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I had a good day today. Join me in a toast!

Author: Ralph G
Date: 2005-04-11 02:40

I'm sitting here with a well-deserved drink at hand and my Siamese cat in my lap and basking in the glow of a good day of clarineting. I played the first movement of the Weber Concerto 2 with my chamber orchestra in concert today, and while it wasn't a perfect performance, I played it with spirit and passion. And I can look back on today knowing I did what I set out to do -- prove to myself the last 26 years of blowing through this horn haven't been misspent.

I've never been a featured solo player before. I changed majors in college well before any recital would have been required. I've never sought out any venue where I would have been in the spotlight. And until a little over a year ago, nobody ever approached me about doing such a performance. So this was a first.

I picked the first movement of Weber 2 because it's short enough for a general audience, pretty self-contained, and technically challenging enough to keep a crowd's interest. I've only been seriously working on it for the past several weeks, and in the last two weeks or so it really came together. The orchestra really started playing it with spirit and fire lately (if not precision), and I fed off that, singing operatically as best I could through my horn. So after getting a few glimpses at what could be during the last few rehearsals, I decided to really let loose (Weber's great for allowing -- and forgiving -- real schmaltziness). So I walked out on stage this afternoon with a real feeling of "This is it -- don't hold back."

Despite a couple of small missteps, it went really well, and the audience response was very positive (I purposely refrained from inviting a ton of friends and family so I could get an honest audience response). Most of all, it was a lot of fun.

The best part, though, is the confirmation that, even down here on my own level way below that of the famous and vaunted professional players I admire, I do know what I'm doing with this instrument. I don't practice four hours a day. My life isn't built around what the instrument requires for real mastery. I've fit the clarinet into my life -- I don't fit my life around the clarinet. And yet I was able to enjoy it today at a level that seemed to genuinely please my audience and gave me the greatest sense of warmth and accomplishment I've ever felt. I'm loving the clarinet on my terms. Larry and Ricardo and Jon and John J. and Stanley and Sabine and the rest of the bunch have nothing to fear from me, that's for sure, but today I'm a better player than I've ever been, and I look forward to learning more and getting better.

I have a drink here, so everyone else go get one, and join me in toast to great music, great reeds, fine clarinets, and most of all, to that first person in history who had the idea of sticking a sliver of cane to a tube of wood and blowing through it. It would take too many words to describe the joy your idea has given me, so I'll just drink to you instead.

Happy clarineting

________________

Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.

- Pope John Paul II

Post Edited (2005-04-11 02:42)