Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday April 5, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

We were still two down, with Taylor and Mary Beth out of town. They will return Wednesday, just in time for the final dress/tech rehearsal at Fremont Abbey on Thursday.

We began with a bit of circulation in C Harmonic Minor. From there we moved on to Batrachomyomachy, on which Jaxie is picking up the lead part. For tonight we focused on the canon section, which is where the greatest need is at this stage. The first section will benefit from an 4th player, but is not so critical in terms of dynamics and balance; plus, it involves some tricky bits and a couple of very quick passages. More on that in due time.

Most of the evening was dedicated to work on A Day In The Life. Jaxie and I are on the bass, which means learning McCartney’s part, note for note and rhythmic quirk for rhythmic quirk. Tonight that meant a whole lot of sight reading. Chris and Bob are taking on the melody/vocal lines. For them it will largely come down to establishing consensus on the feel and interpretation of the phrasing. Wishing for whammy bars. Travis, who will be playing the basic acoustic guitar strumming part, worked with Ian and Howard on the voicings they will be using for the “piano” part. Mary Beth and/or Taylor will be joining this section. The part has not been “written” yet, so they went into one of the side rooms to work it out, and Travis will notate the decisions this week. Pretty fun stuff. Both easier and more difficult than one might imagine.

For the final half hour we looked at Trapiche, for the first time in quite some time, with the idea of asking Joel to join in on the “Cloud of Unknowing” section in the middle. I suffered from a right hand not yet up to the task. We ended with a once-through on Tony’s Turkish trilogy Batrachomyomachy – Not My Sharona – Where Is The Nurse? Much fun.

A quick discussion of the plan for the upcoming week:

• Thursday – full tech/dress rehearsal. Lights. Sound system. Front of house set up. Audience arrangement. Everything as though it was a performance. Gathering at Fremont Abbey at 6:30. Travis and Chris will transport the sound system. I will visit the storage space to pick up the lighting system and all of the house gear.
• Saturday – performance team rehearsal at Fremont Abbey from 9:30-12:30.
• Monday – performance team rehearsal at the Wilsons from 8:30-10:30.
• Thursday – opening night.