ESJFHS Concert Band 2012

I know that I said that I'd post soon... BUT I GOT THE SUMMER JOB I WANTED!!!!!!  You probably have no idea what I'm talking about... I never did mention it on my blog... There was a lot of paper work involved and I have final exams starting this Friday.  You could say I been busy.  Also, I walked for 4 hours this weekend for relay for life!!!!  It's for an amazing cause, I highly recommend you all participate in at least one relay.  Help the fight against cancer!

I guess I ought to keep to some promises... I'm gonna talk about my concert from last month.  I'll start with concert band.

We started the concert with a powerful piece: Toccata.  It was a relatively easy piece Mr. P gave it to us a few months before the concert.  Unlike our other pieces, he wanted to conduct a lot of our entries rather than following the music - and it had a great effect.  Having just started the Baritone BC, I didn't have much of a hard time learning this piece.  It is simple, but powerful.

We received Tanglewood at the same time as Toccata.  It was also an easy piece, but I had a bit more difficulty learning to play this song.  It has a very fluid introduction with the woodwinds, then later the trumpets bring out a faster punchy (?) rhythm.  I had a bit more trouble with this part - more precisely, when the tenor sax and I had our soli in the middle (the midevil sounding part, let me try to dah this out: dah-- dah-- dah- da da da- dah-- dah--).  In the end, the song turned out really good.

Two years ago we did a piece called Music for a Darkened Theatre and Mr. P brought it back a few months ago so we could preform it for this concert.  It is one of my favourite arrangements to play: it has excerpts from Tales from the Crypt, Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissor Hands, Beetle Juice and Spiderman (the movie, not the original theme).  This arrangement is a tribute to Danny Elfman.  Having played this song before (on the Base Clarinet, a slightly different and better part - especially for the Beetle Juice part) I didn't have much trouble learning this part (however, the notes in both Edward Scissor Hands and Spiderman were crazily high above the scale).

Finally, there was Hounds of Spring.  I believe that it was a grade 3 song... maybe it was 2.5... No matter the grade, it was hard.  We had been working on this song since Christmas time.  I didn't even know it well enough on the Bari Sax when I was switched to the Baritone.  I learnt with lots of difficulty; many people who been playing their instruments for years were having trouble playing the song.  Also, another soli had me good (if I remember correctly it was at bar 38).  We (Tenor Sax and I) were playing behind the French Horn during her amazing solo (She is an amazing musician, she won one of the music awards this year.  Not just a regular award, but formally at the academic awards ceremony. Congratulation P@!&3!!!!)

Those were the Concert band songs.  I did mention the regular music awards, there was one for very member.  Because I don't want to post my name, I put my user name on the award.  Also, I wanted to protect Mr. P's privacy and I hid his signature.  THIS IS MY AWARD.  I DID NOT FIND IT ON-LINE!!!!!!