Alex Waterhouse-Hayward

Linda Melsted - The Music in the Violin does not emerge alone

Saturday, February 04, 2017

Linda Melsted, Lauren Stewart - February 4, 2017

There is a lot to be said about hosting a virtuoso violinist that is too warm and quiet a person to be called a diva. Even though in sheer virtuosity she is one.

But that was the case this Saturday February 4, 2017 when Seattle’s Linda Melsted had lunch with Rosemary, my granddaughter Lauren, 14 and Portland baroque bassist Curtis Daily and me in our Kitsilano home.

After lunch she went up to our piano room to warm up and to practice her part in Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges’ (1745-1799) Concerto for 2 violins and strings )Op 13/2 in G mayor that she was going to play (with Pacific Baroque Orchestra concertmaster and violinist Chloe Myers). The concert was an amalgamation project of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Early Music Society of the Islands. The concert held at the Vancouver Playhouse was sponsored by Early Music Vancouver.

She closed the door of the piano room but her extraordinary violin (a Nicolo Amati) has a presence that punched through our walls and ceilings and it sounded loud and clear. At one point I heard her singing. I found this odd and asked Curtis Daily who told me that I may have noticed that guitarists can sing and play simultaneously but in some cases cannot play and talk. It seems that all that happens in several parts of the brain. He further told me that singing while you play (or humming) can help you master and immerse yourself in the work being practiced or played. I would have never known except for the pleasure of hosting both a violinist and a bassist in our little home.

The photograph of Melsted with my granddaughter Lauren has the purpose of being a “silent” impetus to Lauren who by her choice asked her mother to place her in violin classes six years ago. I picked up Lauren at the Arts Umbrella dance lesson at noon knowing that the two musicians would be at home (they braved a snow storm in Bellingham to get to Vancouver Saturday morning).

Lauren does not communicate verbally all that much but I am sure that the experience of listening to Melsted and to posing with her might leave a lasting impression.

If anybody reading this would wish to ever host a musician for a forthcoming Early Music Vancouver concert your contact would be Alicia Hansen, Production Manager, EMV [email protected]. The phone is 604-732-1610 extension 2004

Some might know that I am an Emily Dickinson freak. I have written two previous blogs here and here using Dickinson's poem that mentions the violin:

The Spirit lasts - but in what mode -
Below, the Body speaks,
But as the Spirit furnishes -
Apart, it never talks -
The Music in the Violin
Does not emerge alone
But Arm in Arm with Touch, yet Touch
Alone - is not a Tune -
The Spirit lurks within the Flesh
Like Tides within the Sea
That make the Water live estranged
What would the Either be?
Does that know - now - or does it cease -
That which to this is done,
Resuming at a mutual date
With every future one?
Instinct pursues the Adamant,
Exacting this Reply -
Adversity if it may be, or
Wild Prosperity,
The Rumor's Gate was shut so tight
Before my Mind was sown,
Not even a Prognostic's Push
Could make a Dent thereon -
Emily Dickinson

More Emily Dickinson

The Charm invests her face
A sepal, a petal and a thorn
The Savior must have been a docile Gentleman
T were blessed to have seen
There is no frigate like a book

I pay in satin cash
Emily Dickinson's White Dress & a Hunter of Lost Souls

El vestido blanco - The White Dress
Water makes many beds
The viola da gamba
But sequence ravelled out of reach
A parasol is the umbrella's daughter
Without the power to die
Lessons on the piny
Ample make this bed
How happy is the little stone

Sleep is supposed to be
The shutting of the eye
I dwell in possibility
when Sappho was a living girl
In a library
A light exists in spring
The lady dare not lift her veil
I took my power in my hand
I find my feet have further goals
I cannot dance upon my toes
The Music of the Violin does not emerge alone
Red Blaze
He touched me, so I live to know
Rear Window- The Entering Takes Away
Said Death to Passion
We Wear the Mask That Grins And Lies
It was not death for I stood alone
The Music in the Violin Does Not Emerge Alone
I tend my flowers for thee
Lavinia Norcross Dickinson
Pray gather me anemone!
Ample make her bed
His caravan of red
Me-come! My dazzled face
Develops pearl and weed
But peers beyond her mesh
Surgeons must be very careful
Water is taught by thirst
I could not prove that years had feet
April played her fiddle
A violin in Baize replaced
I think the longest hour
The spirit lasts
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2014/03/i-left-them-in-ground-emily-dickinson.html
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2014/01/i-felt-my-life-with-both-my-hands.html
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/03/currer-bell-emily-dickinson-charlotte.html
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/03/and-zero-at-bone-with-dirks-of-melody.html
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/05/charm-invests-her-face.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/tell-truth-but-tell-it-slant.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/theres-certain-slant-of-light.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/then-mashes-it-to-death.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/adjusted-to-tomb.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/i-could-not-see-to-see.html
http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/06/blonde-assasin-passes-on.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/12/dirk-commemorate-itself.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/12/lawful-as-equilibrium.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/12/there-is-no-frigate-like-book.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2011/12/light-is-sufficient-to-itself.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2012/11/thanatos-two-tiny-rhododendrons.html

http://blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com/2012/12/you-almost-bathed-your-tongue.html

Link to: Linda Melsted - The Music in the Violin does not emerge alone