The swan business

Date: 04/18/13
Orchestra: CYO
Attendance: good, but LATE!
Coaches present: Jennifer and Mr. Lin (thanks!)
Repertoire rehearsed: SWAN LAKE
Little things I noticed:
A very eventful rehearsal today, from a couple of people dropping their instruments (or a part of one) on to the floor, me knocking over my music stand while conducting (this was the ONLY time I've ever appreciated that we had an empty chair...), to paintings mysteriously falling off the wall throughout the rehearsal... I guess the gravity was extra strong today, somehow....

Notes:
Romantic music! Yay! And by "Romantic", I mean the style of the music that was written in late 19th century. Although my taste and appreciation for music has expanded and broadened significantly since then, THIS is exactly the kind of music that got me into music in the first place, when I was only four years old (my parents used to put on classical music at home all the time). It might even have been this very piece! It feels home to me. I'm listening to another Tchaikovsky piece as I write this blog :)

Congratulations on a very good reading of this piece! Especially for you winds and brass players who are in a very nasty key (due to your transpositions)! I think one of you is even in G# minor... That is as nasty as it can get! But you guys sounded like none of that bothered you! Good for you!

We started off this rehearsal with sectionals. Jennifer took the winds/brass downstairs, and the strings remained in the gallery.

I'll just make a couple of notes here.

Strings:
So the reason for the bowing from mm. 27 is that, when you have an even number of beats in each bow, you get to maintain a single bow speed. This minimizes unnecessary bumps caused by the changes in bow speeds that would be necessary if you were to simply follow the phrase marks. Without unnecessary  bumps and steady bow speed, it is easier to create a very steady crescendo as you climb up the scale. But make sure you do the phrasing, otherwise I'll hear too much of your bow changes.


Winds/Brass
Just make sure your breathing doesn't get in the way of the music. Please do not sacrifice any notes or phrases for the sake of breathing. There's always a way around it  (i.e very quick breath at the end of a phrase etc. etc.) I think winds/brass players playing music is THE ONLY time you can say breathing is of secondary importance. Think of that! I can't think of any other activities that makes you say "this (whatever it is you are doing) is more important than you breathing air!"

In general:
Romantic music, by it's characteristics, tend to have really long phrases, that just doesn't let you go. So looking at a bigger picture of things while playing, becomes more important. Try to think of the whole phrase when playing, not just the few notes in the measure.