A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday June 28, 2010 – Final Rehearsal of the Season
All present and accounted for at the Wilsons tonight.
We began with another look at Neptune, reviewing the opening section we have been working with in recent weeks. We then took a look at some examples of the arrangement strategies Taylor is contemplating for the next few sections, as a kind of “proof of concept”. A lot of energy from this, and he was encouraged (nagged? harangued?) to move forward with this swiftly. If time allows, we will run the first section at Thursday’s soundcheck in order to hear it amplified and in the performance space.
This was followed by a serious look at the scales employed in the Voodoo Situation. We talked through each, and then freely circulated, giving us a bit of room to explore the tonalities and begin to discover their qualities. Ian brought out a harmonic figure that he thinks will work well in the second section, and this livened things up quickly, and eventually the free circulation/improv morphed into the form of the piece, so though we never ran it formally there was still a good sense of how it could/will unfold. The Music Director did not comment on whether or not it will be in The Hat on Thursday.
After a break, we touched on a number of pieces of repertoire that will be in the closing night set. For the most part, these were run without a lot of comment, simply to keep them sharp. Pieces that are not “problematic” rarely get played in our limited available rehearsal time, and Chris wanted to touch on as many as possible: The Children’s Hour, Cultivating the Beat, A Day In The Life, Space Zombies! From Outer Space!, Twilight, My Precious Dream, Ikada-Jima-Hoedown, and Eye of the Needle. The last piece was the only time the metronome came out, as we continued our commitment to readdressing it, as if it was new material.
Thursday night is closing night. On Saturday we will have the final Open Circle until September, and the completion meeting for the season.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday June 26, 2010 – Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
Our final Saturday guitar circle/rehearsal of the season. We will complete the season next week with the Monthly Open Circle, a bit of practical work and then our final meeting. We began with the full team, with Frank and Teo. Frank recapitulated the themes he has been focused on with us since we began the season in January. We looked at the critical moment, and the ways we have to make choices at that moment, in particular the practice of observing the way our bodies move with our breath. He then set up a small performance challenge, so that we could look at this moment and these choices.
For me, this work with Frank (and the week with Sandra) has been one of the pivotal and defining elements in the evolution of the production this season.
After a break, the Performance Team reconvened to rehearse. We began with a continuation of the work with the opening section of Neptune. This was our first opportunity to hear it in the Great Hall, and that alone was amazing. It features very gentle and quiet tremolos that become magical in that space.
On to a look at The Children’s Hour. In the last week we moved to a slightly faster tempo and found that it was an improvement. We wanted to quantify the change. The original tempo was 50bpm, and the new tempo felt significantly brisker. So we set the metronome at 56bpm and ran it. This was clearly too fast. Backed it off to 54bpm, and this still seemed fast. 52bpm turned out to be the new tempo. Strange that such a small change could make such a marked qualitative difference.
Eye of the Needle was next. We ran it once with the metronome, and in general were startled that the determined tempo was so much fast than we ever perform it. Once we settled in, it felt right, but the first two or three sections were definitely a race against our habit. When we ran it a second time, it was much more solid. After some discussion, we agreed to make the commitment to make work with the piece at tempo a part of our daily practice this week, addressing it with the same kind of care we apply to learning new material.
On to Space Zombies! From Outer Space! We gave this some focused attention, working at a slightly slower tempo, and working in pairs, one bass player and one lead player, to sharpen the timing and feel issues.
At about this point, the next tenants began showing up and beginning to set the room up for their event, even though we had an hour to go for rehearsal. We explained the misunderstanding to them, and they gave us our space. But others continued arrive, and they were piling gear up outside the door waiting to get into the Great Hall, so we wrapped up early and moved on.
The Music Lab was at my place; Greg, Mary Beth and Ian in attendance. The House Circle is working on an arrangement of Big Rock Candy Mountain, and I decided to use this material for an exercise in voice leading for chords. Rather intense work, as it turns out. By the end we had added the task of developing bass lines as well.
