Musical Musings

My Top Ten Moments to Listen For

2008-11-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd give you a list of the top 10 moments I'm looking forward to hearing in the concert.

10. Elegy for a Young American - at rehearsal number 4, when the clarinets come in with the new melody line (clearly I'm a little biased).

9. Partita - the Chorale and Variations (second) Movement - the horn choir at the beginning.

8. Partita - again, the Chorale and Variations Movement - the variation at 60, with the eighth notes on top of the Dies Irae.

7. Pictures at an Exhibition - Catacombe Movement. The power of the brass is amazing (I just hope it doesn't blow the woodwinds off the stage).

6. The Padstow Lifeboat - the "Victory at Sea" part after the cantabile section.

5. Pictures at an Exhibition - the Bydo (Ox-Wagon) movement. The whole thing. I just love it.

4. Lollapalooza - at 92, where the trumpets play before the percussion takes over and the flutes spazz. I honestly like that section, but I mostly like it because John describes it as such. :)

3. Pictures at an Exhibition - Ballet Des Poussins Dan Leurs Coques. It's just cute and the woodwinds get to shine.

2. Pictures at an Exhibition - the last movement (La Grande Porte de Kiev), the clarinet/woodwind choirs at 106 and 109. Again I'm biased, but it's so pretty after all the loud fanfares.

1. Lollapalooza - the last 12 measures. Because I know if we've made it here, and we're mostly together, we'll make to to the end and we pulled it off. :)

The Encore

2008-11-06T15:54:00.000-08:00

I hate to give it away that we have an encore prepared, but this one is so good I have to plant the seed now (if I have any readers that are just audience members and not bandies). You must, must, must clap loud enough to get us to play this. And if you don't, we'll play it anyway.

It's charming, it's comical, and gosh darn it, it's the way to send people home on a Sunday afternoon after a few hours of great band works.

See you Sunday, November 23rd at 3:00 pm - Schwann Concert Hall at the Wisconsin Lutheran College.

2 E-flat Clarinets - Whoa.

2008-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we've got another piece. To open the second half, we'll be playing the reduced instrumentation version of Holst's First Suite in E Flat. Now, the irony here, is that although the instrumentation is reduced, it calls for two E flat clarinet parts. And yours truly will be playing the second part.

The E Flat Clarinet is to the B Flat Clarinet as a Piccolo is to a Flute. It's smaller. It's higher. It's much harder to disguise in the midst of the section. So, now there's two of us. Great!

It's really not that bad, and I definitely know the parts to lay out in where the lovely and talented Pam Harrison should go solo. And overall, the Holst is a great piece. It's the kind of repertoire you usually get to touch in high school (and do an alright job at), and maybe again in college (and do a better job at).

It's quite an honor to get to play this kind of piece with such a talented group. I'm looking forward to it and I know the audience will love it!

Can't say we always end on a positive

2008-10-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

The last few rehearsals, we wind up working on Lollapalooza at the very end of our rehearsal. I find this an interesting tactic, because we're starting to get tired, and then throws us into one of the most challenging pieces on our program that requires the most attention.

No one ever said being in a band was easy. And I guess that's why we have rehearsals.

Although, one of my conductors in middle school once said, "There are no rehearsals, only concerts." Meaning, of course, that you need to bring your A-game to each rehearsal, but come on. We all make mistakes.

John tells us at the end of each time we get through Lolla that we are making progress, but it's hard to hear. I think, again, for me, at least, I'm so focused on my own part that it's hard to understand how this all fits together or if it even sounds cool at all.

I am putting all my faith in the fact that John said he was blown away by this piece when he heard it. I'm also counting on the concert getting closer and closer, when I know I'll have excerpts of it in my head at any given moment.

Pictures: Gnomus

2008-10-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

We're working away on Pictures at an Exhibition, and specifically on the timings in the first real "movement", Gnomus. This movement is representative of a sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs. Musically it's captured through quick bursts of notes, sustained notes and pauses with cut offs.

Essentially, this means a lot of communication with John. Seeing how fast he starts, seeing when he wants the long notes to cut off, and seeing when he starts again after a caesura. It's a lot of eye contact and knowing exactly how to execute the style.

We started and stopped several times - the opening 5 measures, that is. After which John said, "All I can tell you is try and watch and figure out what I am doing."

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a better report. But now we're kind of fumbling like clumsy gnomes.

But again, that's just this clarinet player's perspective...

To wet your appetite

2008-09-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Since I missed this week's rehearsal and won't be able to tell you the play by play of what happened, I'll use this post to list all of the pieces we'll be performing at our upcoming concert.

