From everything we have learned, the temperature is holding or rising through the evening, and it will be above freezing even after 10:00 pm. I polled the Board, who felt that it was better to have the rehearsal and simply go ahead without those who cannot attend, and so we are going to go ahead with rehearsal. We cannot foresee a way to reschedule the rehearsal, and we simply need the time.

If you are comfortable driving, please do come to rehearsal. Consider car pooling if you are uncomfortable driving. If you are absolutely uncomfortable and cannot come, please contact me by email or send a message with a friend who is attending.

Make intelligent decisions for your specific situation, please. Contact us if you decide that you cannot attend.

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.