For the last half hour, we looked at one of the scales used in Ian’s Voodoo Situation: C-C#-E-F-G#-A. Essentially a C augmented triad and a C# augmented triad. I worked out a circulated version of this that explored all of the triads available in this scale, beginning with the C augmented and then changing one note at a time until it had morphed into the C# augmented, then moving back to the next inversion of the C aug. This created the following sequence of triads:
There is a slightly different route that incorporates another set of minor triads, and a more complex arrangement that would actually hit on all 15 of the possible triads. But time was short, and so those will have to wait for another time.
Saturday June 26, 2010 – Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
Our final Saturday guitar circle/rehearsal of the season. We will complete the season next week with the Monthly Open Circle, a bit of practical work and then our final meeting. We began with the full team, with Frank and Teo. Frank recapitulated the themes he has been focused on with us since we began the season in January. We looked at the critical moment, and the ways we have to make choices at that moment, in particular the practice of observing the way our bodies move with our breath. He then set up a small performance challenge, so that we could look at this moment and these choices.
For me, this work with Frank (and the week with Sandra) has been one of the pivotal and defining elements in the evolution of the production this season.
After a break, the Performance Team reconvened to rehearse. We began with a continuation of the work with the opening section of Neptune. This was our first opportunity to hear it in the Great Hall, and that alone was amazing. It features very gentle and quiet tremolos that become magical in that space.
On to a look at The Children’s Hour. In the last week we moved to a slightly faster tempo and found that it was an improvement. We wanted to quantify the change. The original tempo was 50bpm, and the new tempo felt significantly brisker. So we set the metronome at 56bpm and ran it. This was clearly too fast. Backed it off to 54bpm, and this still seemed fast. 52bpm turned out to be the new tempo. Strange that such a small change could make such a marked qualitative difference.
Eye of the Needle was next. We ran it once with the metronome, and in general were startled that the determined tempo was so much fast than we ever perform it. Once we settled in, it felt right, but the first two or three sections were definitely a race against our habit. When we ran it a second time, it was much more solid. After some discussion, we agreed to make the commitment to make work with the piece at tempo a part of our daily practice this week, addressing it with the same kind of care we apply to learning new material.
On to Space Zombies! From Outer Space! We gave this some focused attention, working at a slightly slower tempo, and working in pairs, one bass player and one lead player, to sharpen the timing and feel issues.
At about this point, the next tenants began showing up and beginning to set the room up for their event, even though we had an hour to go for rehearsal. We explained the misunderstanding to them, and they gave us our space. But others continued arrive, and they were piling gear up outside the door waiting to get into the Great Hall, so we wrapped up early and moved on.
The Music Lab was at my place; Greg, Mary Beth and Ian in attendance. The House Circle is working on an arrangement of Big Rock Candy Mountain, and I decided to use this material for an exercise in voice leading for chords. Rather intense work, as it turns out. By the end we had added the task of developing bass lines as well.
For the last half hour, we looked at one of the scales used in Ian’s Voodoo Situation: C-C#-E-F-G#-A. Essentially a C augmented triad and a C# augmented triad. I worked out a circulated version of this that explored all of the triads available in this scale, beginning with the C augmented and then changing one note at a time until it had morphed into the C# augmented, then moving back to the next inversion of the C aug. This created the following sequence of triads:
- C aug
- A min
- F maj
- C# aug
- E aug
- C# min
- A maj
- F aug
- Ab (G#) aug
- F min
- Db (C#) maj
- A aug
- C aug and the cycle repeats.
There is a slightly different route that incorporates another set of minor triads, and a more complex arrangement that would actually hit on all 15 of the possible triads. But time was short, and so those will have to wait for another time.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuning the Air #184
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday June 24, 2010 – Tuning the Air #184
78 in the audience tonight. Thank you Seattle Times! Nothing but repertoire from The Hat; very strange. Wonderful show.
