June 2020

In these tough times and without any prospects of public performances, finding motivation to practice and keep oneself in shape proved to be a formidable challenge. On the bright side however, having so much free time on my hands meant that I could pursue my other hobbies which I normally have little to no time for. And so I spent more time reading, studying French or playing piano.

Also, fairly soon after the prohibition of public events various artists started to come up with new, imaginative ways of self-presentation, mainly on social media. The most common posts in this regard  were video clips in which there were several windows or frames, each containing one musician playing their part. Every musician recorded their track separately (mostly at home) and then the tracks were edited so that it made the impression that the players play together. Ensembles ranging from duos to symphony orchestras attempted to attract attention of social media users in this way. Also quite popular were similar videos in which one musician played with themselves, so to say; this means that in every window or frame of the video, different parts are being played by the same musician. Furthermore, live stream concerts gained in popularity, streamed both from empty concert halls as well as from home.

I, for example, had an opportunity to participate in the project called Hrajeme do oken (Playing into windows), which consisted in bringing music to elderly people isolated in rest homes. As it turned out, such concerts brought joy not only to the audience but also to myself, as they presented a rare opportunity to play in front of a live audience once again.

As far as my studies are concerned, most of the lectures were conducted online. I personally enjoyed that lectures such as music history were presented in form of YouTube videos, as one can freely decide when to watch them and can pause or even rewind the video whenever any important piece of information slips through. I also quite liked music theory lectures which were streamed live via the Zoom app. Although one had to „turn up“ for the lecture at a particular time, it was still nice to be able to attend it from home. Sadly, the worst part of my online education experience were the violin lectures, which simply cannot compare with face to face lessons. The crucial problem is that in music, it is necessary to pay attention to and analyze even the tiniest details and even the most advanced technologies simply cannot achieve such a sound quality to substitute the real life experience.

It was not until the beginning of June when I was able to get back to Dresden. Although many special measures are still in force – for example, the university building must be closed on Sundays, no group lectures can take place until the end of semester and, even worse, no public performances, I am already beginning to feel that my duties are piling up and I have less and less free time. Which for me, of course, is a good sign that things are getting back to normal again.

Links:

Trio in quarantine (made in ACapella)

https://www.facebook.com/1464735386974168/posts/2872144526233240/

Concert without audience streamed on Mall.tv (44:53 – Trio Incendio)

https://www.facebook.com/malltelevize/videos/3082315658457867/