Opening meeting and first rehearsal for Season Twelve

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, August 22, 2011 – Opening meeting and first rehearsal for Season Twelve

The performance team met to rehearse at Bob and Jaxie’s this evening. In addition to the 9 guitarists who will be performing in the circle weekly, oboist Darlene Franz who will sit in on as many performances as her schedule will allow was there. Also our resident Ears, Bill R, was present.

Bill opened the meeting with a surprise, a recipe he has been working with for a traditional “Salad”. That, and the necessary accompanying libation, made it an unusual rehearsal to be sure.

Chris opened with the rehearsal schedule for the preseason, and some discussion about who will be out when, and some of the variables for Tech rehearsals depending on when the Abbey is available. His plan is to do all new material this season, and he had asked us to come prepared with compositions, arrangements, and suggestions for new pieces to be considered. We went around the room and shared what we had brought with us. About 20 pieces were put on the table.

After a short break, we reconvened with guitars and oboes, and looked at the state of the pieces under consideration. Several are existing “small group” pieces that are substantially up and running, and the only question is whether or not they will be expanded to include more players. Others are still very much on the drawing board, and only some examples of parts or sections could be demonstrated. Still others are more or less ready to go, but would have involved a fair amount of learning to get up in the group, and will be allowed to emerge within the rehearsal process. All pieces are in the audition stage, and it will be several weeks before we begin to make decisions about them. Bob has a circulated arrangement of a Bach Fugue that we learned and ran several bars of, as a kind of “proof of concept”; very energizing.

The first rehearsal is always a bit daunting, as the work ahead of us looms large and seems insurmountable. This first rehearsal was no exception. Nearly seven years of experience assures us that we will get it done and we WILL be ready. But at this stage it is always a bit difficult to imagine how.