I played harmony with ML on melody at the SoundCrowd Cabaret this Sunday. We were the only instrumental/fiddle duet in a program full of incredible and very talented singing.
We played The Dawning of the Day, which had beautiful harmonies in this arrangement, and our teacher Ajineen had modified the sheet music to make it easier for us to be coordinated. These changes were tricky to master since I had already practiced and self-learned the version as written. However, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this simplified version much more than the version as written.
The first lesson is to be flexible and don't be afraid to change things up!
One change was to break up some slurs, and have us playing in unison for a few bars with the same bowing. I found those moments were some of the most powerful and resonant sounds out of the whole piece, since they anchored the harmonies as we split apart. I really had to time my bow so that my bowing matched ML's. I loved those close buzzy parallel harmonies and that's when I started smiling–when I realised that the harmonies were working!
Second lesson: listen closely to my partner and try to match the bowing, quality, and intensity. In this piece having us be close together in the quality of sound was very important. Afterwards, listening to the recording, I was surprised at how close our playing sounded, and that blend worked really well.
I saw Hilary Hahn play solo Bach a few weeks ago (which was a performance I'll remember all my life) and one thing I took from that performance was how much GUTS she had. It was really gutsy playing. She put her bow into the strings like she meant it, with her whole body. She really committed all-in to every bow, every note.
I wanted that. Mentally, as we walked onstage, all I thought was: don't be afraid. Be gutsy, enjoy it, listen to ML, hit those harmonies, get those 2 bars where we are in unison and bowing together - get those notes just right, exactly in tune with her.
And out of all of that, I had a ton of fun! Hope to do it again at the fiddle party on Dec 9 at the Cameron House.