Performance team rehearsal

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday, September 29, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Chris, Jaxie, Travis and I met about 30 minutes before rehearsal in order to begin working out logistics for next month’s Tuning the Air Retreat. We’ll be heading out for a week of working together with another circle, comparing what we’ve learned from our experiences with our ongoing performance projects, sharing repertoire, and perhaps coming up something new.

The team arrived, and we switched to rehearsal mode. Our big challenge for the week was to come prepared with the entire B Minor Prelude.

Taylor called to say he was stuck in traffic on the bridge, so we began by taking the next steps on “Fallout”. Travis, Jaxie and Bob moved to the other room for section work on the new melody, while the rest of us ran the form at tempo with the metronome, tightening up parts and cleaning up transitions. Taylor arrived and joined us. The other three rejoined the group, and we went through the piece section by section, for the first time with all of the parts in place. Several times through with the metronome, with bits of detail work in between. The piece is up and running.

On to Bach! We just jumped in (sans metronome) to see what would happen. The opening section which we had worked on at length last week, went remarkably smoothly. The new material faltered, but nevertheless it was encouraging. Several passes, each time managing to go off the rails. Once or twice we managed to limp to the end. Chris suggested we go back to the woodshed, working individually to gain command of the parts, and make sure we play it at each rehearsal until it is ready to be unveiled.

“Slow Burn” was the other major item on the table for the evening. The two parts in need of attention were the intro and the cascades in the middle section. The piece had emerged at the very end of last season, and Bill was sitting in for the injured Travis at that time. He had been instrumental in the Intro, so it was something we needed to re-write/arrange. Chris got his part going, and Travis found the necessary counterpart. Bob and Carl took a few minutes to recreate their “fairy finger” parts, and in rather short order the intro came together. For the cascades, we began with the metronome down about 10bpm from performance tempo, and simply drilled the section. After a few passes, the tempo was notched up. A few more passes and we were up to performance tempo. Several full passes on the piece. The intro began to gain life. The middle section was generally journeyman-like, but functional.

We ran each of the remaining full-group pieces, with the metronome at tempo. Notes made about details to be addressed, but we didn’t stop to work on anything.

Next, Saturday at Fremont Abbey.