I’ll be watching the weather reports closely as the day proceeds. Currently, the forecast for Pelham, NY calls for light snow/wintry mix from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, then rain throughout the evening. Temperatures through the evening are forecast to stay above freezing, 35-36°. I will communicate with all Board members this afternoon just to be sure, but we should be able to have rehearsal tonight.

Please watch your email this afternoon. I’ll send another post message at 5:00 pm to confirm our arrangements for tonight. I’ll also post the final announcement on Facebook (Westchester Symphonic Winds) and Twitter (@CurtEbersole, @WSWinds) at the same time.

Important!

in an effort to improve our performance of Posy, I’ve decided to make several subtle changes in the grouping of some of the asymmetrical measures in the third & fifth movements. None of them change the beat within the measure, but does change the grouping of the measures into some super-measures. In each case, I’m grouping one 3/8 measure with the measure before or after it to create a pattern of three beats. This avoids the awkward gesture of a single compound beat of 3/8. Once you take a look at the notes below, this will make sense.

Please also see the changes regarding the grace notes in movement 2. Please mark all these changes in your parts before Monday. I’ll be happy to answer questions at rehearsal, but I cannot take the time to go over all this one note at a time.

II – Horkstow Grange

• M.10, 33, & 37- Melody, please return the grace note to before the beat, but make it as late and quick as possible, so it sounds like an embellishment, not a melodic note.
• M.17 & 30 – 16th pickup in the melody must be geometrically correct (longer/sooner than we’ve been playing it) so we hear this melodic sixteenth pickup.

III – Rufford Park Poachers

• Group m.21-22 together as one measure of 3 beats, like an asymmetric 3/4 measure (short-short-long)
• Group m.27-28, 29-30, 32-33, 34-35, 36-37, and 54-55 the same way (short-short-long).
• This leaves only one “awkward” measure of 3/8, m.26, which will remain as one compound (long) beat.

V – Lord Melbourne

• Similarly, group m.3-4 as one measure of 3 beats, like an asymmetric 3/4 measure (short-long-long). Note this is different than the third movement.
• Group m.6-7 as one measure (short-short-long).
• Group m.15-16 and 20-21 as one measure (long-short-short)
• This leaves only one “awkward” measure of 3/8, m.29, which will remain as one compound (long) beat.

Thank you for marking these changes to expedite our rehearsal.

Winter Concert

Our preparation for the February 10 concert is quickly coming to a close. Click here for the low-res version of the poster (for emails and web), or high-res version for printing. Thank you all very, very much for a great rehearsal last Monday. We accomplished a lot with the Grainger, which was really necessary, and I believe Matt was also quite happy with the progress on the Smith. Thank you for your attentive and mindful rehearsal with Emily. Many of you commented about the energy of her rehearsal — it certainly was palpable. She wrote me earlier this week to say that she was very pleased, and really enjoyed working with you. You can imagine that her next rehearsal on January 28 will ask even more of you — so please be prepared.

I’ve updated the Rehearsal this Week page. Please check and be ready for this Monday’s rehearsal, with lots of work on the Hindemith, and some reinforcing work on Grainger III.

 Spring 2013

Looking ahead – our spring schedule includes our 25th anniversary gala concert, and two other events. Please plan accordingly. We are depending on everyone to be a part of these events.

• Wednesday, May 8 – “Side by Side” Concert, at Mahopac HS (part of the Putnam Arts Council 50th Anniversary celebration); late afternoon clinic rehearsal, early evening concert (scheduled this way to maintain a one-day schedule)
• Saturday, May 18 – Spring Concert and 25th Anniversary Gala Reception; 8:00 pm at TMH
• Friday, May 31 – Clinic rehearsal with Dr. Mallory Thompson (part of the MEBCI Wind Conducting Symposium); 7:00 pm call, clinic 7:30-9:00 pm at Northern Valley-Old Tappan

Feedback from “New Beginnings” Composers

I sent both Frank Gulino and Matthew Quayle the recordings of their works from our November concert. Here are their comments. Congratulations!

From Frank Gulino:

You did fantastic job preparing this group for a piece that, as you mentioned, is not easy.  The tempos are perfect, the style is perfect, and the character of the piece overall is precisely as I imagined at.  It’s not often that I’m able to say that, but in this case, you elicited every composerly intention from your group of brass players.

I was particularly impressed with the blend within each section.  The trumpet section sounded like a trumpet SECTION rather than just three trumpet players playing at the same time.  Ditto with the horn section, and the tubas as well.  Send the principal horn player my regards; he or she did a very nice job with that solo before the allegro.

The trombone section sounded its best during the softer chorale sections, and seemed to be the only players that sounded “uncontrolled” (for lack of a better word) at higher volumes.  It’s a tendency among trombonists (myself included) to play loud to the point of sounding uncontrolled, and we need to remind ourselves that playing as a section with good pitch and good articulations will go a long way to sounding big.  Again, the trumpets did that very well on the whole; their presence was always heard as a result of articulating together, playing with good pitch, and maintaining a good balance throughout the section.

Overall, fantastic preparation.  It really is uncanny how precisely this performance captured my intentions in terms of style and tempo.  Thanks again for programming the piece, and I think the group should be proud of the end product.

From Matthew Quayle:

Thank you so much for this recording. I’m so glad to have it. The ensemble sounds wonderful — absolutely lovely, expressive playing.  Please thank them for all of their work on the piece, especially during that difficult week.  And thank YOU!