Daily Practice

Liz from Philadelphia -- violinist, lawyer and person extraordinaire -- is ahead of the curve on good stuff. Years ago she introduced me to the Ashokan Farewell. If you watched Ken Burns' The Civil War, you heard a beautiful violin solo -- a lonely waltz that weaves through each episode. That's the Ashokan Farewell composed by Jay Ungar.

As research for the sampler, I've revisited the Burns documentary. I'm still haunted by Ungar's waltz. Yesterday I tried it out on the viola . . . hey-hey, it sounds good a fifth lower (in G major now), with the open strings and double stops. I love the dark viola sound, so intriguing, mysterious -- the Edgar Allan Poe of stringed instruments. I've arranged Beethoven's Spring Sonata for the viola, only now it sounds like a Late Autumn Sonata. That's okay by me.

This week's task is -- experimenting with fonts and thread colors for the Gettysburg Sampler. Every mega-sampler starts with a single stitch.