12/5/05, 12:41 a.m. --
Sunken waltz.
It's been awhile since I updated, but really, not a whole lot of any interest
has been going on lately, and I'm sure no one really cares to read about how
my classes are going, or about how I ate a lot of food over Thanksgiving,
or anything of a simlilarly mundane nature. I suppose the most exciting thing
that happened since I got back from my much-needed vacation to Ames for
Thanksgiving was my band concert last Thursday.
Of all the concerts I've ever played in, I think this one demanded the most from me as a player. The concert music itself was not too challenging, or even that exciting (with a couple exceptions), but the small ensemble I played in required me to really practice my clarinet for the first time in ages =). We played a Mozart piece (Serenade in C Minor, I forget which movement), and it was a fair challenge for someone of my ability. Technically it was a woodwind octet, with two flutes doubling the oboe parts (for a total of 10 people), and since there was only one bassoon available to play in the small groups, I had to play the other bassoon part the piece required. So not only was it an exposed part, but it was for a different instrument; I didn't want to let the group down either since they were all pretty good. I did have to break down and (gasp) buy a synthetic reed to be able to confidently play the whole range of the piece, though, but it didn't sound TOO bad I don't think. The performance itself went really well though, I thought we kicked a lot of ass -- and it was fun! Hopefully in the next week or so I can acquire a recording of the concert so that, at long last, the world can know what I sound like...
Oh, also, it's been snowing quite a bit in Mpls lately. Even if all the big storms seem to miss us there's still been a pleasant regularity of smaller storms to keep everything pretty. I'm enjoying it a lot so far =)
Of all the concerts I've ever played in, I think this one demanded the most from me as a player. The concert music itself was not too challenging, or even that exciting (with a couple exceptions), but the small ensemble I played in required me to really practice my clarinet for the first time in ages =). We played a Mozart piece (Serenade in C Minor, I forget which movement), and it was a fair challenge for someone of my ability. Technically it was a woodwind octet, with two flutes doubling the oboe parts (for a total of 10 people), and since there was only one bassoon available to play in the small groups, I had to play the other bassoon part the piece required. So not only was it an exposed part, but it was for a different instrument; I didn't want to let the group down either since they were all pretty good. I did have to break down and (gasp) buy a synthetic reed to be able to confidently play the whole range of the piece, though, but it didn't sound TOO bad I don't think. The performance itself went really well though, I thought we kicked a lot of ass -- and it was fun! Hopefully in the next week or so I can acquire a recording of the concert so that, at long last, the world can know what I sound like...
Oh, also, it's been snowing quite a bit in Mpls lately. Even if all the big storms seem to miss us there's still been a pleasant regularity of smaller storms to keep everything pretty. I'm enjoying it a lot so far =)