Setlist:
Thursday June 24, 2010 – Tuning the Air #184
78 in the audience tonight. Thank you Seattle Times! Nothing but repertoire from The Hat; very strange. Wonderful show.
Setlist:
Joel Palmer – Improvised preshow music into C Harmonic MinorEncore:
C Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel
Voices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
My Precious Dream
From the Hat: 49 Notes
Pipeline
From the Hat: Turkish Suite
Address the Audience – Travis
Spiral Circulation
Sigh and a Kiss
The Children’s Hour
A Day in the Life
Spontaneous Composition in E Minor
Ikada-Jima
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel
Twilight
Thrak
Eye of the Needle
Monday, June 21, 2010
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday June 21, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
All present and accounted for tonight. We began by working on Taylor’s arrangeent of the first minute and a half of “Neptune”, from The Planets. This began to really take shape tonight, as we got a bit past the notes and began to address the music. A general kind of “proof of concept” that gives us the clarity that it is possible, and will work. And so the arranger has his work cut out for him; 90 seconds down and about another 5 minutes to go. We’ll play it amplified at sound check on Thursday, for additional information, but it is unlikely to be ready before the season closes.
Found this online about the piece earlier in the day and circulated it to the team:
Next on the agenda was Ian’s Voodoo Situation, a loosely structured improvisation following along the harmonic lines of George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept, using chords from Miles Runs the Voodoo Down as the jumping off point. Good fun. A stretch for us, but stretching is good. We’ll also give this a go at soundcheck, and that will determine whether or not it will go in The Hat for this show.
A run through of A Day In The Life.
Lastly, a review of a new spin on Ikada-Jima that we stumbled into on Saturday. Since Howard was not at rehearsal on Saturday, and had no idea about the changes, we got to experience his unfiltered reaction, which was an ear-to-ear grin. Very good sign. It is on!
One more time through The Children’s Hour and we called it a night.
Monday June 21, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
All present and accounted for tonight. We began by working on Taylor’s arrangeent of the first minute and a half of “Neptune”, from The Planets. This began to really take shape tonight, as we got a bit past the notes and began to address the music. A general kind of “proof of concept” that gives us the clarity that it is possible, and will work. And so the arranger has his work cut out for him; 90 seconds down and about another 5 minutes to go. We’ll play it amplified at sound check on Thursday, for additional information, but it is unlikely to be ready before the season closes.
Found this online about the piece earlier in the day and circulated it to the team:
“Neptune” was the first piece of orchestral music to have a fade-out ending. Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are “to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed”, and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is “to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance”. Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound—after the initial 1918 run-through, Holst's daughter Imogen (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during “Jupiter”) remarked that the ending was “unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence”.We moved on to some detail and refinement work on The Children’s Hour, focusing on phrasing as a group.
Next on the agenda was Ian’s Voodoo Situation, a loosely structured improvisation following along the harmonic lines of George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept, using chords from Miles Runs the Voodoo Down as the jumping off point. Good fun. A stretch for us, but stretching is good. We’ll also give this a go at soundcheck, and that will determine whether or not it will go in The Hat for this show.
A run through of A Day In The Life.
Lastly, a review of a new spin on Ikada-Jima that we stumbled into on Saturday. Since Howard was not at rehearsal on Saturday, and had no idea about the changes, we got to experience his unfiltered reaction, which was an ear-to-ear grin. Very good sign. It is on!
One more time through The Children’s Hour and we called it a night.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday June 19, 2010 – Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
Solstice Festival day in Fremont, which made parking a bit dicey. It is overcast and chilly, and we begin pretty early, so it wasn’t too bad going in. By the time we departed, just after noon, the joint was definitely jumping.
First part of the morning was the full team with guitars, with Frank. We are wrapping up a season of consistent work with him, and following of on a week of intensive work with Sandra. He summarized the process of observing the body as it responds to the breath, our presence at the “critical moment”, and took us through an intensive look at “inhibition” in the Alexander Technique sense of the word. He led us through a simple rhythmic exercise, slowly adding more bits to it and increasing the complexity. The final part of the exercise was as close to The Movements as anything I have encountered; both revealing and energizing.