Partita - Edward Gregson
Elegy for a Young American - Ronald Lo Presti
Lollapalooza - John Adams
Pictures at an Exhibtion - Modest Moussorgsky
The Padstow Lifeboat - Malcom Arnold

Can't wait to see you there, Sunday November 23rd, 3:00 pm @ Wisconsin Lutheran College's Schwann Hall

More goodness...

2008-09-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

One of the gems on our upcoming concert is Malcom Arnold's March: The Padstow Lifeboat. Everything about it is charming. The tempo, the melody, and the big loud boat whistle noise the band gets to make together (ah, bonding).

John instructed us to be as obnoxious as possible with this boat whistle! I think it's a great way to blow off steam (hah, get it?) at the end of the day. AND, during the concert, it will ensure audience members stay awake!

Seriously, though, there's a victory at sea-ish part, a zippy little coda and overall a lot of charm. I can't wait to perform it!

And the beat goes on...

2008-09-11T16:37:00.000-07:00

Rehearsals continued this week and the mood is tense. Well, only when we work on Lollapalooza. So great that John chooses to end the rehearsal with this piece, so we leave with a catchy, singable tune in our heads Seriously, I think the piece does have potential, it's just hard to imagine it right now.

We also spent a good chunk of time working on Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. This piece was originally written for piano, and is quite the showpiece for virtuoso pianists. There are also countless orchestral arrangements, and I think that's how many people have learned the piece (hearing the orchestral version).

Both of those things said, pulling off this piece, as a wind ensemble is going to be challenging. You have to do these famous pieces really well, or not at all.

Let's get it started

2008-09-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Rehearsals for the 2008 - 2009 season started last night and it looks like it will be a great program. The only way John says we can sum up this program is with the word "pastische", which is a really fancy way of saying "hodgepodge".

We've got 12 rehearsals to put the show together (which is Sunday, November 23rd, 3:00 pm, at Wisconsin Lutheran College), and looks like we are going to need all 12. One piece in particular, John Adams's Lollapalooza is going to be the culprit that takes up most of our time. Adams is a minimalist who uses a lot of repetition, but then he tricks you and throws an extra rest in or changes a pattern ever so slightly! The result? A piece that's annoying to play during the first few run throughs, but after you get in a groove, probably sounds pretty cool. John said he'd heard it a couple of times and was just blown a way, so I guess it will get better.

As I was sightreading it, I felt as though my part was a mismash of technical etudes I should have spent more time on in college. I also made a mental note that I will need to spend much time with my part, my pencil and my metronome. Sadly, most of the music is new and still needs to be stamped with the Knightwind Logo, so we couldn't take our folders home to practice. :( Guess I'll have to wait a week for that quality counting time!

And then there were 4

2008-02-27T16:42:00.000-08:00

Four regular rehearsals, plus a dress rehearsal before the concert. No time to get sick or mess around!

We're diving into our new friends, Arpad and Istvan. It's going to take a few more read throughs to really understand the scope of this work. It's also all totally going to change when we get to the dress rehearsal - because there's quite a bit of piano, string bass, percussion and harp we're not hearing right now. However, what we do have, I must say I mostly like. The melodies are beautiful, and there are interesting sectional juxtapositions. I think the audience is going to love it.

We're also working on polishing the other pieces. We all had a good laugh this week while running through John William's Olympic Fanfare. It started with such vigor - valiant engergy. After the fanfare, it started to drag. John cut us off and I was like, "Why are we slowing down?!" Regardless of whether John heard me, that was the reason we stopped and everyone was thinking it. He said "We're slower, because the band is getting older..." We had a nice chuckle and tried it again. It was better. But I'm still not positive it remained at the tempo it should have. I also might have had one too many cups of coffee that day.

Arpad and Istvan have arrived!

2008-02-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while. I missed rehearsal on 1/30 due to a travel mishap. We all missed rehearsal on 2/6 because of the blizzard. The break might have been worth it, because we saved another week of waiting. That's right, when we returned this week, we part of what we'd been waiting for: two movements of Jan Van der Roost's Sinfonia Hungarica - 2. Arpad and 3. Istvan.

Before you get your hopes up, you should know due to unforeseen circumstances (that are too complex for this editor to get into), we will not be performing the first movement 1. Attila. It's slightly disappointing, but we're all going to have to get over it. Afterall, Arpad and Istvan have a lot to offer on their own. I can say that already, and we've only read them each once.

