Today was the epitome of bizarre...
I woke up at 10:40am, three hours later than I should have. Terrible.
I was due to meet someone at university ar 11am to give them my tails coat, so had to gap through the morning routine in 7.5 minutes in order to make it in time.
I was three minutes late.
Then the daily warm up - which consisted of sitting in the brass room, interrupted by various fellow brass students, but managing to fit it in the hour.
Then my TEACHER enters - looking for a room to kill time in before they taught a lesson at 1pm...I asked how much he would pay me to vacate, but he said "no, you need to practice. Ouch. I then had a conducting lesson at 2pm, on Haydn's 104th symphony, the 'London'. Apparently I improved hundred-fold from beginning to end of the lesson. Then I dropped teacher home, where champagne and neenish tarts were provided (on account of my birthday) before we talked for three hours about MUSIC,like the regional orchestras, reviews, overseas orchestras, reviews, NZSO, reviews...and so the list goes on.
At 5:55 I realised the time. I had to be at brass class at 6:00. Which meant that I had to gap from Kilbernie to Kelburn in 5 minutes. Eesh!
What followed was the latter class, where X, the 1st year x player played the last movement of the 4th x concerto by J. Strauss.
Technically it was great, and X got through it fine. Lacking though was any musical instinct - like phrasing, good tone, dynamics...Basically one was left with a sense of "So What?"
Why play it if it doesn't mean anything to you? Why are you doing a degree in it?!?! And it is not the nature of the instrument, as I know players who sound beautiful on it.
Then followed X1, the 1st year trumpet player. Playing a piece which I am doing for my end of year recital. X1 has struggled with technique and confidence all the time I have known the latter, but tonight played with less nerves and a good tone. Even though X1 missed a lot of notes and phrasing wasn't overly polished, one could hear that they had musical intentions.
Which counts for a lot more than just playing the notes...
After that episode of performance, I had a three hour swing band rehearsal with the 'Central Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, which was fun! Long though. Had a random guy filling in for the Lead x1 spot, this American. He was good - although, the responsible professional that I am, had to supply the entire section with pencils and erasers. People mock for being prepared for every situation, but I laugh in their faces. Ha!
This photo is visibly incorrect. Either the conductor holding the baton is left-handed, or some munter has inverted the photograph. Either way, I'm over it.
No comments:
Post a Comment