Klarinet Archive - Posting 000027.txt from 2008/01

From: Christopher MacIver <revicamc@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Reading music instead of memorizing
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:47:16 -0500

Myrnabs,

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner.

This whole "concert" was unorthodox. It was preceded
by a procession in Boston's North End. The concert
itself started 90 minutes late. It started by the
director handing three pieces of music to the band,
which took us about 9 minutes to play. We then handed
back our three pieces, and received another three
pieces, taking an additional 12 minutes. After we
played the next three pieces, it was time for
intermission.

During the intermission, I suggested to the director
that we take the time to get more organized, but the
director didn't think this was necessary. After the
intermission, we again passed in our three pieces, and
received another three pieces...

If we got applause after playing, the director would
respond by yelling "LETTER A!", from which we played
to the end of the piece in pseudo-reprise-like
fashion. If we still got applause, he yelled, "LETTER
B!", after which we would play from rehearsal letter B
to the end of the piece, again in pseudo-reprise-like
fashion.

Once he conducted a waltz in an unorthodox fashion.
Since I was the lead clarinet, I should have done what
a good concertmaster would have done, and started
conducting, or at least made the appropriate body
motions while playing, but as I was sight-reading the
piece, along with the rest of the band, and trying to
ignore the conductor, I had my hands full, so I could
not properly execute the role of concertmaster.
Halfway through the second time, the conducting became
more orthodox.

After the piece was finished, the tuba player
yelled: "DON'T EVER CONDUCT A WALTZ IN FOUR AGAIN!!!"

We finally got to the end of this concert, when the
aforementioned incident took place. We had a variety
of players, from off-duty Air Force professional
musicians, to music minors (me), to complete hackers.
Although I was lost through most of the Washington
Post March and faked it, the Air Force Professional
Trumpet Players somehow made the rest of us look
pretty decent.

This director's definition of a successful concert:
A concert that you've made it through. Somehow we got
paid for this one.....

Chris

--- myrnabs@-----.net wrote:

> And then?? I want to know the rest of this story!
> Did you all play great? I'm just in total shock!
>
> Myrnabs
> http://myspace.com/myrnasaldana
> http://myrnabs.blogspot.com
> http://pbase.com/myrnabs
> http://scentsy.com/myrnabs
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Christopher MacIver <revicamc@-----.com>
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:43:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Re: Reading music instead of
> memorizing
>
>
> --- Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:20:54 -0800 (PST), "Michael
> > Rasmussen"
> > <mikeraz@-----.com> wrote:
> > > Over the weekend during my first ever recital I
> > wondered why the bulk of musicians
> > > (meaning aside from popular music performers)
> read
> > music during performance rather
> > > than playing from memory.
> >
>
> <snip>
>
> Almost 20 years ago, I played in a outdoor
> "concert"
> (everyone was mostly sight-reading) with a band
> whose
> "director" was somewhat unorthodox. At the end of
> the
> performance, the director thanked the audience for
> attending, and then announced the for our last
> piece,
> we would play The Washington Post March. Since I was
> sitting up front, I told the director, "John, we
> can't
> do that - we don't have the sheet music - you never
> gave it to us", to which he replied, "You played the
> piece many times before - you know how it goes".
> Then
> he made a downward motion with his hand, giving the
> downbeat .....
>

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