If you've ever been in a band, you know how sight reading goes. It's kind of like ice skating. You're unsteady at first, and although you're propelling yourself forward, there's no real ease or grace about it. You are generally tentative. After a few strides, you get a little more confident. But then, something comes in your path - a rough patch of ice, some kid that can skate circles around you, and you fall. With the music, instead of the rough patch of ice or kid that can skate circles around you, you encounter difficult technical passages, tempo changes, key changes, etc. Each one (potentially) throwing you off a little.

I have to say, it wasn't that bad. Yeah, we stopped along the way to regroup, make sure we were all in the same place, etc. We got a sense for each one - and in talking with my neighboring musicians, we think we're really going to like these pieces. I can't fully speak for the rest of the band, but I'm not sure these pieces are that technically challenging, but they are more what we like to call "lip busters". Lots of blowing. But again, I think we'll really enjoy them when they come together. And, almost more importantly, the audience is going to enjoy this concert.

The Wait Continues

2008-01-16T14:14:00.000-08:00

The first-half of the concert still isn't here. John has had some serious dialogue with the higher-ups, and they've promised it will be here in a few days. After a series of promises, though, John thinks it won't be here until Thursday of next week (1/24) - i.e. the day AFTER we rehearse. Nice. So, there's that...

We spent the majority of the first half of rehearsal on The Man Who Invented Music. It's going to be fun, because it features narration! and he tells her how he invented music. The music is charming, and full of little inside jokes that most everyone should get. You can read an article about the piece from a 1949 issue of TIME by clicking here.

The challenge right now is working out the timing. Poor John is reading the musical score, and the dialogue, and trying to make sure they sync up. They probably do in his head, but they'll likely change with the real live narrator. So, we've got to get to know it well enough to be flexible when the time comes.

The other major focus for the week was William Tell. We were a little sparse in attendance this week, and we still don't have any bassoons - so no opening solo. We made our way through from start to finish again, and then John gave us a taste of some real tempos that we need to strive for. The thing about these orchestral transcriptions for band - they don't get performed very often, because they have to be great. The melodies and the real tempos are too well known to fake any of it. If you're not true to the original, you know every discriminating ear in the place is saying, "Well, they tried". Every non-discriminating ear is saying, "I think I know that song..." Bottom line is, we know we need to work hard, and we will.

I'd personally like to give a shout out to fellow clarinetist - Mary. She rocked the treetops during the Allegro - all by herself! I'm surprised there weren't sparks flying out from her mouthpiece. Nice, nice!

New Year, New Attitude

2008-01-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we're back in rehearsals and it feels great! The program for the April concert is going to be a crowd pleaser. Very heroic. I'll give you more insights to that as the weeks progress. I've got to keep you reading this somehow ...

The most precious moment of the rehearsal for me this week was the very first downbeat (post-tuning). We started with "The Dam Busters" March (from the Associated British Picture "The Dam Busters"). John starts conducting, and after a beat or maybe two, cuts us off and says (slight paraphrase) "Uh, No." We started again, and it was good enough to move on, but it was quite funny.

Later on, during "The Man Who Invented Music", we got to the section where the trumpets are invented. John either let them finish, or stopped half way through (I can't quite remember...) and said, "Let's invent those trumpets again."

I thought to myself, "Wow, well, I guess John's New Year's Resolution for the band is to be harder on us. Or at least to be blatantly honest with us." I like it, though. It's good for us. It builds character.

In all seriousness, this program is looking to be quite good - and we only have the second half so far. We're still waiting for that piece from overseas - which will take up the whole first half of the concert! John is optimistic that it will be here for next week's rehearsal. It has to be, because it sounds like we don't have a plan b, and we need as much time to put this all together as possible!

In the meantime, you can check out a musical preview and the opening credits of "The Dam Busters" on YouTube.

Last Regular Rehearsal

2007-11-16T21:11:00.001-08:00

Well, this Wednesday was it. Our last rehearsal before the dress rehearsal. One last shot at polishing it up before we get into the actual concert hall. Because, if you've been with the (or a) band before, you know rehearsing in a band room is one thing, rehearsing on stage is another. Even if you've played that particular hall before, there is a whole new set of variables to get used to. You might have to back off on the forte dynamics (and in turn your piano dynamics), your staccatos might have to get crisper. It's just more things to be mindful of - on top of watching John, listening around the ensemble and nailing all of the technical passages.

Overall, I think we are in pretty good shape. I think all of us have been challenged with this concert - between the Sousa Symphony and Sidus. I don't know if any of us are like "Yes, we're going to nail this, and it's going to be perfect!" But, together we are making some really nice musical moments. It's like that teamwork poster on the right. :)

Hope to see you there on Sunday. Afterall, it's not any fun performing without applause coming back at us.

