I go back and forth between counting carefully myself, or watching Lon for cues. Because I have to look at the instrument to attempt to get to the right place, looking at Lon is tricky...
It's better if we come in correctly than anything else. Once we're off count, it's a train wreck from there.
I can kindof live with the hash we make of the chromatics in Entry of the Gladiators. It bothers me that we're unable to play Anitra's dance musically even in rehearsal. The parts are so exposed, mistakes really stick out.
I know I make a lot of mistakes - I"m thinking of just sitting out some phrases. But I know Tom and Ronda have problems with it as well....
The trouble started somewhere around rehearsal letter B with a premature melodic entrance. We continued for a while with two factions a measure apart, and then I stopped it. I'm still undecided about whether to play Anitra at Como. Anybody want to comment on the current confidence level?
I need to start this comment with a clear statement that my thoughts that follow are meant to help us as an orchestra and to improve our ability to play well.
I also realize that the acoustics were terrible at Centennial Lakes and that made it very difficult to hear what was going on in the rest of the orchestra.
I heard the train wreck start. I immediately looked around and most, if not all, had their heads down. (Jack confirmed this.) Lon was giving big enough cues that I thought he was going to leave the ground. It was to no avail because nobody saw him. We need to collectively raise our stands so we can see Lon over the top of our music. If you have to move your head to see Lon, your stand is too low for orchestral playing.
I truly empathize with Dottie's point. The M1 part is very challenging. When you are playing way up the neck, it's hard to count, hit the right notes, and look at Lon. However, unless we can move from music to Lon easily, we take Lon out of the game.
I also agree with Anne that we could be far more familiar with the sound of this piece. One of the things that troubled me was that we were in the middle of the train wreck and a number of people seemed to still be engrossed in their music and not looking around for help. Listening more to the other sections more would make us all better players.
Given that we don't have any rehearsal time to work out the bugs, I'd vote for not including A.D. in our set list for the next two concerts. I love the piece. I'm just not sure how to increase the odds of success to a high level before Monday.
Will there be a substitute piece in place of Anitra's Dance? We need to communicate this to others who aren't on the blog (or don't check it often, like me - I might not have checked it in time).
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7 comments:
Agreed.
I go back and forth between counting carefully myself, or watching Lon for cues. Because I have to look at the instrument to attempt to get to the right place, looking at Lon is tricky...
It's better if we come in correctly than anything else. Once we're off count, it's a train wreck from there.
I can kindof live with the hash we make of the chromatics in Entry of the Gladiators. It bothers me that we're unable to play Anitra's dance musically even in rehearsal. The parts are so exposed, mistakes really stick out.
I know I make a lot of mistakes - I"m thinking of just sitting out some phrases. But I know Tom and Ronda have problems with it as well....
The trouble started somewhere around rehearsal letter B with a premature melodic entrance. We continued for a while with two factions a measure apart, and then I stopped it. I'm still undecided about whether to play Anitra at Como. Anybody want to comment on the current confidence level?
I need to start this comment with a clear statement that my thoughts that follow are meant to help us as an orchestra and to improve our ability to play well.
I also realize that the acoustics were terrible at Centennial Lakes and that made it very difficult to hear what was going on in the rest of the orchestra.
I heard the train wreck start. I immediately looked around and most, if not all, had their heads down. (Jack confirmed this.) Lon was giving big enough cues that I thought he was going to leave the ground. It was to no avail because nobody saw him. We need to collectively raise our stands so we can see Lon over the top of our music. If you have to move your head to see Lon, your stand is too low for orchestral playing.
I truly empathize with Dottie's point. The M1 part is very challenging. When you are playing way up the neck, it's hard to count, hit the right notes, and look at Lon. However, unless we can move from music to Lon easily, we take Lon out of the game.
I also agree with Anne that we could be far more familiar with the sound of this piece. One of the things that troubled me was that we were in the middle of the train wreck and a number of people seemed to still be engrossed in their music and not looking around for help. Listening more to the other sections more would make us all better players.
Given that we don't have any rehearsal time to work out the bugs, I'd vote for not including A.D. in our set list for the next two concerts. I love the piece. I'm just not sure how to increase the odds of success to a high level before Monday.
Lou
I say we drop Anitra's Dance. We just aren't very good at playing it.
OK. We'll omit Anitra at Como.
Will there be a substitute piece in place of Anitra's Dance? We need to communicate this to others who aren't on the blog (or don't check it often, like me - I might not have checked it in time).
We'll just skip Anitra. No substitute.
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