Arachnophobia

Afraid of spiders?

Above is the best recording I could find of Camille Saint-Saens Tarantella Op. 6. It is my newest chamber music endeavor, and an exciting one at that. A Tarantella is a southern Italian traditional folk dance, characterized by a fast tempos, usually in 6/8, and accompanied by tambourines (I should know...I danced a tarantella in my short-lived career as a ballerina).

I'm the cutie in the green

There is an interesting history behind this dance. Basically, back in the day if someone was bitten by a certain poisonous tarantula, there was a common belief that one needed to engage in a frenzied dance; a sort of "musical exorcism", to prevent a hysterical condition known as "tarantism", followed by death of the disease. 

Even when I am playing, when I get to the chromatic passages, my fingers and hands almost feel like the itsy bitsy spider, going up and down the clarinet. As you can hear, it is still a beautiful piece of music, beginning with a creepy crawly theme which comes back, with some really beautiful passages in the middle. 

I've always been afraid of spiders, and I feel like everyone has a funny spider story, whether it's leaving fake spiders in a siblings bed (guilty), or trying to squish one but missing and having it run into a closet/heater/unreachable crevice (also guilty). However, after my most recent trip to the Dominican Republic, spiders don't scare me as much, since I had lizards to worry about. Although, I'm sure east coast spiders are nothing like spiders found in other regions, so I withdraw my last statement. 

Hopefully we will have a great recording of the Tarantella soon so I can share it with you. Speaking of recordings, here is a great one of me and my chamber group during a live performance of our trio! 

Florent Schmitt, Sonatine en Trio Op. 85

Enjoy 

P.S. I sincerely apologize for being lacking in my blog lately, I've been very under the weather, but I've been regaining strength and feeling a little better.