Performance Team Rehearsal

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday January 17, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

The plan for this season (subject to the necessary) is to use our Saturdays for full company circles and improv work, and Mondays for repertoire-focused rehearsal. This was the first opportunity for the newly expanded performance team to sit down and work together. Unfortunately Jaxie was down with a fever, but with Bob running upstairs from time to time to check on her and to deliver bowls of soup, her presence was in the circle. Chris came with a new seating arrangement in mind, not only incorporating the new players, but shaking up things for the others as well. Purely coincidentally (or so Chris claims), the 2 married couples in the group are now sitting together. Some humorous musings about whether or not this is wise. As we worked through the current repertoire, we made notes about what might require reorchestration for this seating arrangement. We also looked at the parts will need to be reassigned in light of Ian’s absence. We played everything we could. As is typical for the first rehearsal, some pretty stupendous train wrecks; all taken with good humor, at least this week; next week it won’t be quite so funny. Carl and Greg largely sat out, observing and listening, and making note of places where they might be able to contribute. They are not asked to jump in and learn a lot of repertoire at this stage, but rather to focus on circulation and the improvs, and to take on repertoire only as and when it calls to them.

Some discussion of our observations from the improv work we did on Saturday. Chris asked me to re-present one of the Chick Corea pieces. I presented the basics of Children’s Song. It is a very simple (not to be confused with “easy”) piano piece, consisting of an ostinato left hand and a lovely melody in the right hand. As I envision it for guitars, each hand is actually arranged for 2 players. But for tonight I simply taught everyone both hands as single parts so that we could quickly get a grasp on the sound, feel and form.

Chris also proposed the return of the Shostakovich prelude to the performance repertoire. This certainly got me enthusiastic, and we took a look at how best to arrange it for the current team and the new arrangement of players in the circle. Carl and Greg will join Travis and myself on the left hand part. The other six will take on the circulated right hand. In the earlier arrangement, we circulated the melody around a 6-pointed star formation. Inside the circle, this was a stunning auditory experience. But the new seating arrangement does not support this geometry. Chris asked me to consider an arrangement for this group, and one immediately presented itself. We just took on the first bar and repeated it in order to test the feasibility of the scheme. I took Jaxie’s seat for this, and it seemed a practical solution that still takes advantage of the 3-dimensionality of the performance; more of an arrow than a star. I got Carl to take Jaxie’s seat so that I could sit in the middle of the circle and hear the movement, which I found very satisfying. Taking Chris’ seat, he sat in the middle and listened as well, approving the plan. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this to come together. Except for Mary Beth, everyone circulating the melody has done it before. Unfortunately, or maybe not, only Lucky Howard is going to be playing a part he has performed before. We shall see.

Scores will be flying around the team as we get back up to speed on our known parts and dive into the new parts. Opening night is only 3 weeks away!