Reed at Your Own Risk

Christmas on a Sunday is such an awkward thing for my church! So many people who faithfully attend every Sunday feel that Christmas is supposed to be spent AT HOME! A funny attitude, I think, for people who claim their first allegiance is to Christ, and who insist that Christmas is about Jesus' birth. I long for a high church service every Christmas Day.  I am hopelessly out of touch with the times.

This year, key members of the Chancel Choir, Union Singers AND Providence 4.0 were gone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Our choir director had put in the newsletter that there was no special music scheduled for those services.  I emailed, asking if Lovely Daughter and I could provide some special music.  Choir Director responded enthusiastically, though later I found out that he didn't let the organist know, so she was busy trying to find something extra special.

What to sing?  I asked Lovely Daughter for a preference, but she had none: Whatever you want, Mom! I paged through a couple of books of Christmas Songs for 2 women's voices; totally uninspired.

Then one day I was baking cookies, and, wanting some festive atmosphere, clicked on my Christmas Mix playlist on the computer. That includes ALL the Christmas CDs I own, not just the stuff I really like, which turned out for the good. I don't really like the Neil Diamond Christmas CD, but I let it play, and noticed, as if for the first time, a song called Candlelight Carol.

That's pretty! thought I, and proceeded to JWPepper.com to search for it.  It's by John Rutter!  I was even more impressed then.  Available in SATB (no good); SSAA. Hmm, maybe we could find two parts out of it, and sing it SA. I ordered it.  Minimum order of 6 - oh well, maybe Providence can use it sometime, even if Lovely Daughter and I can't.

It arrived before Lovely Daughter got home for break (yay!), but not before Organist took off for a couple of weeks out of town. Awkward; would she be able to get it practiced by Christmas Eve?  Lovely Daughter and I plunked out parts, fell in love with it.  LD would take Soprano 1, melody through most, until one strain of descant.  I started working out where the harmony was the coolest, marking where to switch back and forth from Soprano 2 to Alto 1 - it got very confusing. 

"You know what I'd like to do?" I demanded of LD. "I'd like to ask MG - I don't even know if she'll be in town for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day, or if she and her family are planning to come to church then, but -"
"And CC!" she added with enthusiasm. 

MG is a high school senior, and has adopted me as her second mom. I've tried to live up to that honor this year, mostly by accompanying her on college searches. But that's another story. She sings in school choir, sang in the All State choir last year. She knows what she's doing.  I think CC also sang in the All State choir last year, though I'm not sure about that.  She certainly has an incredibly lovely voice, so lovely that LD and I would almost rather listen to her sing than sing ourselves.

I Facebooked them, and they both said yes. We set a date and time to get together - just one week ago today, the Monday before Christmas, we looked at the music together for the first time. Half an hour before heading over, I suddenly thought about another John Rutter arrangement, that Providence 4.0 had sung at Christmas, but as far as I could tell, never really liked: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly. Wouldn't it be great if we could do both?!  I went looking for it. Ahem.  It took that half hour to unearth just ONE copy.  That's okay; I have the key to the church office, and know how to use the copier. But it was for 3 part women's voices.

So I started the practice with the question: which of the 3 services are you available for/planning to attend?  2 on Christmas Eve, one on Christmas Day. MG was up for all three.  LD and I were going to all 3.  CC was not quite so sure she wanted to do ALL of them! So we settled on quartet for early Christmas Eve service and Christmas Day service; trio for late Christmas Eve.

It was hard work!  MG plunked out parts for us, and we shook our heads at the 6 flats (with an occasional Fb thrown in), and wondered if we could pull it off a cappella, since practice time with the Organist was going to be difficult and last minute at best. But before the hour was over, they had fallen in love with the music as LD and I had. "That was lovely! Let's do it again!" CC had to leave after an hour's work. We scheduled another practice for the next day, then MG, LD and I worked on Infant Holy for another half hour.

The full harmonies in Candlelight Carol were not what I'd expected, when I'd only plunked out 2 parts at a time, to practice it with LD at home.  I spent Tuesday morning after work entering it onto my computer music writing program, so I could play it back, and get the harmonies into my ear. Sang along with it a lot.

