Letter from Kaiser (3/12)

Hello Camerata Vivace!

Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858), Kinryūzan Temple in Asakusa (detail) from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856

Thank you for your work on Lord of the Rings and Ballet tonight. We have just a few rehearsals before our spring season will truly be upon us, so your purposeful practice and preparation cannot be understated. Ballet especially showed us a lot of areas that need improvement.

In this email:

• Listen to some performances of Ballet from Petite Suite
• Check out your GTCYS 10 below.
• A link to learn about Debussy, the Petite Suite, and inspiration from the LA Phil.

Listening to Debussy’s Ballet References:

• Another youth symphony performing our arrangement
• An arrangement from the Budapest Symphony orchestra I enjoy

GTCYS 10:

• Woodwinds: All of the off-beats need to be quicker and with a metronome. Please work on these at home!
• Brass: Any entrances in Ballet need work. Clean + short attacks and releases of the notes, please!
• Percussion: There are several tambourine and triangle parts that will need to covered for this Ballet arrangement. Listen to the recordings and follow along in your sheet music to get a strong idea of how to play these parts.
• Strings: Ballet…… It all needs some time just practiced. Remember: Our Tempo di Walz is dotted half note = 72, which is quarter note = 216. That is QUICK and must be worked up to with a metronome.

More about Ballet from Debussy:

This is a GREAT article written about the poems, artwork, and history related to Debussy’s Petite Suite that Ballet comes from. Check it out and learn from the great writers at the LA Phil.

Secret Questions from Kaiser:

TWO PRIZES for the first TWO RESPONDERS

• One Prize: What is the name of the conductor on the Budapest Symphony Orchestra recording? (Hint: It’s the name on the album cover on the YouTube video.)
• Another Prize: In the LA Phil article, it is revealed that we aren’t even playing the original Debussy work (it was written for two piano players). A colleague of Debussy wrote an orchestra transcription: what was his name?

Happy Musical Learning!
Best wishes,
Kaiser

Zane Kaiser (he/him/his)

Camerata Vivace Conductor
Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies
zane@gtcys.org
“The piano ain’t got no wrong notes” – Thelonious Monk