The word busy once again springs to mind as I contemplate the week's events. Various church services and concerts have arisen resulting in what can only be described as a chock-a-block timetable. Concert after concert, service after service; time to sit down and think has been a rarity. Nevertheless, I have a free moment and thought I could sit down and write about my life from my last post to this.
The city symphony orchestra a couple of weeks ago needed some last minute percussionists, and so being the thrill seeker I am - set out to do so. With only two short rehearsals, I and another emergency dep had to perfect our parts on only two hours practice. Intuition told us all we had to do was watch the conductor. This was rather difficult at times, as being on snare drum, in rehearsals, would try and match my tempo when actually I was trying to follow his. This resulted in what can only be called as a musical heap. Nevertheless, the concert ran smooth with only a couple of minor hiccups which we ironed out within a beat. At the end of the couple of hours long concert, at the point when the applause came round, we in the percussion section got a cheer. Not the polite applause that the rest of the orchestra received, but a well intentioned and warm cheer. I went home a content and happy man.
Today was largely spent in bed, after a bout of sickness last night - today was spent recuperating drinking tea and listening to choral music to rest my shattered nerves. The concert I performed in the night before (yet more concerts!) was a success. With over 200 singers and a 90 strong orchestra, organ and heavy percussion, we played through our repertoire with only a few minor hiccups. The applause after we had finished was monumental, but not before the beautiful minute silence after the final double bass notes had died away. The silence was so special and so moving we all held inner smiles which then broke out amoungst everyone when the applause had finished.
So many concerts in the past few weeks, and yet more to come. After missing advent vespers at church, I need to recover as soon as is humanly possible if I am to survive the concerts this coming week (another couple of orchestral concerts, jazz gig, various church services as well as going home and serving a church for the Christmas services). The life of the lonely artiste only gets busier and busier, time to crack on and learn the shed-load of music I will be piling through over the next few days and weeks. And my time starts .... now.
Sunday, the 9th of November, 2014
Tis the beginning of November. Out with the autumn and in with the winter. This years autumn has been particularly colourful this year, with all the trees in my neighbourhood reflecting the red and white bricked buildings. Now the end of the autumn has come, and so all the trees are bare perhaps bar the remaining surviving leaves, clinging on the trees by a limb. However, all the leaves lie freshly on the ground; walking to church on Sundays is particularly enjoyable, scuffing the brown, reds, yellows and golds in my shoes as they carpet the pavement. This sadly will only last a few more weeks, when the leaves rot away, leaving no colour on the trees or the city pavements - but that's where the Christmas lights come in. Over the past week, the city council has been putting up the Christmas lights in the city, adorning the streets with sparkling and bright rows of lights. Over ten thousand bulbs come out every year, and yet each time - it feels as if the city has been reborn.
Another busy week and and another busy schedule, for the third week in a row for the show that I am directing, my pianist and assistant have not turned up. This makes proceedings very difficult; my job is to take the performers beyond the notes and into the music, but seeing as I am limited to the job of playing the notes for them on the piano, means I cannot clearly bring them in and bring them off when they are needed to be so. Although I am more qualified to do the repetiteur job, my job now is Musical Direction, not playing the piano for the singers' references. Despite this, for the first time in a long while, I have had the time to actually sit down and put pen to paper in the form of music. However this is not my own composition, this in actual fact is my job of arranging the shows' orchestral parts to a much smaller ensemble, reducing the size of a normally 30+ players strong orchestra to a group of about 15. This is no mean feat, as there are at the very least 36 hours hours worth of parts to input into the computer in the first place; and then many painstaking hours to come as I re-write and re-organise the music from about 40 individual parts to about 11. In any case, as they say - the show must go on!
What is really quite frightening is the fact that Christmas is fast approaching. Firstly, there is the palaver of buying Christmas presents and cards, and then secondly the slog that is the Christmas haul - every church service conceivable essentially occurs on the few days that is the Christmas festival. This year again promises to be a busy year, with churches in my home village all demanding my services. As a fool or opportunist, I don't know - I accepted. Let the hard work and preparation begin!
Another busy week and and another busy schedule, for the third week in a row for the show that I am directing, my pianist and assistant have not turned up. This makes proceedings very difficult; my job is to take the performers beyond the notes and into the music, but seeing as I am limited to the job of playing the notes for them on the piano, means I cannot clearly bring them in and bring them off when they are needed to be so. Although I am more qualified to do the repetiteur job, my job now is Musical Direction, not playing the piano for the singers' references. Despite this, for the first time in a long while, I have had the time to actually sit down and put pen to paper in the form of music. However this is not my own composition, this in actual fact is my job of arranging the shows' orchestral parts to a much smaller ensemble, reducing the size of a normally 30+ players strong orchestra to a group of about 15. This is no mean feat, as there are at the very least 36 hours hours worth of parts to input into the computer in the first place; and then many painstaking hours to come as I re-write and re-organise the music from about 40 individual parts to about 11. In any case, as they say - the show must go on!
What is really quite frightening is the fact that Christmas is fast approaching. Firstly, there is the palaver of buying Christmas presents and cards, and then secondly the slog that is the Christmas haul - every church service conceivable essentially occurs on the few days that is the Christmas festival. This year again promises to be a busy year, with churches in my home village all demanding my services. As a fool or opportunist, I don't know - I accepted. Let the hard work and preparation begin!
Sunday, the 2nd of November, 2014
It has been an extremely long time since I have had the time and the place to be able to sit down and over analyse my life; for I have had a dark soul as of late. Various first world problems have occurred in the time that has elapsed between my last lengthy period of being able to stop and ponder on life's intricate yet ever growing more worryingly bigger - problems and inaccuracies which directly are the bane of our hopes dreams and yet ever fuel our deepest and darkest fears. In a nutshell, the past month has been, no less than hell. Not quite the burning inferno that scriptures speak of, I have struggled and fought off a rather infectious yet hacking flu, of which I must have caught off of one of the new university students who recently moved into the city. Alongside all the fresh faces of the newly enrolled student populous; a severe bout of flu and colds and coughs were rife throughout the city. I was not prone to this. For almost a month, I lived off of hot cups of tea - every quarter of an hour to supplement the moisture and hydration which was being expelled from my body through the medium of a rasping cough and torrential cold. The power and heating in my house has also decided to follow suit and pack its metaphorical bags off to the power company; as a result, if I didn't wear thermal socks and long-johns and a vest underneath woolly clothes - I would have easily caught pneumonia or hypothermia. I was born and raised in the country, which resulted in a slightly thicker skin than my city-dwelling friends; Despite this, I still half-froze to death in my house. You never realise the value of hot water when there is no way of obtaining heat anywhere else in the house you live in. Due to this, I spend at the least, fifty pounds worth of tea and milk and sugar over the past thirty days.
Recently, an acting company approached me to take up the post of Musical Director for their next production - of a comic opera/operetta. Opportunistic or foolish are the verbs you can choose to apply to me here, whichever works best for you. Either way, two nights a week, getting through the music for a song or chorus number, learnt and off-score, is no mean feat. The first few rehearsals however, the rehearsal pianist and my assistant failed to turn up. Nevertheless, leading from the piano, meant that I was in my comfort zone and powered through the music. