First encounters.... with salonmusic July 10 2014

About 30 years ago I was admitted to the Conservatory to study playing the viola. Learning to play the instrument you love  is no punishment. But now, when I look back, the best part of my studying days was playing together with the friends I made as a music student.

One day, during the festive season of Christmas, we were asked to play at a Christmas dinner. Being students (therefore in a constant lack of money), this was a welcome gig for us. So naturally, we agreed. It was then that we discovered that we didn't have the music to suit the occasion. Understandably, no one needs Shostakovich while devouring a turkey thigh...

We had to quickly find suitable music. In the corner of our local music shop there was a pile of yellowed secondhand sheet music. We bought 2 kilogram of it and went home, only to find out that none of it was immediately suitable for string quartet. So we started arranging. For hours and hours. 

On Boxing Day we played our newly arranged music. The dinner guests were thrilled. Their enthusiasm might have something to do with the wine that flowed freely, but we enjoyed it too (ok, we had a couple of glasses ourselves). Our string quartet was an ad hoc ensemble. When we were asked for the name of our string quartet, we came up with the name "Scrooge". It seemed only appropriate.

Now, 30 years later, Scrooge still exists and we still enjoy playing together. Besides the usual suspects like Mozart and Beethoven, we also enjoy playing our own arrangements; the arrangements made by Marley Music (Scrooge, Marley, get it?).

And from now on, we decided to share our music with you. For a small fee, that's true. For as musicians, our lack of money hasn't changed over the decades....