Saturday, October 17, 2015

Current rep on my music stand

STRAUSS: Don Juan, Op. 20\
  PROKOFIEV: Concerto No. 2 in G Minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 16
  TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
  GERSHWIN (F. Campbell-Watson, arr.): Strike Up the Band
  DVORAK: "Allegro con fuoco" from Symphony No. 9 in E Minor,
  GOTTSCHALK (Hershey Kay, arr.): "Grand Walkaround" 
  ARR. (David Frost, arr.): Yankee Doodle
  WILLIAM SCHUMAN: "Chester" from New England Triptych
  SCOTT JOPLIN (Gunther Schuller, ed.): Maple Leaf Rag
  AARON COPLAND: "Variations on a Shaker Melody"
  JOHN WILLIAMS: "Harry's Wondrous World"
  JOHN PHILLIP SOUSA : Stars and Stripes Forever 
  IVAN RODRIGUEZ – Luminis 
  ROSALIE BURRELL – Paved in Gold
  SAAD HADDAD – Kaman Fantasy
  PATRICK O'MALLEY – Even in Paradise
  BERMEL: A Shout, a Whisper, and a Trace 
  BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1
  BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2 

Yes, this is the rep on my music stand right now.  All of this is to be performed by the Columbus Symphony within the next two weeks.  Among the works are Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, Strauss Don Juan, Prokofiev Piano, Brahms Symphony No.2, the infamous Chester movement from Schumann's New England Triptych, Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1, and no fewer than five contemporary works.  My music stand is toppling over from the weight of the music.

In many orchestras, this type of situation is alleviated by assistant principals.  In the Columbus Symphony there are no assistant principal woodwinds, so I play everything.  I'd love to be able to just focus on the Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 solos (and REEDS for those solos) while someone else handles some of the other rep, but I won't have that luxury. 

Although orchestral players seem to work few hours from an outsider's point of view (around 20 hours per week is spent in the hall rehearsing and performing), in reality the work never ends.  We bring it home; we make reeds constantly, we study scores and recordings, and we are often working on many different pieces of music at once.

 OK, no more time for blogging......back to the music in front of me!



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1 comment:

Unknown said...

ADM Foldable Extra Light Large Music Stand from Bizarkdeal

I just got this really nice music stand from Flanger. My daughter is in the high school advanced band and she is practicing music just about every night at home. Usually she tries to prop her music up on her dresser but it's usually a pain to get it to stay where she needs it to play properly. I was so excited to try out this great music stand. It's made of durable metal. Has adjustable pieces that allow you to make it shorter or taller, much like a tripod for a camera, you can open and lock them into place. You have a plastic stand to put your music on. Just slide it onto the mount on the stand. It has pieces that fold out to put your music. You can do a single sheet and it also accommodates my daughters large music folder so there is a lot of versatility in it. Tripod style at the bottom gives it a sturdy base. You can fold it all up though and it comes with a nice canvas travel bag with handles that make it easy to take it with you if you want to travel with it or take it to events or class. She has been using it for several days now and loves it, really has helped her to play better at home when she is practicing.