Concert catch-up, and other natter.

[jennlk]

The FCB gigs were well received. I got horribly lost in the fourth movement of the Persichetti, and completely whiffed on a couple of phrases. Some of it, I'm sure, is that Persichetti doesn't always treat barisaxes like reeded tubas, or low french horns, and gives us woodwind parts sometimes. In theory, this is good, but in practice (especially for a band like the FCB) it makes my life a lot harder. The parts are difficult to play anyway, and when you're separated by the trumpet line from anyone else who has that part.... (and the brass sectionals that I attended didn't cover those parts, although they covered other tricky parts in the Persichetti that I did have. I suppose I could attend both woodwind and brass sectionals, depending on which piece of music they're working on, but that way lies madness. And missing work on things that I do need to work on -- like the Bach.)

The "Lifetime of Music" outreach we did yesterday was fun -- the bands we played with were both very good. North Farmington has a small auditorium & stage, and a rather large music program (the 8th grade band had about 70 kids in it, the Wind Symphony about 50), and it seems that that they have to mix and match groups so that there's enough room in the auditorium for the audience. We wound up putting the upper winds down on the floor in front of the stage, and nearly everyone else (bar tubas and bassoons and bass clarinets) standing for the mass band (I didn't get a count, but probably close to 200 people). Their barisax players had never seen a barisax without a low A key set on the bell -or- with the side F-sharp that Esme has. I don't think I've ever performed Sleigh Ride that slowly, which may not have been entirely a bad thing -- due to miscommunications, there was no rehearsal on Monday, so the FCB was sight-reading in a different key than we usually play.

DB's concert went well. He played in two groups, playing about thirty notes in the Symphony Orchestra and a lot more than that in the Wind Symphony. The (much larger) stage at CHS was crammed full with close to 300 strings and winds for the Borchestrand performance of Sleigh Ride. After a decade of trial and error, the tubas have figured out how to make themselves heard, and the three WS tubas headed toward the back corner of the bandshell, where they stood on chairs to play. Yeah, they made themselves heard.... I made it to the last half of the middle school concert (DB was in the booth, I had a OneAct parent meeting across the hall), and the 8th grade band is good.

The pond is frozen over quite solidly, even with the occasional forays above freezing, and I don't expect it to melt anytime soon. The sun and breeze yesterday sped up evaporation from the birdbath, and even though I filled it yesterday it was dried up today. I filled it, and shortly after I went in there were birds at it, so I guess they were waiting! Ji brought me a actual mouse yesterday morning. Anna crept up on it, and wigged out when it twitched a bit. Then it died and I took it outside for the crows....