The Cellist in the Mall
Today, in celebration of Washington's Birthday*, we did what we frequently do on Monday holidays and went shopping at one of the larger outlet-type malls within a couple hours' drive; generally, most of them are too far away for us to go at other times. Today's adventure took us from our Maryland suburb into the wilds of Norhern Virginia; this involved driving on the Capital Beltway and the notorious Woodrow Wilson bridge. For the locals, our destination was Potomac Mills. For the outlanders, Potomac Mills is a large and rambling faux-outlet shopping mall; it started out more as an outlet place, but I suppose that didn't work out for some reason and now it's populated by "factory stores" and other mall familiars. It also was the first place, years ago, that we shopped at an Ikea store. Happily, we now have our "own" Ikea in nearby College Park.
Anyway, traffic across the Wilson bridge was horrible and slow and crowded as always, even on a holiday. One does one's best to avoid it during workday rush hour, where rush hour lasts for all but one or two hours of the day now across the bridge. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that a new Wilson Bridge is being built, two new spans adjacent to the current bridge. Both are drawbridges, so that the Potomac is navigable into the District of Columbia.
I had seen mention of the new bridge's design, accompanied by drawings, in a book of Henry Petroski's that I read last year — probably Pushing the Limits, but I can't remember with any certainty. Petroski, by the way, is an engineer who writes compelling books about how engineers engineer things. This book was one about tall buildings and bridges — great topics in engineering.
But none of that about the bridge is really relevant, except to note in passing that I've now seen it in progress. It's a rather low-key design, but the piers, flared Y's looking rather like upper-case Greek Upsilon, are rather elegant. Notably, the spans are quite a bit higher than the current bridge, presumably so that the drawbridge part of the span will have to be opened less frequently thereby interrupting the constant stream of traffic less frequently.
Back to the mall. We had walked most of its length and were reaching the "neighborhood" at one extremity when my ear detected unexpected music being played in the public space: a familiar 'cello concerto by Vivaldi. Familiar because I play 'cello myself. I began playing about 40 years ago, which sounds rather incredible to me. My playing underwent a hiatus for about a decade when I was in graduate school and afterwards, but Isaac got me back to it by finding reasons for me to play not-too-demanding parts in his church-music program.#
My surprise was even greater through when we reached the "neighborhood" and I discovered that it was an actual 'cellist playing an actual 'cello, accompanied by a recording of an orchestra. There was a microphone sitting on the floor before him, amplifying his sound just enough to make him audible in the ambiant mall-sound. His playing was quite nice and his technique quite good. I didn't really know what to make of it, it seemed such an enexpected thing to come across. We didn't look closely enough to see whether he was there to promote a product, or just to bring a touch of class to that end of the mall.
When we turned around and headed back from that end of the mall, he was playing something more new-agey. Isaac thought perhaps the 'cello player was blind, possibly because he was playing everything from memory, or maybe it something about his expression, which I didn't notice particularly since I was watching his hands and the confidence of his thumb positions.** Thumb positions still intimidate me, I'm afraid. I'm hoping that teaching the use of the thumb to my student will finally exorcise that demon.
The shopping experience today was lackluster. Instead, it will be this brief and unexpected encounter with the 'cellist in the mall that I shall remember.
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*About this whole Washington's Birthday / Presidents' Day confusion, I found the article at Snopes on Presidents' Day enlightening.
#Surprisingly — at least to me! — I've had a 'cello student for the past 4 years. She was an absolute beginner, aged nine, when we started, and her progress has been gratifying. However, that's another story altogether.
**Thumb positions are typically used in upper regions of the strings (i.e., nearer the bridge, or further down the instrument as the 'cellist sits behind it) where the hand is on the fingerboard over the body of the instrument. The thumb is laid across the fingerboard and stops a string (or strings) on one note, and the other fingers play notes above it. The thumb is also use to play octaves on the 'cello, since two notes at the octave are too far apart for both to be fingered.
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on Wednesday, 22 February 2006 at 03.55
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Glad to see you're back posting. I was starting to be concerned.