It is nearing that time again when I become a crazed lunatic whose patience is little and temper is hot. I've had a count down on my board of how many rehearsals left until our holiday concert since there were 15 rehearsals. We have reached the 4 rehearsals mark. I will announce the "Don't piss me off" disclaimer on Monday.
I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew for this one- at least that's what the panicked part of me thinks. The logical side of me is all like, "Dude, chill out, it's middle school orchestra..." Just last rehearsal I did something stupid. Like, really stupid. Ugh, why did I do it? So my 7th grade is playing "Angels we have heard on High" (spelled 'Angles we have heard on High' on many of their parts because I had a student make copies and she cut off the title and wrote it in that way...) and also "Holiday Waltz," which is a combined piece with the 8th grade. Then they are playing "Jingle Bells" flash mob style during one of our many stage transitions. They're going to be out in the audience and pop up to play the song by memory- it'll either be really awesome or really sloppy, but cute either way so who cares? But they were only going to be on stage by themselves for one piece and I felt bad for all the parents who came to see their kid perform and they only play for 1 minute and 30 seconds? Plus another 2 minutes with the 8th grade? So the very, very, stupid thing I did at the 5 rehearsal mark was add five pieces- one piece per section (easy 2-part stuff for soli violins, violas, cellos, and basses) and another large group piece called "Christmas Sampler." I decided if they weren't able to play everything I handed them semi-decently by the end of the block, we'd scrap the idea. It was risky because either way we're losing a rehearsal close to show time. But those little nuggets pulled it off with style. God love 'em, why couldn't they have just bombed and made it clear to me that I should just have stuck with Plan A?
The 8th grade is playing "Holiday Hoedown", a hilarious piece that cracks me up every time we rehearse it. It mixes like 50 Christmas carols with a bunch of fiddle tunes 2 bars at a time. Freakin' hilarious! They don't get it. "See?" I'll say, "It's funny!"
"I think only composers think it's funny."
"No, musicians think it's funny." Awwww burn! Anyway, they're playing that and then "Holiday Waltz" with the 7th grade. Then the other stupid thing I took on for this concert was a full orchestra piece. It's called "All is Calm," an arrangement of "Silent Night," and it is really gorgeous when it's played together and in tune and with all the right parts... I've had 2 really quick rehearsals with some of the strings and some of the winds that went relatively well, but I sincerely don't think we'll have everyone play at the same time until the night of the concert, which is scary. It's just so hard to get kids to attend extra rehearsals all at once, especially when they're band kids who are playing for free, so to speak. Though, I have been pleasantly surprised with how well the wind players are doing. They are all really sweet kids and they play with great tone quality and respond well to my conducting and direction. But like I said, we've yet to rehearse with all the parts, so if we pull this off it will be a miracle.
In addition to a combined 7th/8th grade piece and a full orchestra piece, I also have the new Honor's Orchestra performing. They are playing "Dona Nobis Pacem," which is the first piece they've played that is in the key of A major (G#'s are a bitch...) and it's slow and requires a lot of bow control. It's going well, but we haven't consistently played it through without someone dropping a beat and getting off. Plus this orchestra meets from 7:30 to 8:30 Monday and Wednesday mornings and inevitably at least 2 or 3 members will be missing from the 13 member group. These guys are also playing "Kwanzaa Celebration" (yay for diversity!), a piece with some African drums- it'll be a crowd-pleaser I think. In addition to the two pieces on stage, I've also planned for them to play carols in the lobby while people enter. I bought some books that should be easy to sight read and provide plenty of variety, however the books did not get delivered until after class on Friday, which means none of my Honor's Orchestra kids have seen the music yet. And we still have the other pieces to perfect and those 18 Christmas carols need to be learned and able to be played without me all in four 7:30-8:30 AM rehearsals. Yikes.
So in conclusion, here is what our Orchestra Holiday Concert looks like:
6:40-7:00 Honor's Orchestra Carols in the Lobby
7:00 7th grade Orchestra, Angles we have heard on High; 4 section pieces; Christmas Sampler
7:15 7th/8th grade Orchestras Holiday Waltz
7:20 Honor's Orchestra: Dona Nobis Pacem; Kwanzaa Celebration
7:25 Flash mob 7th grade Jingle Bells
7:30 8th grade Holiday Hoedown
7:35 Junior Symphonic Orchestra All is Calm
7:45 Pack up and go home
We work like slaves for 9 weeks to perform for 45 minutes. It makes me feel depressed. And panicked. Did I mention panicked?
No comments:
Post a Comment