After a break, the Performance Team reconvened for rehearsal. A bit more focused work on The Children’s Hour to begin with. Chris revealed that for next week some repertoire is returning to The Hat, and so we spent the rest of the rehearsal reviewing pieces we may not have played for some time: The Turkish Suite, Brasil, Twilight, 49 Notes, Ikada-Jima, The Wig Maker, Thrak, and Lament. We got of on a very silly tangent on one of the pieces, reworking its arrangement and including a radical change in genre. Lots of fun, and I believe it will be incorporated. It took quite a bit more time than anticipated, however, and so continued work on Taylor’s arrangement of Neptune and Ian’s Voodoo Situation were pushed back to Monday’s rehearsal.
Return to my place where Greg, Mary Beth, Ian and IgorK gathered for today’s Music Lab. We moved forward in the interval recognition ear training exercise, taking on sixths and sevenths. From there we moved on to recognizing the elements of a harmonic environment – in this case various modes – and building a scale that is consistent. Feels like the beginning of some essential stuff. The circulations that surrounded this exploration had a definite “something” about them.
Saturday June 19, 2010 – Full Company with Frank, Performance Team Rehearsal and Music Lab
Solstice Festival day in Fremont, which made parking a bit dicey. It is overcast and chilly, and we begin pretty early, so it wasn’t too bad going in. By the time we departed, just after noon, the joint was definitely jumping.
First part of the morning was the full team with guitars, with Frank. We are wrapping up a season of consistent work with him, and following of on a week of intensive work with Sandra. He summarized the process of observing the body as it responds to the breath, our presence at the “critical moment”, and took us through an intensive look at “inhibition” in the Alexander Technique sense of the word. He led us through a simple rhythmic exercise, slowly adding more bits to it and increasing the complexity. The final part of the exercise was as close to The Movements as anything I have encountered; both revealing and energizing.
After a break, the Performance Team reconvened for rehearsal. A bit more focused work on The Children’s Hour to begin with. Chris revealed that for next week some repertoire is returning to The Hat, and so we spent the rest of the rehearsal reviewing pieces we may not have played for some time: The Turkish Suite, Brasil, Twilight, 49 Notes, Ikada-Jima, The Wig Maker, Thrak, and Lament. We got of on a very silly tangent on one of the pieces, reworking its arrangement and including a radical change in genre. Lots of fun, and I believe it will be incorporated. It took quite a bit more time than anticipated, however, and so continued work on Taylor’s arrangement of Neptune and Ian’s Voodoo Situation were pushed back to Monday’s rehearsal.
Return to my place where Greg, Mary Beth, Ian and IgorK gathered for today’s Music Lab. We moved forward in the interval recognition ear training exercise, taking on sixths and sevenths. From there we moved on to recognizing the elements of a harmonic environment – in this case various modes – and building a scale that is consistent. Feels like the beginning of some essential stuff. The circulations that surrounded this exploration had a definite “something” about them.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuning the Air #183
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday June 17, 2010 – Tuning the Air #183
Setlist:
Thursday June 17, 2010 – Tuning the Air #183
Setlist:
- Joel Palmer – Improvised preshow music into C Harmonic Minor
- Ringing in C Harmonic Minor
- Voices of Ancient Children (Kabusacki/Nunez)
- Cultivating the Beat (Williams)
- My Precious Dream (Binder)
- From the Hat: The Lizard of Ooze
- Pipeline (Carman/Spickard)
- From the Hat: Everyone Solos Then Everyone Plays Together
- Address the Audience – Travis
- Circulating through the audience, as the spirit moves
- Sigh and a Kiss (Williams)
- The Children’s Hour (Ives)
- A Day in the Life (Lennon/McCartney)
- Spontaneous Composition in E Minor, with oboe
- Ikada-Jima (Gibson)
- From the Hat: Worst Song I Ever Heard [rejected by performers]
- Alternate from the Hat: Open Circulation
- Space Zombies! From Outer Space! (Peacock) – with Joel Palmer on creepy ambience.
