Concordia's Spring Season

Tonight marked the second concert of Concordia Pops spring season. The music is a nice mix, although I am partial to the lighter stuff of the second half which includes Highlights from The Sound of Music and My Fair Lady, a nice Jerome Kern medley, and Belle of the Ball by Leroy Anderson (composer of Sleigh Ride). Belle of the Ball needs a bit more work, but it's being pulled out of the performance list, so reprieve!

The first half starts with John William's Olympic Fanfare written for the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The first clarinet part matches the trumpet fanfare line and is fun to play. Alas, it doesn't come close to the version played at the Vancouver closing ceremonies, we take it a bit slower. By the way, anyone know if that was the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra that played at the opening and closing ceremonies?

The pieces then move into a few dances, specifically Slavonic by Dvorak, and Norwegian by Grieg. These make me sweat as there's some exposed clarinet parts, but my confidence is growing with each performance. I've discovered swabbing at the midpoint of the concert though really helps get the gurgle out. Sleeper's Wake by Bach is one of those flowing really pretty songs that doesn't require staccato articulation. Since I'm still working on getting that aspect cleaner, this is a good thing. Other than some fingerings that need conversion to autopilot (great analogy put forth in a recent NACOcast "Practice Makes Perfect" between flight and practicing), it gets played fairly well. Except when I miss my cues (sorry Mr. Conductor!).

Week off next week since it's March Break, but must not lose motivation to practice or the autopilot will never be engaged!

A Concordia Pops Christmas

Tonight was our last concert before the Christmas break, and in my opinion it was the best so far. The audience at Thorton View was certainly the most engaged. The oboist wasn't there so the other 1st clarinet and I played the solo in Linden Lea (because our music had the cues) and we nailed it! Booyah! It was certainly the best I had played most of the pieces. There's still a few that are easy to get lost in, and we don't really get cued for entrances, although the getting lost doesn't happen while counting rests so I'm not sure it would really help anyway.

The Christmas music is fun to play, although it feels long. Particularly the last sing along piece where the audience gets to join and sing along (did you expect them to do something else? :) ). It seems to never end and my cheeks are aching by the end. The overall tone was really good tonight and the acoustics in the room sounded very nice.

So a few weeks with no official rehearsal, yet new music was handed out, hence no rest from the practicing.

Looking forward to hearing more of the Toronto Symphony and Handel's Messiah next week though. More about last weeks Beethoven's 6th and the world premiere of Philip Glass's Four Seasons to come. Stay tuned.

Ahhh! Sudden Performance Anxiety Increase

Tonight was my second performance with the Concordia Pops. Having practiced this week I felt much more prepared. Once I got there though, I found out the other first clarinet wasn't going to be able to play leaving myself playing the first part, and the other gentleman playing the second. Suddenly the pressure has just seriously increased! There's parts where I know the clarinet is sort of hanging out there, so I was a bit worried.

"Sine Nomine" by Vaughan Williams went well. Although about half way through the first moment of Handel's "Water Music Suite 1", during a woodwind solo I started thinking hey, this is going well and promptly got lost. :( Not having a lot of experience (it's been about 4 weeks since I started) hearing all the parts together I had trouble re-orientating myself to get back in. But I did, and the rest of the movements went a bit better.

Smetana's "Polka from The Bartered Bride" I still need to work on. I don't know how anyone could really dance to that. Is there a video of the opera anywhere that would show the action during the music? I wonder if they actually dance to it. It's not really your traditional "om pa pa" polka beat. On the other hand, I quite enjoyed "The Moldau". Probably my favourite of the pieces.

"Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael sounded ok until a violin entrance 3/4 of the way through. A bit of a grind your teeth moment, not terribly in tune. I did learn that Carmichael's first name was Hoagland, and he was named after a circus troupe who was staying at his house. I suppose it could have been worse, and it's certainly helped make him distinctive in the music world.

This week it's all about learning Christmas music in preparation for the next 2 rehearsals before 2 more concerts. Yay Christmas music! (alas, no Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride)

1st Concordia Pops Performance

A few weeks ago I joined a Pops Orchestra as a second first clarinet. The repertoire is a mix of light classics and more popular pieces. My favourite is The Moldau by Smetana. I've loved this piece since having to study it in high school music class. The version we played has tricky fingering in places but actually sounds similar to the full 12 minute version I have by who knows what orchestra. We also played his Polka from The Bartered Bride. Ok piece, but the way I play it is certainly schlocky (ditto for the Andante and Allegro from one of Mozart's Sonatinas-my fingers haven't caught up to the brain seeing the notes yet in the allegro part). Granted I've only had the music for about 3 weeks, but more practicing is definitely necessary.

Thankfully tonight we left out Sophisticated Ladies, which is a medley of tunes by Duke Ellington. There was no drummer and as our conductor put it, "the only way this piece will swing would be on the end of a rope".

So here's to a week involving more practice time before our second performance next week.