As always with School holidays there are holes in our line up as members take a well earned rest, however, valuable work still proceeds in the holiday period.
Last night started out with a run through the Anzac Hymns and it was highlighted that some of us need to update our Anzac books. There are two versions of some of the Hymns, A full orchestration which we largely use on Dawn service and the Thorp flexible arrangements which we use on the mid week services, please make sure you have both arrangements available for use.
Then it was onto Tales of the Sea. this is the test piece I have selected for the states this year. on the surface it is a simple arrangement, yet as we start pulling it apart more you will find some interesting phrasing and articulations need to come out to shape the melody. It will also be a challenge to ensure the necessary balance is maintained across the entire ensemble.
Oregon: Harold started to drill into the first part of this descriptive work. can I recommend to each member to take a look at the De Haan video that has been circulated so you can get a strong understanding of the sound scape this composition offers. there are several tricky phrases in the first section particularly across the trumpets which will need some careful home practice.
Pacem: there are three significant challenges in this work: 1; exposure, there are a number of passages right from bar 1 that are exposed and require careful playing. 2: lack of rehearsal figures which will make it hard to stop and start quickly. you can get around this by writing your own bar numbers as appropriate and 3: varied time signatures, remember the down beat remains the start of each bar regardless of the number of beats that follow. the end of the chart is exceptionally slow and will be beaten in quavers (1st bar in 6, subsequent bars in 4) with the final pause being given on cue.
I am excited to hear our band play these pieces as I can well remember when we first looked at them and found they were above our standard, now we are not only matching but exceeding the level required to play them, its a testament to your great work.
Murray