- Eye of the Needle (Fripp)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday June 14, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Shorthanded tonight, with Chris out of town and both Travis and Howard unavailable.
The first half of the rehearsal we applied ourselves to digging into the details of the rhythmic and phrasing subtleties of The Children’s Hour.
After a break, we began work on Taylor’s arrangement of “Neptune” from Holst’s The Planets. Tempted to push on, but Ian had some further work into the harmonic explorations for the Voodoo Chord, which yielded some rather stunning improvs.
Monday June 14, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Shorthanded tonight, with Chris out of town and both Travis and Howard unavailable.
The first half of the rehearsal we applied ourselves to digging into the details of the rhythmic and phrasing subtleties of The Children’s Hour.
After a break, we began work on Taylor’s arrangement of “Neptune” from Holst’s The Planets. Tempted to push on, but Ian had some further work into the harmonic explorations for the Voodoo Chord, which yielded some rather stunning improvs.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Alexander Technique Day
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday June 12, 2010 – Alexander Technique Day
An embarrassment of riches. We had not 1, not 2, but 3 AT teachers on board to help us out today. Frank Sheldon, of course. Sandra Bain Cushman is in town this week doing a series of classes. And our pal Teo Hannum, who we haven’t seen for some time, was along as well.
Sandra took the first hour, working largely with us without guitars. Some boomwhacker circulations in the circle, and a number of exercises that, among other uses, helped us to respond to circulations and, especially, The Whizz, without our usual startle and other unnecessary physicalizations. The first hour ended with some walking whizzes… with one oboe involved!
After a break, Frank worked with us, continuing the theme of “the breath” and focusing on the distinction between reacting and responding. For this we worked entirely in the circle, with guitars (and oboe). Simple circulations and improvisations, in which presence at the “critical moment” was the only aim. On a number of occasions, what the group was creating was so musical that it was very difficult for me to stay with the exercise. Tending to revert to “musician mode” is always a challenge when we are addressing AT with our instruments, and today was more challenging than most. The addition of the oboe, suggested some possibilities for Tuning the Air that were impossible to ignore, and keeping my mind on the business at hand was a constant struggle.
For the final hour, the AT trio of doom put us through a number of very physical exercises, beginning with a variation on Simon Says.
At the end of the workshop, those able stayed for a few minutes to help the next tenant in the Great Hall set up for a piano recital, and then we went our separate ways. It was an incredible spring day in Seattle, and the Music Lab was “called on account of sun.”
Saturday June 12, 2010 – Alexander Technique Day
An embarrassment of riches. We had not 1, not 2, but 3 AT teachers on board to help us out today. Frank Sheldon, of course. Sandra Bain Cushman is in town this week doing a series of classes. And our pal Teo Hannum, who we haven’t seen for some time, was along as well.
Sandra took the first hour, working largely with us without guitars. Some boomwhacker circulations in the circle, and a number of exercises that, among other uses, helped us to respond to circulations and, especially, The Whizz, without our usual startle and other unnecessary physicalizations. The first hour ended with some walking whizzes… with one oboe involved!
After a break, Frank worked with us, continuing the theme of “the breath” and focusing on the distinction between reacting and responding. For this we worked entirely in the circle, with guitars (and oboe). Simple circulations and improvisations, in which presence at the “critical moment” was the only aim. On a number of occasions, what the group was creating was so musical that it was very difficult for me to stay with the exercise. Tending to revert to “musician mode” is always a challenge when we are addressing AT with our instruments, and today was more challenging than most. The addition of the oboe, suggested some possibilities for Tuning the Air that were impossible to ignore, and keeping my mind on the business at hand was a constant struggle.
For the final hour, the AT trio of doom put us through a number of very physical exercises, beginning with a variation on Simon Says.
