School Rehearsals
It was the second week of rehearsals at school, and I had a big talk with the section leaders, which I hope will yield some successful results. It seemed to go well. They were all quite enthusiastic. During the rehearsal we sight-read Esprit de Corps by Jager, which they liked, even if they were a bit flabbergasted by the speed of the semiquavers at the eventual future tempo of MM=160!
I've decided this year that I wouldn't tell them what any of the musical terms meant and that they had to look them up themselves. A trumpeter asked me at the rehearsal what 'Tempo di Bourgeois' meant - eg. tempo of the middle classes? She'd looked it up already (an hour after she'd snuck a look at the new music!) and couldn't find anything on it. I conceded and explained the role of John Bourgeois as the commissioner of the piece for the Marine Band. I think they thought it was a mildly silly tempo marking!
We also read Nett Interference by young Australian composer Taran Carter. It will be fabulous and the more I get into it the more I like it. It's going to really challenge the students rhythmically - lots of independent entries and semiquaver syncopation, but I'm impressed with how much they have absorbed after only two rehearsals.
We're also playing In Stillness by Brian Hogg which was originally written for the band several years ago. The tempo is marked MM=40-48 and it definitely works at this speed, however I'm having a lot of trouble internalising this tempo. We keep getting faster as we get through the piece. I'm not sure if it's just me, or a component is the band getting faster. Might be time to video next Tuesday's rehearsal to find out!
Orchestra
Thursday was orchestra rehearsal which went relatively well - achieved everything I had planned to. The B major section of the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 is probably the most difficult thing we have to play in the current program. It's way under tempo, but it's becoming cleaner. It should be ok by the concert. I'm having trouble holding back the tempi at orchestra too, especially in the second movement of the Schubert Unfinished Symphony. I think I'll make this my pet conducting project for this term.
MSO rehearsals
Went to MSO rehearsals on Wednesday and Friday which was great. The conductor was Lutz Kohler, who had been taking the Symphony Australia course the week before. I really love the way he can let go of the beat and let the musicians make music. He shows fantastic phrasing and musical nuances. A great example for me to aspire to!
The Raah Project & Paris Wells
On Friday night we also went to an interesting concert: The Raah project at MRC. It was supposed to be a cross-genre fusion-type concert. It was interesting, but it was all amplified and it would have been good to hear it unplugged in that venue. The theatrics of the lead violinist were a bit crazy and the conducting of the two main guys was way to big and really detracted from the slow, quite moments. There was a lot of unnecessary pulse. However I did really like the support act, singer Paris Wells. I'll probably end up buying her CD. The pianist that was playing in the main act and hers was FANTASTIC. Really cool improvisation and amazing harmonic ideas.
We also had band recruitment night at school - 108 kids signed up! Now that's a BIG band!
