First Essay for Orchestra - Barber

On tour now, residing currently in beautiful Bloomington IL at the Bands of America Summer Symposium. The past week or so has been a whirlwind - here are some highlights.

• Tuesday, June 20 - Was offered and accepted the head director position at Waller High School - I will miss all my children at Klein Forest, but am very excited about working out in Waller!
• Thursday, June 22 - Flew to Saint Louis, rented a car, drove to Owensboro Kentucky - but not before experiencing the fun that is rural Kentucky... replete with people who have never heard of debit cards and strangely marked toll roads. Hung out with my friend Holly (a cast member of Blast 2 : MIX), ate some Steak and Shake, good day.
• Friday, June 23 - Wrote drill, visited the paragon of southern living that is Wal-mart, watched Blast 2 : MIX (which, by the way, is GREAT - if you are in Japan this fall, you should check it out - great, great, great, great show.) Had some drinks with members of the cast, turned in for a long drive back to Saint Louis.
• Saturday, June 24 - Drove the long 4 hours back to Saint Louis Airport, finding out about halfway there that the Cavaliers wouldn't be able to pick me up until 6pm that evening (it was 10:30am, so you know). After turning in my rental car, I found many ways to occupy my time (including observing the worst customer service ever at the Burger King outside security) until picked up and transported to the show in Columbia, Mo. Met the boys in warm-up - they sound pretty damn good - and finally got to see Machine. Very good day.
• Sunday, June 25 - Drove to Lexington, KY - got to the housing site - went for a run - rehearsed, became more familiar with the show, showered, changed, went to the show, good day. Left for Sevierville, TN
• Monday, June 26 - Rained out show, the first time Cadets were seeing us. Had a standstill - we did well, and sounded pretty ridiculous for late June. Cadets performed as well ... they were loud. That is all I shall say about that. Packed up and left for Bands of America, all of 12 hours away.
• Tuesday, June 27 - Arrived in Bloomington - went for a run - found out that the brass staff had nothing to do until after dinner, so we went bowling. I am a terrible bowler, but almost won the second game I played... with a score of 108 (a personal best, I must add). Pathetic? Yep. Worked with the tubas in sectional, made "Wired" sound some better - ensemble rehearsal, snack, shower, lame bar, bed.
• Wednesday, June 28 - Rehearsed, gave a clinic, ate Burger King for lunch (yuck! but there was nothing else around) and blogged. Don't think we have to be back to teach the boys until dinner or slightly before - nice, lazy afternoon.

Eventful week, if I do say. Also, here are some interesting links you will appreciate:

Cadet's uniforms (which they performed without at the standstill - glad they did that, for it would have made no sense at all out of context).

Cavalier's Guard Uniforms - these look great in the show. The entire effect is very convincing and I think will go down as many people's favorite when all is said and done.

And finally, a recap from the show in Evansville, IN last night - Cadets and Bluecoats, duking it out. I sense something rather amazing in the offing. Mark my words. :)

All right - that's all for now. Think I need to get a digital camera, since my friend Sarah's post of a similar nature looks so much better with her visual aides. Time to go to Wal-mart. Donations? :)

Remembering - A. Cohen

Note to self:

Concerning Requiem for a Dream, it is not wise to watch this film...

• ...alone.
• ...late at night.
• ...if there is no one around to give you a hug when it's all said and done.

A very, very good movie that has a lot of important things to say, but the underlying form of the world is shows you is one that I pray I, nor anyone I care about, ever has to inhabit. I highly recommend it, but you may want to have something like Chicken Little waiting in the wings for the next morning, as a counter-balance.

Really.

Cavaliers 2006 - Machine, Mvt. 1

Okay, so I am going to be a complete homer here for a post.

Check out the Cavalier's stuff on YouTube - Rick Lunn and Ryan Ling (and whomever else works on these things - Spoonhower?) are doing a great job of putting out tidbits here and there - I love it.

But before you do that, check out the new guard uniform. When the movie matches the music, things get ridiculous. This is going to be a fun summer, I think.

Enjoy.