At the end of the workshop, those able stayed for a few minutes to help the next tenant in the Great Hall set up for a piano recital, and then we went our separate ways. It was an incredible spring day in Seattle, and the Music Lab was “called on account of sun.”
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Tuning the Air #182, with the Thornton Creek Kids Circle
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday June 10, 2010 – Tuning the Air #182, with the Thornton Creek Kids Circle
Much to process and write about this. For now, just the facts:
Joel Palmer – Improvised preshow music
Thornton Creek Kids Circle:
Enters playing a thrakish call and response, which continues as we march once around the Great Hall, and take our seats at the east end. The Tuning the Air team follows, each taking up a seat near their place in the circle.
Tuning the Air:
As Joel begins the opening music for the Tuning the Air segment, the house team strikes the chairs set up for the Kids Circle, and sets Curt’s guitar out. Jaxie and Curt escort the Kids out to join their families in the audience, and we take our places in the TTA Circle.
TTA team exits. When we return we are carrying guitars for the Kids. We take our places in the circle, invite the Kids back up from the audience to join us.
Thursday June 10, 2010 – Tuning the Air #182, with the Thornton Creek Kids Circle
Much to process and write about this. For now, just the facts:
Joel Palmer – Improvised preshow music
Thornton Creek Kids Circle:
Enters playing a thrakish call and response, which continues as we march once around the Great Hall, and take our seats at the east end. The Tuning the Air team follows, each taking up a seat near their place in the circle.
- Dirty Water – from our seats. From there on we are on our feet and on the move.
- Whizz – from the north side of the room
- The Blues – Curt in a chair on the west side of the room, blasting out-of-tune blues licks, with Jaxie and the Kids marching around the room doing the accompaniment.
- Spider Web Circulation – from the south side of the room
- La Bamba – standing in front of our original seats on the east side
- Circulation on any note of your choice.
Tuning the Air:
As Joel begins the opening music for the Tuning the Air segment, the house team strikes the chairs set up for the Kids Circle, and sets Curt’s guitar out. Jaxie and Curt escort the Kids out to join their families in the audience, and we take our places in the TTA Circle.
- Joel Palmer – C Harmonic Minor
- Ringing in C Harmonic Minor
- Voices of Ancient Children
- Cultivating the Beat
- The Children’s Hour (world debut!)
- From the Hat: A Quiet Song
- Pipeline
- Address the Audience – Curt
- Circulating through the audience, as the spirit moves
- Sigh and a Kiss
- A Day In The Life
- From the Hat: A One-Minute Collage, with each player on a 5-note phrase of their choice (with special guest Bill Rieflin in the role of timer)
- Space Zombies! From Outer Space! – with Joel Palmer providing awesomely creepy ambience.
TTA team exits. When we return we are carrying guitars for the Kids. We take our places in the circle, invite the Kids back up from the audience to join us.
- La Bamba (Slight Return)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday June 7, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Travis had a scheduling conflict (the nature of which was the source of much humor throughout the evening), so we were eight in the circle tonight. Sandra Bain Cushman, in town for a week of fun with Alexander Technique, was in attendance as well (until her east coast time orientation caught up with her about halfway through the rehearsal).
Twofold task for the evening… to sketch out a slightly shorter set than usual for Thursday night’s show with the Kids Circle, and to ensure that The Children’s Hour is presentable and ready for primetime.
The Children’s Hour was up first. Ran it cold, to test our true command of the piece first… in performance there is no warm-up or practice run. Quite good. The work we did on Saturday was evident, and there were no snags that we could not maneuver around. The difficult bits, particularly transitions, remain difficult, but no longer daunting. We engaged the metronome and got down to work. There was one short section where I was not hearing the melody clearly. It involves Jaxie and Chris playing lines that are partly unison and partly contrapuntal, and joining them into a single statement. A little work, a little analysis, and a little more work, and the passage was transformed. A few other details addressed, and the piece was declared ready, and to be included in Thursday’s set. We played it a couple times again in the evening, once as part of the set run through and again at the end of the night with us on our feet as we will be at the gig.
