Letter from Paxson (9/22)
Hello Philharmonic!
Thank you all so much for a productive and fun Fall Retreat. I was especially inspired by your depth of observation during our listening exercise. I implore you to keep up that active, deep engagement with great art as much as you can – it is one of the most rewarding things life has to offer, and it serves as a reminder to us of what a privilege it is to be part of an orchestra and bring art to life. Each of the composers whose music we are currently playing believed that music without words has the special power to communicate things which words alone cannot express. I hope instrumental music will always have a place in each of your lives.
Our next target is Fall Festival (11/14), where we will be performing movement I of Schumann and an excerpt of Billy the Kid (likely Gun Battle + Celebration, TBD). With that in mind, we will focus on this music at next week’s rehearsal. November 14th might seem far out from now, but it’ll be here sooner than we know, so I want us to be “performance-ready” a month in advance of that date so we can have an amazing first concert together!
Here’s the plan for rehearsal Tuesday:
6:45-7:30 Copland – Gun Battle, Celebration
7:30-8:00 Schumann movement I (m.297-end)
8:15-9:15 Schumann movement I (complete)
In your practice this week, I’d like you to focus on the end of Schumann. Our metronome target for the end (starting at m.297) is quarter note = 100. Please take some time to work on this section with the metronome, always remembering to start slowly and work up the tempo gradually. (Looking at you, flutes, oboes, clarinets, violins, and violas at m.337!)
IMPORTANT: Strings, please take a moment to check your Copland part with the digital one in the Music Dropbox Folder. The bowings in these files are good, with one notable exception, which we discussed in rehearsal:
Violins/Viola
- Ricochet triplets rehearsal 40-rehearsal 43
- Violin II ricochet rehearsal 44
- ALL 2 before rehearsal 45 as written (non ricochet)
- Violins ricochet rehearsal 46 (for four bars)
Otherwise, the bowings in the Dropbox files are good. I expect all of us to have marked the correct bowings in our parts by next rehearsal (at least for the Gun Battle and Celebration movements).
For everyone: make use of the Dropbox files to mark measure numbers in your Copland part if they are not already there. I expect all of us to have measure numbers by Tuesday.
Apologies for the amount of logistics in this week’s letter, but, if we all do our part individually before next rehearsal, we can cover a lot of ground relative to our upcoming performance. Like I said, I want us to be “performance-ready” a month in advance of our actual performance, and I think we are in good shape to do it. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to Tuesday!
A special thank you to all the parents who brought treats to rehearsal last week! They were certainly much appreciated.
For your listening pleasure: A fantastic recording of Billy the Kid by the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kevin Noe (2013). Worth listening to, especially to get an idea of the ricochet accompaniment sound we’re looking for in Celebration. The link is set to start the video right before the Gun Battle.