Repertoire

2007-11-08T09:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I had to miss rehearsal last week, so I can't comment on what happened. So, I thought I'd use this post to list the pieces we'll be playing at our concert - Hands Across the Sea (not necessarily in this order).

The White Rose - Philip Sparke
Sidus - Thomas Doss
The Immovable Do - Grainger
Divertimento for Wind Orchestra - Jindrich Feld
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair - Debussy
Hands Across the Sea March - John Philip Sousa
Symphony on the Themes of John Philip Sousa - Mvt. IV, after "Hands Across the Sea" - Ira Hearshen

Should be a good one - we hope to see you there! And, if you haven't yet purchased your tickets, visit this page to find out how, and get $1 off!

Woodshedding

2007-11-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

So, we're working on hard on "woodshedding" (i.e. making sure things are very accurate, and attempting to add finesse) parts of the Hearshen (see previous post on Symphony on the Themes of John Philip Sousa). There's a tricky measure, where there's a lot of back and forth play between sections - beats one and three belong to one group of voices and beats two and four belong to another.

John has us work on it slowly - to make sure the notes all fall in line. It's the kind of thing you do over and over a few times and it gets better. But can you believe - the nerve! He wanted not only the right people to play at the right time (in tempo), but wanted all the right notes too! I might have mentioned this before, too, but there are accidentals all over this piece.

Speaking of accidentals, I'm starting to second guess myself with them. Sections I think I know, and I'm sure the F's are sharp and the B's are natural, suddenly I'm not sure. Oh vey.

I need to get my act together - and so do the rest of the woodwinds at 306! It sort of fell apart there this week when we worked on it. Instead of working us to death on it, John just trusted that it would work itself out. I hope he's right - for our sake and the audience!

My growing admiration

2007-10-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

One of the main works on the Fall program is Sidus, by Thomas Doss. Born in Linz, Austria, with both parents as professional musicians, he has been studying music since age 7. He's been composing since age 11.

I gotta say, the guy is good.

Sidus is growing on me, big time. Now, there are some non-traditional parts of this piece. Measures that are 'timed' in terms of seconds (eg 15-sec, 20 sec), rather than your traditional four-beats. There are also measures where the band sings, hisses (part reads "S___" and you say "Essssssssssssss"), shushes (part reads "Sh_____" and you say "Shhhhhhhhhh") and even whistle. It's different.

I think this was slightly intimidating to the ensemble at first, because we started rehearsing at this section with little to no context about the piece. But after a few times of running the whole thing down, it starts to make sense. Sidus has all the elements of a great film score - lush melodies, action-oriented musical sequences and brilliant fanfares. This piece changes character so many times over it's course, you might think it needs psychiatric care. But, I know it will have you on the edge of your seat.

You can hear a sample of Sidus by clicking here

Perhaps the composer said it best...
"Music makes us grasp our finiteness and glimpse at infinity. "

- Thomas Doss

Progress

2007-10-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

The 4th Movement of Ira Hearshen's Symphony on Themes of John Philip Sousa has proven to be quite challenging, and a pain point for most folks across the band. Looking at and listening to some of the challenging licks, we know this piece isn't an homage to the performers in anyway shape or form! But, we're persevering.

Aside: that's Mr. Hearshen on the left. I can't get over the fact that this is the guy who wrote music for Toy Story2 and a Bug's Life. Such nice, sweet movies. I'm sure the scores are challenging, but I'm not sure they are as challenging as this!

Last week, we started rehearsing at measure 250, which I had nearly forgotten about, because I was so concerned about 306 (more on that next week, I'm sure).

Even amongst the midst of sixteenth notes, sextuplets and boat loads of accidentals, I could hear things coming together. Not only are we getting more and more accurate (and faster - at least closer to the intended tempo), but we're paying attention to things musically.

In other news, we have another month to polish it up!
Our next concert: November 18th!

Welcome to Musical Musings

2007-10-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! My name is Heather and I'm a member of the clarinet section in the Knightwind Ensemble. I'll be using this space to share thoughts and perspectives on our rehearsals and general band happenings.

Hopefully this will give you a little insight into the amount of effort we put in to make this all look effortless during the performance! Our goal is to foster, encourage, and develop the appreciation of wind music in the community.

Check back for more details on how we're progressing. I might even share an inside joke or two from our maestro, John Steinke.

Countdown to concert: 39 days ... 6 rehearsals, including dress. :)