A Day In The Life was next. Travis plays the rhythm guitar part on this, and it is very much the skeleton on which the rest of the parts hang, so this was an opportunity for us to see how well we have internalized the music. Kind of a strange way for Sandra to hear the piece for the first time, but for the players a very informative experience. Space Zombies! From Outer Space! was also an interesting challenge without Travis holding down the middle.
On to set creation. From the weekend, we had already decided the musical content of the crossover from the Kids Circle to the TTA team. Chris laid out the plan he had in mind. Some suggestions and a bit of tweakage and we had a working set. We ran it for time (allowing some estimates for the selections from the Hat). The form an flow of the set seemed pretty good, but it ran a bit long. We looked at what could be dropped, and that inspired a little re-orging as well, and in the end we had a set that will work well in the shorter format: still complete, and without any kind of compromise, but running at a length that will not overtax the good will of an audience that will very likely include a number young people out on a school night; and their parents.
Monday June 7, 2010 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Travis had a scheduling conflict (the nature of which was the source of much humor throughout the evening), so we were eight in the circle tonight. Sandra Bain Cushman, in town for a week of fun with Alexander Technique, was in attendance as well (until her east coast time orientation caught up with her about halfway through the rehearsal).
Twofold task for the evening… to sketch out a slightly shorter set than usual for Thursday night’s show with the Kids Circle, and to ensure that The Children’s Hour is presentable and ready for primetime.
The Children’s Hour was up first. Ran it cold, to test our true command of the piece first… in performance there is no warm-up or practice run. Quite good. The work we did on Saturday was evident, and there were no snags that we could not maneuver around. The difficult bits, particularly transitions, remain difficult, but no longer daunting. We engaged the metronome and got down to work. There was one short section where I was not hearing the melody clearly. It involves Jaxie and Chris playing lines that are partly unison and partly contrapuntal, and joining them into a single statement. A little work, a little analysis, and a little more work, and the passage was transformed. A few other details addressed, and the piece was declared ready, and to be included in Thursday’s set. We played it a couple times again in the evening, once as part of the set run through and again at the end of the night with us on our feet as we will be at the gig.
A Day In The Life was next. Travis plays the rhythm guitar part on this, and it is very much the skeleton on which the rest of the parts hang, so this was an opportunity for us to see how well we have internalized the music. Kind of a strange way for Sandra to hear the piece for the first time, but for the players a very informative experience. Space Zombies! From Outer Space! was also an interesting challenge without Travis holding down the middle.
On to set creation. From the weekend, we had already decided the musical content of the crossover from the Kids Circle to the TTA team. Chris laid out the plan he had in mind. Some suggestions and a bit of tweakage and we had a working set. We ran it for time (allowing some estimates for the selections from the Hat). The form an flow of the set seemed pretty good, but it ran a bit long. We looked at what could be dropped, and that inspired a little re-orging as well, and in the end we had a set that will work well in the shorter format: still complete, and without any kind of compromise, but running at a length that will not overtax the good will of an audience that will very likely include a number young people out on a school night; and their parents.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Monthly Open Circle, Company Meeting and Performance Team Rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday June 5, 2010 – Monthly Open Circle, Company Meeting and Performance Team Rehearsal
Thirteen in the Open Circle this morning, plus me on my feet and Frank working the periphery. One first-timer, who plugged into the way the circle works very quickly. A number of regular Open Circlers, the House Team, but only three players from the Performance Team. With the experiential center of gravity at the beginner/intermediate level, this shifted to a more standard beginner’s circle, working on basic circulation skills. This struck me as something of a missed opportunity, as the circle felt as though it was perpetually right on the edge of really going somewhere, but never quite had the momentum to make the leap. A few more experienced players would have made a big difference.