Not surprisingly, I was pretty solid on my part when we rehearsed Tuesday afternoon... up til the last phrase, where I had an epic fail! Not only could I not find the first note of the phrase, I couldn't get IN at all during the phrase. We dissolved into gales of laughter. MG and LD were fine on their parts, I think - it was CC and I that were having troubles.  We identified the trouble spots ("Only 3 spots!" I encouraged.  "The rest of it is GREAT! We can DO this!"), worked like crazy, scheduled another practice for Wednesday.

Wednesday went well.  We couldn't get together on Thursday; not even sure we needed to on Friday, but went ahead and scheduled one for Friday, just ahead of Christmas Commandos gathering. But LD got stuck babysitting Friday, due to total communication fail, and CC stayed home with a monster headache.  No practice. MG came and helped me with the hot cocoa for the Christmas Commandos.

We met half an hour before the early service Saturday, Christmas Eve, to go over Candlelight Carol. First verse was shaky, but we settled in on the second verse, and we knew we'd be fine after that. We headed into the sanctuary to find our seats. LD wanted to sit with the twins and their family, and Hard Working Son and I wanted to sit with LD. Made the pew nice and full. But then

What to my wondering eyes should appear...

I saw K! I had told her all about the Christmas Eve/Day music, all the John Rutter stuff we were going to sing, she had messaged me that it sounded lovely, and she wished she could teleport here for it.  I'd nodded ruefully.  It's a 3 hour drive from there to here, and of course, another 3 hours back again. No good reason to do that!

But she said she'd argued with herself about it (It'll probably be lousy weather. It wasn't. It'll be awfully late when I get home. No later than if she went to a midnight service closer to home. The kids might come tomorrow for Christmas. They might not; and even if they do, what of it?), that she realized she wanted to come! So, having nothing to stop her, she did. I teared up; choked it back. I had to SING!

So I got to sing Christmas carols (Beloved Hubby includes scads of them in the Christmas Eve services every year) with K and HWS and LD - man oh man, what a joy. K and I traded off singing soprano and alto - when I sang the melody, she sang the alto, and vice versa. And then Candlelight Carol with LD, MG and CC (to list in score order; I sang 2nd Alto), a cappella ("A Db, please," we requested of the organist), for the offertory. HWS captured it on my digital camera. I felt like my heart was so full, it would explode with the glorias.

After the service, we hustled K into the chapel, and sang Infant Holy, Infant Lowly for her as well. And then she got back in her car, and drove 3 hours home. I'm still tickled all over that she came.

LD, MG and I sang Infant Holy, Infant Lowly for the 11 pm service.  That also went well; HWS also recorded that one. MG's mom said it was a shame we couldn't all go with MG to her audition for a music scholarship in February, and sing those songs for the music department.

The Christmas Day service was quite different.  Instead of our usual 2 services, Traditional in the sanctuary at 9, and Relaxed and Somewhat Contemporary in the chapel at 9:45, we had one service at 10, in the Fellowship Hall!  There were cookies and coffee and hot cocoa and mulled hot cider.  We sat around the long tables in the Fellowship Hall (which made getting up and down to sing certain carols rather awkward, but it was okay), were encouraged to have cookies and whatever during the service, get up and go get more whenever, sort of a coffee house atmosphere. LD and I located CC and MG, breathed a sigh of relief. Always good to know the whole group is present. BH started the service asking for hymn requests!! We sang a few that you'd expect (I wished I'd had the presence of mind to request that we sing the 5th verse of O Come All Ye Faithful: Child for us sinners, poor and in the manger, we would embrace thee with love and awe/ Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly?) - but then someone sneaked in one that BH admitted he wasn't too sure about, and that my own kids did not know: The Friendly Beasts! "You want some help?" I called out to BH, who was leading the singing as well as everything else up to that point. "Yay!" called the congregation, as I went forward. He picked out good verses: the first one, the donkey, the sheep, and the last one, and caught on well enough by the end. I was delighted to sing it, after not having heard it much since my own childhood.

