two: filmy smoke white

idiom
Up at Sauce’s Creek, or maybe on top of a mountain elsewhere. The West of Ireland. Kerry. There’s mist in the air, mist everywhere, there is grey everywhere. It is impossible to tell where the sun is in all this. There’s rain beating gently, sprinklling and spackling down on the hood of your rain-coat. You know that every hair on your head is in a curly frizz from the moisture in the air. In the distance, you can maybe see gentle smoke from the chimney of a cottage. The cottage was white, but is dirty white from the sea and the water. You know the smoke is turf smoke, it’s just gently soaking into the air above the cottage. The occasional sheep runs by. He’s drenched and dirty and the red and blue colours on his coat are running and vivid locally. The sea is far off – you can see it, but hear it less.

violin sounds
Hold violin flat on lap for this movement.

1. Long sounds, melting in and out of nothing. Run the flat of the left hand (palm or fingers) up and down the strings, from the nut to the bridge.

2. Gentle pattering. Use the fleshy pads of the fingers of the right hand to gently tap the strings around the bridge.

3. Soft touch: sweep and patter on the body of the instrument, using fleshy pads of fingers and fingertips of right hand.

4. Circling: swipe the strings around the bridge in a circular motion, using fleshy pads of fingers of right hand.

5. Caressing the scroll and tuning pegs with left hand.

6. Moving the violin around on lap (noise of wood sliding on cloth).

voice sounds
Make very few vocal sounds.

1. Mouth very slightly open, humming far away in the back of the mouth. Two notes, a major second apart, isolated in time. No vibrato. Hum on “m.”

2. Mouth closed. Bleating sound – push with belly.