Nevertheless, very good work. For the first half we worked with basic “any note of your choice” circulation exercises as well as some circulated scale/arpeggio work. For the second half it felt to me as though something a little more musical was called for, so I divided the circle into 2 halves, and we developed a simple form in which one group would play a gentle pulsing rhythmic form on a basic chord while the other group improvised in circulation. Roles reversed every 8 bars. This really began to get going after a while. Toward the end, several of the more experienced players had, and responded to, the impulse to get on their feet. Everyone followed their lead, and the thing really came alive. It was clear from the final “any note of your choice” circulation that there had been forward progress in our 2 hours together.
Back to my place for the Performance Team rehearsal, which began with a short (but not as short as I had originally envisioned) full company meeting to get the full team up to speed on how the Thursday show with the Kids Circle is going to go. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we met outside in the back yard. That may help to explain why the meeting went long – no one wanted to leave. I laid out the general framework of the show, pointed out a number of the challenges, and together we hammered out the details. Quite a few insights and inspirations from the team that were vast improvements over my original conception, and so by the end of the meeting we had crafted a far superior performance. Left the meeting feeling energized and enthusiastic.
Short Performance Team rehearsal inside at my place. Most of our work on The Children’s Hour, as the (absent due to work obligations) Music Director had made it pretty unambiguous that he would like to have it available for Thursday. A Day In The Life, Space Zombies! From Outer Space!, and 49 Notes also received a bit of attention.
Saturday June 5, 2010 – Monthly Open Circle, Company Meeting and Performance Team Rehearsal
Thirteen in the Open Circle this morning, plus me on my feet and Frank working the periphery. One first-timer, who plugged into the way the circle works very quickly. A number of regular Open Circlers, the House Team, but only three players from the Performance Team. With the experiential center of gravity at the beginner/intermediate level, this shifted to a more standard beginner’s circle, working on basic circulation skills. This struck me as something of a missed opportunity, as the circle felt as though it was perpetually right on the edge of really going somewhere, but never quite had the momentum to make the leap. A few more experienced players would have made a big difference.
Nevertheless, very good work. For the first half we worked with basic “any note of your choice” circulation exercises as well as some circulated scale/arpeggio work. For the second half it felt to me as though something a little more musical was called for, so I divided the circle into 2 halves, and we developed a simple form in which one group would play a gentle pulsing rhythmic form on a basic chord while the other group improvised in circulation. Roles reversed every 8 bars. This really began to get going after a while. Toward the end, several of the more experienced players had, and responded to, the impulse to get on their feet. Everyone followed their lead, and the thing really came alive. It was clear from the final “any note of your choice” circulation that there had been forward progress in our 2 hours together.
Back to my place for the Performance Team rehearsal, which began with a short (but not as short as I had originally envisioned) full company meeting to get the full team up to speed on how the Thursday show with the Kids Circle is going to go. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we met outside in the back yard. That may help to explain why the meeting went long – no one wanted to leave. I laid out the general framework of the show, pointed out a number of the challenges, and together we hammered out the details. Quite a few insights and inspirations from the team that were vast improvements over my original conception, and so by the end of the meeting we had crafted a far superior performance. Left the meeting feeling energized and enthusiastic.
Short Performance Team rehearsal inside at my place. Most of our work on The Children’s Hour, as the (absent due to work obligations) Music Director had made it pretty unambiguous that he would like to have it available for Thursday. A Day In The Life, Space Zombies! From Outer Space!, and 49 Notes also received a bit of attention.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuning the Air #181
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday June 3, 2010 – Tuning the Air #181
The setlist:
Thursday June 3, 2010 – Tuning the Air #181
The setlist:
Joel Palmer – C Harmonic Minor
Ringing in C Harmonic Minor
Voices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
My Precious Dream
Spontaneous Composition in F Major
From the Hat:
On Mars We Play Like ThisPipeline
49 Notes
Address the Audience – Travis
Circulating through the audience
Sigh and a Kiss
A Day In The Life
From the Hat:Encore:
Journey To The Unknown
Ikada-Jima
Circulation in G Major
Eye of the Needle
Horn Up Your Ass – acoustic, for Meleah’s birthday
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! – acoustic
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