Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday May 9, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons

Performance team at Bob and Jaxie’s this evening. Mary Beth was back in Boston for business, so we were 8 in the circle.

Began by recapping Saturday’s rehearsal to bring Jaxie up to date.

For tonight’s work we began with a circulation in A♭ Major, and then ran Twilight. We then reviewed the A Mixolydian zithers from the in-the-audience circulation, making sure we had our parts right. Several runs through of My Precious Dream, both with and without the metronome, and again focusing some attention on the count-free opening. Chris declared it ready for primetime (or, more accurately, observed that the way to get it over the last hurtle is to throw it into the performance mix) and so this week it will be part of the opening set. Ran the Turkish Suite*, and then took a close look at the phrasing of the lead players in the second half of Batrachomyomachy. Lament with the metronome, as we are aiming for a slightly quicker tempo and it has not yet settled in.

After the break, on to Space Zombies! From Outer Space! I needed refreshing, and we had new information from the composer as well, so we again broke into bass and lead section work. Chris drilled the leads, and taught Jaxie her part. Travis worked with me and Ian on the bass part, which we tweaked in some detail. Ran the piece several times after we reconvened the full group, with and without the metronome. It seems that what is emerging is a distinctly Tuning the Air arrangement is neither Riddle Trio nor The League. Stripped down and energetic. A lot of fun. It will be more fun when it is a little more competent, but in the meantime it is still fun. It is on for a run through at soundcheck on Thursday. I don’t know if a decision has been made about putting it in the hat. Perhaps that will be a surprise.

Several runs through A Day In The Life, incorporating Saturday’s adjustments, and getting Jaxie up to speed. I managed to stay off of the score, but I am definitely faking it and/or getting lucky in the third and fourth verses, so that will be heavily in my practice schedule for the next couple of days. Memorizing a part in which each verse is ever so slightly different from the last one, but close enough to be seriously confusing, is a real challenge. We could easily just repeat the bass line to any one of the verses and it would work fine musically, and I imagine the audience would be none the wiser. But this is The Beatles, and I can think of at least two people who might be in the audience on any given night who would definitely hear, and for this one I’m kind of inclined to play to them.

One last run through Space Zombies! From Outer Space! at a seriously jacked up tempo, and we all headed home for the night.

---

* Had a discussion with Bill after last week’s show, about the use of the word “suite” to describe this series of compositions. When I got home I pulled out my trusty Harvard Dictionary of Music, and found that the first definition was: “An instrumental form of baroque music, consisting of a number of movements, each in the character of a dance and all in the same key.” Tony’s composition is obviously not baroque, and only two of the three are in the same key, but my sense is that the Turkish Suite has enough of the flavor to warrant the name. While I don’t see powdered wigs and hoop skirts, they are sure as hell dances.