BH cut off the requests right before the lady who wanted to sing Amazing Grace. I know this, because she didn't hear him say, "Okay, this is the last one," right before we sang the last one, so she called out her request when we finished it, and he had to say, "Sorry! We need to move on now!"

I didn't do nearly as well on Candlelight Carol - started to screw up the beginning of the second verse. CC had it right, but hesitated when I was wrong; but we pulled out of it and made it through. I was glad HWS had recorded it when it went well!

We ended the service with Joy to the World.  A bit of a puzzlement: at the 7 pm service, there was one Powerpoint slide of Joy to the World stuck in accidentally. Seeing it, and seeing BH skip over it, we thought maybe we'd sing it at the end of the service, but we didn't, and it felt weird.  Oh well, I thought, he probably means that for Sunday.  And as I said, we did sing it Sunday - but there was no Powerpoint Sunday, because we don't have a screen in the Fellowship Hall!

Maybe we'll sing it again New Year's Day.  I wouldn't mind at all.

I picked up GF (Good Friend) only a little later than I'd said I would, blaming the holdup on the line at McDonald's.  Somehow half of the day had already evaporated, and I hadn't had any lunch.

GF's daughter (GFD) was in the choir.  I didn't know anybody else in choir, or band or orchestra, either, for that matter.  OH! Except Lovely Daughter's Guy Friend, who came over once or twice and made cookies with her, and moaned about how unsupportive his parents were of his music.  Seems they'd rather he'd play football like a normal guy. 

GFD has "adopted" me as a second mom.  Now it seems to me I've done very little to earn  that honor.  So I've tried extra hard to make sure I go to Marching Band events, and now, District.  I enjoy these events a lot, so she's really done me a favor in obliging me to go.  And, since it was her senior year and all, I even dressed up a little for the occasion; black pants, black cami, bright purple jacket. Sneakers, though, for climbing up the bleachers.

We made it in time to stop at the place where they sold the plaques and t-shirts, and the other place where we ordered a CD of the concert. Whew!  Then finally inside the gym, walked a little ways towards the middle of the bleachers, to try to figure out a good spot to head for.

Felt a tug at my sleeve.  Looked down - there was Maestro Polay, in tails, even! "Well HI! What a surprise!" He directed the high school orchestra that day! I had no idea. He looked frazzled.  We exchanged a few obvious pleasantries; I introduced him to GF.  Then he said, "You must know MW!" and I did, since she's our high school orchestra director, and plays viola in the local orchestra. She had Important Things To Check with him.  Good time to break off, and look for a place to sit.

Climbed up to the higher section - and there were Dave and Marsha!  Not too surprising that they were there, since he is the band director there in town.  But a little surprising to see them. 

A little ways further on - VIVIAN!!!  Bassoon buddy from days long past.  We played together in the Pekin Municipal Band, under the direction of The Leader of the Band himself, Larry Fogelberg, in the days before we had kids. Haven't played with her since we left the Quad Cities, 16 years ago. Big hug! Much exclaiming.

Then finally to a couple seats I picked out, which were possibly the worst seats in the place for seeing the alto section of the choir, where GF located GFD. 

The orchestra was first, and I must say, it's the very best the orchestra has sounded in all the times I've attended District. They did have a little ... thing... in the second piece, where one section of strings took off like the wind, leaving the rest of the orchestra AND the conductor in the dust - but he pulled them back together, and really, they did sound rather grand.

Then we moved to seats that Connie had spotted, where we could SEE GFD. I took some really lousy pictures.  GF wound up with my program, so I can't say what the first piece was, but it was a cappella, and so very lovely.  I felt everything in me relaxing, knots I didn't know I had unknotting. There was an amazing soprano soloist, who sang from inside the choir, so she wasn't miked like the other soloists were later. Her voice just rang out, clear as a bell.  There was a section of the piece when the sopranos weren't together - they weren't supposed to be.  They were each singing the same thing, I think, but out of time, so that 30 or more soprano voices overlapped each other in this continuous phrase, and it was amazing! And it fit the song, the message and the melody.

