Now that I'm thoroughly hooked on playing Beethoven, Bach and the like on mandolin, it would seem that the next step is to find like-minded souls and make Living Room Music together. (Chambers have unwelcome associactions with wigs and Whigs, or perhaps pots).
While this sort of thing was done regularly Before Edison, it seems to have died out completely. I may be forced eventually, thru loss of hearing and brain cells, to go Electric, and whang out a stream of power chords to get the compulsion into some kind of outlet, but while I'm still functioning normally (at least by 18th century standards) it would be gratifying to go back to those thrilling days of yesteryear, and play music written by better musicians than myself, in company with the like-minded.
Is there a Classical Underground out there, at all? The closest I can find in the Wash DC area is a link to the Takoma Mandoleers, who meet weekly and practice orchestral stuff. Mildly interesting, perhaps, but lacking the essential ingredient of House Music. Then too, their website posts a picture to illustrate what mandolins look like. The photo is of a brace of Ovations. I confess to having been terminally revolted.
Your experiences in this line, while doubtless too distant to pursue, would bring encouragement, and perhaps spark ideas.
Of course, if the power grid or Western Civilisation collapses soon, I'll be in the forefront of the home entertainment wave, but scrabbling too hard to survive to get to play, unless there's sufficient surplus of labor to support live music once again. Seems like a lot to ask. And finding strings will be trickier than at present.
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