You know, every now and then I question my chosen career. Not much money, loads of stress, not much free time, and evenings and weekends are usually taken up with rehearsals and gigs.
Every now and then I question this choice, and brainstorm for a bit on a different career. My motivation drops, my practice time turns to waste, and my enthusiasm for music in general disappears. I think to myself, what could I do for money? I really just want to be an adventuristic bum. Make money doing some remedial, repetitive task, and take my weekends and vacations to see the world and climb every mountain, so to speak.
Usually, this period would signal the need for a break. A week or two with the horn off the face. My students know this time well, although they might not know the cause; it would be the days I show up to lessons and not get my horn out, or even show up without the horn at all. "I think I want to just listen to you today, go ahead and warm up." Other times, it's ended abruptly by the playing or hearing of something great. In recent lumps it was performing Mahler's 3rd, my chance to play principle on Stravinsky's Firebird, and re-arranging the brass line warm up book for the high school brass line. This time it was door number two.
Olivier Messiaen's Turangalla-Symphonie. I knew we were performing it for the next set with the symphony, but I had never heard of it. I also knew it was a massive undertaking that, by what I had heard so far, could quite possibly be the most difficult piece I had ever worked. So, I bought the recording to study.
The piece really is neat. A bit repetitive at times, and definitely on the dark and spooky side of the scale. You know the scale, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Vivaldi on one side, John Zorn, Motrhead, Stravinsky and Schoenberg on the other. My first response to listening to it was, "This kinda sounds like Danny Elfman on Mary Jane." The bass trombonists' response was equally descriptive. "It's like West Side Story on drugs." Psychedelics, I imagine. Yes, both make perfect sense. You can just imagine it. Dark, spooky, mysterious, rhythmic. Incorporating an unusually wide array of instruments, from the massive (something like 10+ member) percussion section to the piano soloist joined by synth and celesta.
And the brass parts are, well, let's just say I'm glad my endurance is one of my strong points. It's massive. At nearly 80 minutes long, it just keeps going and going. And, unlike Mahler 3, where there were 6 movements and we did not play in one and only half of 3 others, the Messiaen has 10 movements, and we play all but one of them. It really is quite a blow. We read through only about 7 or 10 movements last night, and I finished up out of breath and exhausted. Mentally and physically exhausted.
And that, my friends, is the shit.
Every now and then I question this choice, and brainstorm for a bit on a different career. My motivation drops, my practice time turns to waste, and my enthusiasm for music in general disappears. I think to myself, what could I do for money? I really just want to be an adventuristic bum. Make money doing some remedial, repetitive task, and take my weekends and vacations to see the world and climb every mountain, so to speak.
Usually, this period would signal the need for a break. A week or two with the horn off the face. My students know this time well, although they might not know the cause; it would be the days I show up to lessons and not get my horn out, or even show up without the horn at all. "I think I want to just listen to you today, go ahead and warm up." Other times, it's ended abruptly by the playing or hearing of something great. In recent lumps it was performing Mahler's 3rd, my chance to play principle on Stravinsky's Firebird, and re-arranging the brass line warm up book for the high school brass line. This time it was door number two.
Olivier Messiaen's Turangalla-Symphonie. I knew we were performing it for the next set with the symphony, but I had never heard of it. I also knew it was a massive undertaking that, by what I had heard so far, could quite possibly be the most difficult piece I had ever worked. So, I bought the recording to study.
The piece really is neat. A bit repetitive at times, and definitely on the dark and spooky side of the scale. You know the scale, Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Vivaldi on one side, John Zorn, Motrhead, Stravinsky and Schoenberg on the other. My first response to listening to it was, "This kinda sounds like Danny Elfman on Mary Jane." The bass trombonists' response was equally descriptive. "It's like West Side Story on drugs." Psychedelics, I imagine. Yes, both make perfect sense. You can just imagine it. Dark, spooky, mysterious, rhythmic. Incorporating an unusually wide array of instruments, from the massive (something like 10+ member) percussion section to the piano soloist joined by synth and celesta.
And the brass parts are, well, let's just say I'm glad my endurance is one of my strong points. It's massive. At nearly 80 minutes long, it just keeps going and going. And, unlike Mahler 3, where there were 6 movements and we did not play in one and only half of 3 others, the Messiaen has 10 movements, and we play all but one of them. It really is quite a blow. We read through only about 7 or 10 movements last night, and I finished up out of breath and exhausted. Mentally and physically exhausted.
And that, my friends, is the shit.
Good luck with this. Can't wait to hear how this shakes out. Sounds amazing! When's the performance?