I didn't much like the arrangement of Down in the Valley that the guys sang, though how can I help enjoying all those male voices?  And the piece for women only was also lovely.  They ended with Make Our Garden Grow, from Candide.  I grinned as soon as I saw that on the program, knew it would be a dandy finish, and it was all that and more.

I was a bit startled to recognize the name of the band conductor.  I never expect to know them.  He conducted the Prairie Wind Ensemble, after the conductor that I played under left. He's a composer as well, and I think PWE would play his pieces from time to time.  No surprise then to see that the composer of the band's final piece was Sheldon.  The band is always good, and was this time.  Lots of fire and excitement.  The oboes were not quite as good as other years; nor was the lead sax. But I'm probably comparing the poor oboes to my friends that I play with; and the sax player to John the Perfect, who was LD's nemesis all through school.  One HECK of a sax player.

Then it was over!  And we were streaming down the bleachers with all the other parents and band directors and who knew who else, looking for GFD to congratulate her on a fine job.  I was also looking for LDGF. From what he'd said, I didn't think his folks would be there.  Actually, they made it easy for us to find them, because our school always makes the kids gather together for pictures, and since we send more kids than any other school in our district, it's a big bunch.  I took some more awful pictures. I hugged GFD, and sneaked over and found LDGF, hugged him, too. Later I looked over toward him, realized there was a couple there with him, that was probably his parents. If so, GOOD.

I also saw John the Perfect's mom.  He has a little brother who went to District this year.  I asked about John, she asked about LD.

GF and I stood around yakking with GFD until The Dooley started yelling at our kids to GET. ON. THE. BUS. GFD dutifully scampered off, and GF and I started to head out.  Then from behind, I heard my name...

Turned around to see Hot Diggity Doug headed my way, arms stretched out for a gigantic hug! Delighted!  I tried to decide if that mane of gray hair (military short, last I remember) was shaggy or distinguished, as we exclaimed how long it had been, how he'd meant to come to the last concert, etc.  I introduced him to GF, and he chimed in, "Her predecessor!" He was principal bassoon, until he took sabbatical last year, and then decided against coming back this year.  I had to tell him how I found out finally that I AM the principal bassoonist now, and about playing with Angie, his student and all.  His wife came over to let him know she was going over here to talk to this person. Then she came back to say she was going over there to talk to that person -  I think she found us still talking there 3 times.  We were among the last people out of the gym.

He asked me about Lovely Daughter, and told me to give her his regards!

It was all so very satisfying.

It doesn't inspire confidence in the medical staff when every visit to my nurse practitioner includes the question, "Have you had a colonoscopy?"  My medical records are right in front of them when they ask the question.  Do they really think I sneaked off somewhere and had one, and didn't tell them?

Maybe I'll ask them that next time.

If they can't even tell that, what else is in my medical records that might alert them to something important, that they aren't seeing?

Current Mood: stressed

I wasn't too surprised, at the end of last season, to hear that Hot Diggity Doug, who had taken sabbatical from playing principal bassoon for the KGS, was not coming back. Grant, my co-principal for the year, told me that he intended to tell the conductor that *I* should be made principal, that I'd done a fabulous job and had earned it; that he really had too much else on his plate to give it the attention it deserved. I was very excited, but still cautious.  You never know what a conductor is going to do.

All summer I eagerly checked my email for some indication. Maybe tomorrow... maybe next week... maybe next month... Guess I'll see what music they send me!

About 2 days before my music arrived, I had an email - from Doug, asking if I could give a ride to his student, Angie, who was to play 2nd bassoon on the concert.  He knew that I always come right through Macomb on the way to Galesburg.  He'd asked around town already, and other people already had full cars, or such tight schedules that they couldn't pick her up.  No problem, said I, and got her email address and phone number, to confirm arrangements.

And bounced a bit - if she was playing second, that meant I was playing first! Yay!  Grant?  I didn't know.  But there was one concert I'd be principal on!

Turned out Grant was playing contrabassoon for Peoria the night of our concert.  He was there for all our rehearsals, I think - his wife plays principal oboe.

