It seems like it must be time for another post. Last week I passed my Music History Predictive! Mostly. There were three big sections, with three subsections each. If you fail one of the big sections, you have to re-take the corresponding undergraduate music history course. Worst case scenario, re-take three semesters of undergraduate music history. I studied really hard for the renaissance section, and hoped some of my life experience would come through for me and I'd pass portions of the others, which I did. I passed 7 out of 9 sections altogether. I'm going to have to re-take one portion of the classical section and one portion of the 20th century section. I think if both of the sections I failed were in the same era, I'd probably have had to re-take one of the classes. This is a very good thing, because if you haven't passed the history requirement, you aren't allowed to register for your graduate recital, so it would conceivably have extended my program by a $emester. I'm very pleased with myself for doing so well!
Now, I'm getting ready for the concerto/aria competition. Last semester I learned the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 4 in G Minor. The competition is a month away. I have it mostly memorized, but still have a ways to go. Listen to how cool my teacher is: He's going to play through my concerto with me every day next week. Normally we meet twice a week. Next week, we'll meet five times. I'm so grateful! He said, "You just need a jump start." Talk about incentive to practice. I'm going to have to make noticeable progress every day next week. Yowza. Think how great I'll be a week from today! Don't you just love Rachmaninoff?