Feste Romane - O. Respighi/trans. M. Patterson

University of Houston Wind Ensemble.

Best collegiate ensemble... anywhere.

Hands down.

Don't agree?

Find me a better one.

Good luck.

Blurred - B.Ryan/Music for 18 Musicians - S. Reich

Sundays are possibly the best of days in the arbitrary division of time mankind has created. They possess none of the lacksadaisical ennui of Saturday, and none of the pent-up tension Fridays need to release. They are finite, which makes you enjoy them all the more since they must end. They afford you the opportunity to get work done in an enviroment that, while conducive to the task at hand, allows a large degree of latitude regarding the pacing and practice of the act of doing. Is that the long-form of saying you can be lazy? Possibly, but it's Sunday, so I don't care.

Laying by the pool this afternoon (it being sunny and all), I started thinking about a statement that one of my teachers, Richard Saucedo, once imparted upon the Cavaliers hornline in 2001. He said "The true emotion in music comes from harmony. Not from text, or dynamics, or anything else - just the harmony." Coming from an arranger as enraptured with extended harmonic language as Richard is, that is made obvious just in listening to his work. Given that it was summer, and that is the time when great amounts of thinking, introspection, and discussion take place - we had plenty of time and energy to mull over these words in tandem with the system of thought that was being introduced to the hornline that summer. (which led to how we sound now, but that is another post for another day)

First, I must say that I agree with Richard on this count. The harmonic structure and progression of a piece determines its emotional impact, and all other components (rhythm, text, dynamics, other special effects) merely enhance or subdue the core emotional content of the piece. Really, look no further than the most basic cadence we find from the earliest music - V-I - to see the sense of arrival, finality, and closure a sequence of 6 tones, 3 at a time, tonally spaced a perfect fifth apart creates. It's so incredibly simple, and yet has one of the most indelible impacts upon our centers of emotion and perception that even people who know little to nothing about music can appreciate it. Or at least know when to clap. Sometimes.

But to delve further into this thought process, look at the marching arts - they absolutely rely on harmony to convey the emotion of what they do. A great flag feature (e.g. Fantasia 2004 or Pride 2001) is often accompanied by music that could be characterized as "expansive", "uplifting", or even "soaring" - which is created by often simple harmonies voiced in a very open structure, simple rhythmic counterpoint, and closing with a definite cadence - a period at the end of the sentence, as Bruno Zuccala would say. And what does it do? I elicits emotion that, while seemingly incongruous to watching two dozen people wave poles with fabric on them around in a gym, is genuine and strong.

The same holds true for drum corps and marching band - the emotional impact comes principally from the harmonies performed at a high level by the members of the group. Even the implicit harmonies of a running bass drum line create a response - bass 5 is going to drive us forward, and the other 4 leading down to it create tension and line just as much as a traditional melody. An great impact moment is one where the visual and musical synthesis is achieved at a level that the content seems to inevitably be what it is - it could be no other way. Visually, the motion leads the eye either to a focal point, or through a sequence of motion that creates tension that finds resolution. Musically, similar tension or aural "leading" occurs, taking the audience member through a process of thought and perception that (hopefully) affects them intellectually, aesthetically, and (strongest of all) emotionally. For evidence, look at the end of the Cavalier's ballad in 2002 - one of the best performed moments in the history of the activity - it achieved a quality of sound that rivals some orchestras in this country - which allowed for the harmonic progression to have its most potent effect. Though, listening to that moment begs the question "Is the greatest impact of the is moment in the cadence, or the silence that followed it?" Yet another post for another day.

In short, we as humans crave these sorts of moments - whether we realize it or not. We become part of something greater than ourselves, through the performance and through the music - that is the addiction. The endorphin rush of a moment like this - whether as a designer, teacher, performer, or audience member - is far beyond the normal experience many people have. It is something that stays with you, and won't let go. That is why music is an amazing art form, and I believe the combination of music and visual is the highest level of art one can make. But then, I might be just a little biased.

Just a lot.


DCI Finals - 2000 - A pretty good night, if you ask me.