But still, nothing said about the principal bassoon position.  I thought the conductor might say something at the first rehearsal, when he introduced new people and that sort of thing. Though last year, it took him a couple of rehearsals to remember to tell everyone where Doug had gone, and that Grant and I were co-principals.  But two, three rehearsals slipped by, and nothing said.  I began to think that we would probably just go on as we did last year, trading off.

Then I got the folder for the next concert: 2nd bsn.  Ah well.  I glanced inside: Haydn; not likely to have great bassoon stuff anyway.  Hugo Wolfe; don't know anything about that piece. Ah well.  Hoping, hoping that I'd get to play 1st on Beethoven 6.  Knowing I'd at least get to play 1st on Pictures at an Exhibition - oh, there's a lovely bassoon part in one of the movements, almost KILLED me when the 1st bassoonist in the local symphony played it like it was easy and boring and stupid. I knew I'd be playing 1st on that, since it has a contra part - Grant will play contra, I'll play first and... probably Angie on 2nd, if she's available.

DNYIL went with me, the day of the concert.  I had picked up a program at the Thursday night rehearsal, so I tossed it to her, and had her read the program notes aloud while we traveled. She also checked out the personnel list: I was listed as Principal, and Grant was listed as Associate Principal, with Angie listed below. Blink, blink! What exactly did THAT mean?

There were no long and lovely passages like Shostakovich on this concert, but I did think I did a good job with my part.  And there was a moment or two when the conductor beamed at me.  Angie played IN TUNE with me all the way, and did her level best to match my style in everything.  That was very nice. She's a fine player.

When I got home, I looked at my paycheck.  Larger than usual, since usually I only drive to Macomb, and catch a ride from there with someone else.  This time I drove the whole way each time.  But - the rate of pay was the same as when I play 2nd!  Consternation! I fired off an email to the director and the manager.

Got an answer right away Monday morning.  (I was surprised; had no idea the director got into his office THAT early.)  They would straighten it out right away.  The manager mentioned that she'd gotten all caught up in the symphony's 60th anniversary, and had forgotten to change it, though she had known about it.  "No problem," I responded; "I'm sure that with the switching back and forth, it was hard to keep track.  And," I went on, "speaking of switching back and forth... Are we going to continue to do so this year?"

Later that same day, from the conductor: No! Grant stepped aside; I'm IT!

And, by the way, though the folder said 2nd bsn, the music inside is the 1st bassoon part. Hahaha, I should know better than to trust what it says on the OUTSIDE of the folder!

Yesterday was Beloved Hubby's 58th birthday. 

For Father's Day this past Sunday, both of the kids got him DVDs.  And cards.  And that was it.  He liked all the movies and shows they got him, and was pleased, but they felt kind of bad that there was no variety in the gifts.

I was busy putting together an entertainment center, a lovely cabinet do-it-yourself project that I'd originally thought might be an anniversary gift (May 31).  When that date came and went, and the cabinet remained unfinished unstarted, I aimed for Father's Day.  It would have been a great gift, along with all those DVDs.  Alas, no.  There was an issue with the top molding; one of the pieces was warped, and the screw holes were too big.  I had to straighten out the piece (that took a couple of days) and then glue it on (another day to make sure the glue set).

But yesterday morning, all that remained to do was to put the shelves in.  I'd asked Hard Working Son to come by and help with it, and though I could have put the shelves in myself, I didn't think I could move it by myself from the storage room where I'd hidden it while working on it, to the TV room. And then there was setting up the tv, the DVD player, the Wii, and the Playstation.

HWS put the shelves in, helped me move it, helped decide exactly where to place it, and then set up all the electronics.  I worked on cleaning up the place.  This took the rest of the afternoon, and I didn't even get it vacuumed, but it sure looked a lot better.

Lovely Daughter had work from noon to 8 pm, but stopped by on her "lunch break" about 4:30, and we showed it to her.  She was suitably awed.  "This is what RICH peoples' homes look like!" 

She helped HWS and me wrap the other gifts.  We didn't think we had much else, but when we got to wrapping, there were several, and we were glad.  A couple more DVDs, but also a couple of games (from LD), a serious breathing mask (for disaster cleanup) from HWS, and some cashews and pistachios from me. We piled the gifts upstairs, and warned him not to go downstairs until it was time.

