av8rmike

I haven't talked about music stuff for a long time. I used to post once a week with amusing quotes from Jason, our orchestra conductor, but for a while I either haven't remembered things he's said or I couldn't properly take them out of context. Our next concert is the annual pops one, and this year is a strange mish-mash of some Broadway songs, some Gershwin, some Simon & Garfunkel(!), and even a little music from The Dark Knight and "Lord of the Dance". Usually I play in the first violin section, but for this concert my stand partner and I have been traded to the seconds, I assume for a first-round draft pick. I don't mind, because the pops concert tends to be a hell of a lot of work because of all the songs to learn. So, it won't be as bad playing second violin.

Monday night we sight-read the first movement of Mahler's 2nd symphony, the 30-minute-long funeral music. Jason had played it before with his youth orchestra a few years ago and must have wanted to see how we'd handle it. I wish I'd been playing 1st, but you can't have it all, I guess. Maybe in a few years we'll have it on a program.

There's also going to be a bit of a shake-up with my lessons. For the last six years, I've met my teacher at her different studios at the Peabody Conservatory. Last month we had a lesson when the school was supposed to be closed, and their security people found us and told her she wasn't supposed to be giving lessons, and to someone who wasn't a student. So now she's going to have to come to my apartment, which is fortunately only a block away, but which I have to clean up before I'd be comfortable letting someone in who doesn't know how messy I am.

Oh, and in case people want to know the particulars of the concert, it's Saturday February 13, at 7:30, at the Jim Rouse Theater in Wilde Lake HS, Columbia (MD). Ticket information and directions can be found on the orchestra's web site, or you can just pester me with questions.

--"It's sounding kind of... atheistic there."
--"It says 'spiritually'."
--"That's my point."

"Play that line like you would sing it, if you were Finnish... which you aren't."

"This is probably the weirdest thing you're ever going to hear from me, but I want it to be athletic, yet robust."

"Piano, but kind of a redneck-y piano."

"Strictly in tempo until 79, then subito Phillip Glass-o."

"I like the chord at 94, it's kind of Barbra Streisand/Wind Beneath My Wings."

"You're supposed to point and laugh and jeer at me there."

"I'm not sure if it's quoting 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' there, but we'll have to discuss it another time."

"Why am I even here??"

I hardly talk about this stuff any more, without much reason. I know there's only one other person that might care, and she already knows this stuff. But whatever.

I usually play section first violin in my various orchestras. Last night in the chamber orchestra, however, we were so short-handed on second violins that I offered to play first-chair second. It was no problem for me, but if it's a permanent change will have to depend on if other players decide to return. Given how much work I have with the other orchestra and my lessons, playing second violin may actually be better for my sanity.

Now, a few Jason quotes from the last few rehearsals that have stuck with me:

"When the stars explode, that means it's trombone time!"

"...a very mean sound. [Sempre] Meanioso."

"Prokofiev totally ripped this part off of John Williams!"

"I want you to spend the next week off-beating."

Jason quote from last night:

"This rehearsal is bugging the shit out of me."

Not just for him, unfortunately. A lot of people seemed to be out of it last night, or just generally annoyed, myself included. I dislike one of the pieces we're playing so much that I'm considering not even rosining my bow for the first half of the concert. Which, by the way, is still three weeks away, and I just want it to be over. I know that's probably a sign I'm burning out and need to take a break, something I thought wouldn't happen to me.

"I'm going for the 'obsessive-compulsive Beethoven' here."

"Coming off of those ties, you guys are like deer in the headlights. Holy crap! Is that a Buick?!"

"I know it's only 9:30, but I'm conducting the Baltimore Symphony tomorrow morning, I still have some work I need to do, so practice hard. Good night!"

Another rehearsal, more Adventures in Quotes from Jason:

"Look! We made the Penny Saver! I swear, I only read it for the articles."

"Oh, your measures go 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4? Now I have to subtract two from everything in my score."

"This rehearsal is going great!"

"The publisher didn't send us the second half of this one, so I'll just drop my pants there."

A.K.A. "This week in Jason quotes".

"This whole introduction [of Ives' 2nd Symphony] is one big organ prelude. Ives wants to sound like it's leading somewhere spiritual... Too bad it's to 'Turkey in the Straw'."

"Cellos, bless your hearts, but you seem to think 'accelerando' means 'slow down'."

"Bassoon, you're actually playing a horn part there, but the horns can't play that low. So you're going to need to be more horny."

I haven't done these in a while, mostly because a lot of his comments from past rehearsals didn't make much sense out of context.

"Start at fifty-one, fifty-one, two before fifty-two... Fifty! Fifty! I can subtract... I am so drunk right now."

"You're all kind of ritarding on your own there, so I'm going to need you to be a little less ... ritarded."

"Then a lot of confusing crap happens there."

"I'm a virgin to both of these pieces."

Playing hooky from work today because:

• I have the time available
• They wanted to come in and photograph the apartment for advertising and I wanted to apologize for the messy-ness*
• I deserve a mental health day after the exhausting performances all weekend
• It's a nice day, too!

I went to the store for a few things and saw a woman who was so out of proportion, she had to have breast implants, lip implants, and ass implants. To top it all off, she was wearing a (not-at-all-fitting) shirt with an arrow pointing up and reading, "I'm up here". I wanted to say to her, "don't bet on it", or "not from where I'm standing", but I didn't want a beatdown. She had to have been some kind of exotic dancer.

Important rehearsal tonight, with the BSO concertmaster. I'm hoping it won't be intimidating.

*-They said mine was still cleaner than others they had seen.