My New Violin (20 February 2016)
2Video showing off my new violin, which I picked out on 20 February 2016 at the Sapp Violins music shop. I haven’t purchased it yet, but I know for sure that I will. In this video I play a couple of excerpts in front of the camera, and one of the great solos (poorly, I know) in the second suite of Daphnis and Chloe. Overall, this violin definitely is much better than the one I’ve been using, but it also has a certain flavour in its sound that I will hopefully be able to explore as I play more music, especially when composing my own music for it.
Also, I should mention, this violin is as it is when it just came out of the shop. There are some adjustments I might make to some of the accessories on it (new bridge, different brand of strings, maybe swap over my chin rest) that you will see in any future videos.
About the music in the video:
“An Evening Romance in Paris” - This was a piece I wrote when I was more obsessed with John Williams and Tchaikovsky, back in 2013, also when I was really starting to get excited about music as a whole, and not just about the violin. (Of course, now that I’m picking out a violin, I’m excited about the violin all over again!) I just thought it was a nice opening piece as I went through the two main woods (I left out ebony, which, on this instrument, is used for the fingerboard and the tuning pegs) of the violin, since I’ve been getting very interested in wood in general for some reason…
“Little Snow-White” - Well, if you’ve been following my videos on this playlist for a while, you can go back for the history on this piece. Listen to this excerpt I played tonight, then go back and hear it on my old violin. I hope you can tell there is a world of difference!
The Ravel excerpts - Ravel has been my favourite composer for the past year-and-a-half now, and I thought it was only fitting that, having played basically only Ravel on this instrument for the time that I’ve had it, I shared some of his music with you. Hopefully, at least with “introduction”, I’ll practice it up and perform it with some friends at some point.
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I also wanted to mention my use of the picture of Unravel, a game made in 2016. It’s a beautiful winter tree with the little Yarny character. This game has really resonated with me with its soundtrack, and I hope sometime in the future to record some of it (or a track) with this new violin.
Hope you enjoy!
All of my older violin videos are still in the original playlist, if you'd like to check them out (2012-2015).