenges, ice cream "treatments", and slight insanity), the extremes of mountain weather (hail to sun within a couple hours), and the emotional experience of witnessing a very happy marriage between two excellent people. It was a most welcome holiday for the two of us, and it gave us some time away from the hustle and bustle of work and our lives in Edmonton. The musical gigs during the last couple months are no longer a source of worry (although there are more coming in the form of pop orchestra concerts and background music). June has been filled with apartment hunting and the accompanying stress that comes with moving out from home — both a scary and an exciting prospect for me. Life is full of change . . . and there is little to be done about that. Like the wild mountain weather, we can change as slowly or as quickly as the wind takes us. That may or may not have any deep (or accurate) metaphorical reasoning . . . but most people who visit this extraordinary part of the Rockies will appreciate this part of the natural, reflective process "that comes with the territory".
At any rate, and mountainous musings aside, we made it to Canmore and had some time to slow down, somewhat, or at least as much as a wedding adventure can allow anyone to slow down. It was a welcome change . . . in the mountains, meeting new people, spending time with friends, and, most importantly, spending time with each other . . . I am glad for the time we had there.
Set Two: The Vernacular Tempo of Autumn, 2017
Latin
Toronto, 9:49PM, October 22, 2017. 16°C
Does the world broaden by being away from home? Or does it close in around you? Or both? I don’t know… but I see a lot of my desk every day…. the same places. I have been learning new things though, and that is broadening in its own way.
Latin is what I seem to be thinking about all the time these days. Not necessarily because I want to, but having begun a graduate program where establishing a reading knowledge of Latin is integral, I find it is difficult to escape. This is not necessarily a bad thing… I will gain a valuable skill that is important in the field of Medieval Studies seeing as the majority of sources from this period are in Latin, not in the vernacular languages where my interest lies. But to study the vernacular, you must also study the surrounding sources—hence the Latin. However, through my other courses I have also been experiencing other narratives—the legendary history of Britain and Ireland has been an exciting dive into the crossroads of memory and myth. Forays into the rare books library have been illuminating the huge importance of textual history to all kinds of fields. The liturgical world of the Middle Ages has slowly been revealing its secrets to a person very much unfamiliar with its workings. All in all… it is a good adventure. But it can be a troubling one. Being in graduate school has not removed the niggling anxiety I have about where I want to go and what I want to do with my life. Then again… I suppose that’s all part of living.
Links:
For further information on the graduate program, please see: Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto
About Rosin YEG-GA
The academic success of A.T. was predicted by the Schoool of One Carver a few years before she was invited to participated in Project Y150 YEG-GA. Hence, it should be no surprise to learn that Rosin YEG-GA was originally dedicated to the individual agency, accomplishments and contributions of female members of string quartets in Alberta, past present in future, especially those of them who have been passionate students of History at the University of Alberta. Meanwhile, Rosin YEG-GA was carved from a portion of a larger Brazilian stone obtained from the enterprising rock merchant Asad on 118 Avenue, Edmonton. Other carvings from that larger rock were commissioned as gifts for a prestigious group of Chinese diplomatic dignitaries and the reknowned artist Fan Zeng by the Provost of the University of Alberta in Fall, 2013, thus confirming Rosin YEG-GA's lineage within the spirit of reciprocal patriotic exhange which invariably informs the larger Project Y150 YEG-GA.