This morning I meet with Dr. Birky my therapist. I look forward to these meetings. Birky is smart and articulate and has a developed sense of irony and humor. It feels a bit self indulgent to pay him to listen to me and comment, but what the hell.

Later I am rehearsing with my usual piano trio string players, Amy and Dawn. I have also invited Margaret, so that means I have 2 violins and 1 cello. This is the number you need for baroque trio sonatas. The trio is between the 2 violins and the continuo which comprises two instruments, one that can make chords like harpsichord or lute and a bass instrument to reinforce the bass line.

I love to play trio sonatas. It seems that it’s just enough instruments to give a rewarding texture and interplay between the three lines. I own several of these, but unfortunately many of the parts for the strings have gotten away from me. Yesterday I spent some time searching online to see if I could find replacement parts. The  music itself is of course out of copyright.

So first I had to go to church and pull all the trio music. Beside the baroque trio sonata I found that I own a set of Frescobaldi canzoni which would fit this group.

I did find some of the missing parts to it online.

I also own two scholarly volumes about the trio sonata.

The one above which concerns trio sonatas in Italy and another volume like this which is about trio sonatas outside of Italy. Though these volumes were published in the 70s, the scholarship is quite high. Each volume has a lengthy essay about its topic followed by scores which illustrate the topic. I was able to find string parts for a “Sonata and Suite” by Dietrich Becker. It looks to be quite charming.

I also found all of Mozart’s Church sonatas online. There are apparently fifteen of them. They are scored for this group. I printed off number 15 in C major and numbered the measures for today’s rehearsal.

I could of course find trio sonatas online to print up but am trying to conserve on paper by first completing sets of music I already have. The silly keyboard part usually uses the most paper and I have keyboard parts to all of my trio sonatas.

We meet today at 1 and I have had corroborating emails from all players. This should be fun.

After this rehearsal I have an appointment to have my eyes checked. I’m pretty sure I need glasses. My far sightedness has been decreasing. The guy who operated on my eye for my torn retina said that I was okay for driving but might need glasses in the future. I think the time has come.

I have noticed that after a plane flight if I have to drive home in the dark it is difficult for me to read road signs. Not good. I will probably ask Eileen to drive next Tuesday when we arrive in California.