I had a Park Band concert, and had to leave the house early, so supper was in shifts.  But after the concert, we gathered back at the house. Lovely Daughter was off work by then.  We had hot cocoa pie (made with low fat Cool Whip and sugar free hot cocoa mix, for diabetic BH), then gifts upstairs.  He liked all the gifts.  We got some really silly pictures of him, and pictures of each of us laughing.

Then downstairs.  We made him shut his eyes when he got downstairs, and led him to the sofa opposite the fireplace.  I missed his expression when he opened his eyes, because I was trying to get a picture, and the camera had shut itself off!  But LD told me he looked astonished.  He certainly seemed pleased, and not only with the cabinet, but also with all the cleaning!  It's so nice to have the effort recognized.

One of the peripherals that we didn't have set up before, that HWS included, was our VHS player.  He'd given us a DVR for Christmas, so that we could transfer VHS tapes to DVDs, but we'd never set it all up.  He did that.  So he and LD looked through our tapes to see what we had.  Beloved Hubby said we needed to get the Christmas Eve 1990, the joint service with Berlin, transferred over - and had LD ever even seen it?

She had not.  They found it, popped it in, and we all watched it together.  BH, HWS and I all had things to tell her about it, but I was afraid she didn't know The Most Important Part.

BH pointed out when the camera caught me, and HWS (just a little bitty guy back then), and Grandpa.  HWS remembered how huge the choirs were.  I remembered that it snowed that day, and that, to watch the program, you'd think it was all about the bishop of our conference, and the bishop of the conference over there; and/or the huge church in Decatur where it was held, and the little church in Berlin; about the choirs.  And, of course it was, but...

"There you are, Daddy!"  Lovely Daughter was excited to see him up front, seated with our bishop, and the pastor of that huge church, and several other pastors who participated.  My eyes misted over. He looked so young!  And the incredible joy with which he read the scripture passage from Isaiah had me choked up again, as it did that very day.

And then she asked it...

"Who put all this together?"  There was serious wonder in her voice.  I just pointed.  She stared at me.  Her eyes grew wider.  "Daddy?  Daddy!"
"Yep. Your daddy."

I think it was a great birthday.

Levels of playing:

Level 1: Show up at most rehearsals, play music on stand. Leave folder on stand.

Often involves a lot of complaining: “This music is too hard!” alternates with “This music is boring!”

Level 2: Take music home, work on spots that are difficult.

Produces a superior attitude. Often results in improved tone quality and intonation, as well as technical expertise.

Level 3: Listen to recordings of the music to understand how it all fits together.

Increases interest in the other parts, as well as one’s own. Can also produce irritation with other players, who aren’t as good as the orchestra in the recording.

Level 4: Prepare the music before the first rehearsal, woodshedding technically difficult passages and polishing tone and intonation of slow passages.

Increases enjoyment of playing, and ability to hear what the conductor wants from the music.

Current Music: Shostakovich Symphony 10

I've started working on Brahms' 2nd Symphony, for the next local symphony concert.  And my first question, as always, was, How fast does this go?  So I went looking for my CD; ripped it to my computer, and loaded it onto my mp3 player for listening while I walk.

What a shock after all that Shostakovich!  It seems... sweet.  Too sweet.  Sticky sweet. Oh my.  I've always loved Brahms! 

On January 19, one of my many password protected items informed me that it was time to change my password.  I went with the first thing that popped in my head: Let it snow!

That weekend we got word of a blizzard on the way.  It hit the following Tuesday, dumping a record amount of snow on Hometown, Midwest.

Coincidence?

I think so.

"Did you notice how cool the 1st bassoon part was in the Shostakovich?"  I asked Lovely Daughter after the concert, while we were having desserts at Applebee's. 
"Yeah, I saw you eating your heart out.  You looked pissed!" she nodded.

*I* didn't think I was eating my heart out.  Thought I'd gotten over that.  Oh - but...

"That's right, I was thinking about the night I told her my part was boring, and she said hers was too. That's what pissed me off!"

Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 opens with a lone trumpet.  The 1st bassoon joins in on the second measure.  No other brass; no other woodwinds; no strings; no percussion.  Just the two of them. I wonder if the trumpet player who opened the piece all by his lonesome thought it was boring. [Need a sarcasm font there.] Ummm - no way.  The conductor is a trumpet player himself.  Trumpets in our orchestra have to work twice as hard. 

Boring?  Yeah, that pissed me off. 

I noticed that the Star Spangled Banner, with which we start every concert, was considerably less draggy. I’ll note here that there were no trombones on this concert. And yes, I mean to imply a connection.  It also amused me to note that it was odd to be reading the top line, the first bassoon part! I’ve just about got the second bassoon part memorized, and why not, after all these years?

Lovely Daughter was particularly looking forward to Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. It should have been great, for all the time we spent on it, and for as well as we all know it. I was distressed that the winds paid no attention to the pp’s, that contrast with the strings ff’s. The conductor did ask for less from the winds every time we hit that passage, but they all just continued to play the same as the strings, loud and harsh, instead of soft and sweet for the contrast that Beethoven wrote. I even spoke to a couple of them about it, but they said, Oh, I don’t think I have that – and then went right ahead and blared through the passages. But I had fun anyway, especially when the part called for a certain amount of blaring, at the end, hitting those arpeggios right on it. It’s so nice when I can tell my practicing paid off!

I was scared of the next piece, the solo piece, Songs of the Auvergne. At rehearsal on Saturday, the conductor bore down on it, to fix everything that went wrong on Thursday night. My problem was, he even worked on things that might have been problems, but weren’t – like the passage that the flute and bassoon had together in octaves, where the counting was all but impossible. We pulled it off on Thursday, but on Saturday afternoon I could not get my fingers to cooperate. Ugh! But on the concert, my fingers behaved just fine, and we sailed right through it. Relief! I was disappointed about two things: I really could not hear the soloist very much. What I could hear of her singing was lovely. Also, I wanted to know what the songs were about! I tried looking online, earlier in the week, to find the text of the songs, but I couldn’t find it. Silly me – the program notes were excellent. I already had the program, since we just have one printed for the whole year, so I could have looked that up any time.

There was a piece for strings only.  It was very dissonant, a modern piece. I assumed the strings worked on it during the rehearsal that was for strings only, but backstage I overheard a cellist muttering, “If he wants to do pieces like this, he should devote more rehearsal time to them! These dissonances need to be tuned!” At first the winds intended to vacate the stage for that piece, but when we heard it was only 8 minutes long, we decided to stay out on stage for it. I neither loved nor hated it. Perhaps I would have, if the dissonances were properly tuned?

And finally, the Schubert Symphony #5. I think the scariest moment of the whole symphony for me was the first note: coming in in tune, softly, gently, blending in to the other winds. I felt I did reasonably well with that, and relaxed a little. The second movement was a lip-killer, with many long sustained notes in a row, soft, and of course, needing to be in tune. I didn’t have anything that I felt would really sing out to the audience, but concentrated on melting my sound into everyone else’s. I got some melody (with the violins) in the Trio of the Minuet (3^rd movement), which was fun. I’d worked that up to the tempo of the recording I have. At the two Thursday night rehearsals, the conductor had taken it much, much slower than my recording. I have rarely wished a conductor would take something faster! It made some of the twiddly-bits easier, but it seemed so sloggy. Saturday afternoon, he announced that he’d made a mistake, the Minuet should go much faster, and he took it almost the tempo of my recording. I was so glad I’d worked it up to that speed, and hadn’t just gone with the tempo he’d given us! I’d’ve been in quite a pickle.  And then the finale movement, fun, fast, very satisfying.

Suddenly it was all over. I was shaking hands with the principal clarinet (also her first time at that position, I believe, after a decade or so of playing 2^nd), and Grant, and congratulating them on fine performances; scurrying downstairs to change and gather up all my stuff; finding “my people” and heading over to The Landmark for post-concert coffee, dessert and reviews.

Current Mood: accomplished