Hausmusik #2

Hausmusiks are NCMF sight-reading parties, the equivalent of actors doing a table reading with a play they’ve never seen before. Music is laid out on the floor (usually string quartets) and the audience is asked to choose the music and then the Festival artists sight-read the music. It is a kind of high-wire act without a net and things go wrong all the time.

Curiously, people sometimes prefer these events to the meticulously prepared concerts. It is something about that sense of music being created right there, fresh, with all its imperfections laid bare. As an audience member, you are encountering the music at the same time as the musicians, like someone making guacamole at the table from an avocado they slice open in front of you. It also helps that the audience is right on top of the musicians surrounding them in someone’s living room.

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