Lewisville, Texas (part 2)
Hey, no pictures today, but it was quite the day:
It started out at a rehearsal with the top band at Lamar Middle School -- Alan Hanna is the director there, and will be conducting Echoes of Sun and Ice at the Saturday evening performance of WATERCOLORS. As fate would have it (fate usually does!), I got lost on the way there, but managed to make it in time to hear them rehearse two of the sketches -- Echoes..., as well as Moon over Twilight Lake.
(At this point, I should mention that I've never heard anything like these Texas bands -- if they're not flawless, they're really, really close! It was the same thing at Huffines with Asa Burk -- these ensembles hone their performances to a razor-sharp point. It's really something to witness middle school musicians playing with intonation and rhythmic precision that would rival many college-level bands!)
It was really, really great to be at this rehearsal -- the band already played with such clarity and precision that I could easily tell what these pieces were going to sound like once they were performance-ready, and things I was concerned about (in my writing) that I'd heard at Huffines the day before were confirmed at Lamar. It was also great to be able to talk to Alan (and Asa the day before) about the music -- their suggestions and opinions help me improve my craft, as well as improve the music.
Fortunately, the music is very, very close, but Alan was agreeable to try some things out to see if they'd work better if orchestrated differently.
After a delicious lunch of BBQ from Red Hot and Blue, I headed over to Durham Middle School for a presentation for their students. I managed to make it on time, but I did get lost again. After the presentation the director, Brian Edwards, had time to talk about the music, so I picked his brain for thoughts about various ideas I'd had to change the orchestration. Brian will be conducting Moon over Twilight Lake, and the biggest changes (well, not that big, but still...) are in that piece, so I was glad to have a chance to see if he thought these were reasonable switches to make before the Saturday concert. He seemed agreeable to it, so be warned Trombones -- you've got some new parts coming!
I headed back to my hotel (got lost again) for a little practice time (gotta be ready for the Chaos Theory performance next week at Nazareth!), check my email and myspace, and grab a bite to eat.... then headed back out to Flower Mound High School (did NOT get lost this time!), where Alan and the top Lamar Middle School ensemble were having a short concert. The band sounded amazing, most particularly on Spiritual, by Don Gillis. It is a beautiful piece of music, and the musicians played flawlessly. After the concert, the audience was asked to leave, so the band could run through Echoes... and Moon.... We tried a few quick changes, but ended up going back to what I had originally written.
Headed back to the hotel (umm... yeah, lost again)... practiced some more, talked to Nicki, and eventually hit the sack... tomorrow is another day!
It started out at a rehearsal with the top band at Lamar Middle School -- Alan Hanna is the director there, and will be conducting Echoes of Sun and Ice at the Saturday evening performance of WATERCOLORS. As fate would have it (fate usually does!), I got lost on the way there, but managed to make it in time to hear them rehearse two of the sketches -- Echoes..., as well as Moon over Twilight Lake.
(At this point, I should mention that I've never heard anything like these Texas bands -- if they're not flawless, they're really, really close! It was the same thing at Huffines with Asa Burk -- these ensembles hone their performances to a razor-sharp point. It's really something to witness middle school musicians playing with intonation and rhythmic precision that would rival many college-level bands!)
It was really, really great to be at this rehearsal -- the band already played with such clarity and precision that I could easily tell what these pieces were going to sound like once they were performance-ready, and things I was concerned about (in my writing) that I'd heard at Huffines the day before were confirmed at Lamar. It was also great to be able to talk to Alan (and Asa the day before) about the music -- their suggestions and opinions help me improve my craft, as well as improve the music.
Fortunately, the music is very, very close, but Alan was agreeable to try some things out to see if they'd work better if orchestrated differently.
After a delicious lunch of BBQ from Red Hot and Blue, I headed over to Durham Middle School for a presentation for their students. I managed to make it on time, but I did get lost again. After the presentation the director, Brian Edwards, had time to talk about the music, so I picked his brain for thoughts about various ideas I'd had to change the orchestration. Brian will be conducting Moon over Twilight Lake, and the biggest changes (well, not that big, but still...) are in that piece, so I was glad to have a chance to see if he thought these were reasonable switches to make before the Saturday concert. He seemed agreeable to it, so be warned Trombones -- you've got some new parts coming!
I headed back to my hotel (got lost again) for a little practice time (gotta be ready for the Chaos Theory performance next week at Nazareth!), check my email and myspace, and grab a bite to eat.... then headed back out to Flower Mound High School (did NOT get lost this time!), where Alan and the top Lamar Middle School ensemble were having a short concert. The band sounded amazing, most particularly on Spiritual, by Don Gillis. It is a beautiful piece of music, and the musicians played flawlessly. After the concert, the audience was asked to leave, so the band could run through Echoes... and Moon.... We tried a few quick changes, but ended up going back to what I had originally written.
Headed back to the hotel (umm... yeah, lost again)... practiced some more, talked to Nicki, and eventually hit the sack... tomorrow is another day!
1 Comments:
Thanks Jim about how we did on Spiritual,it's nice to know a major composer thought it was good.
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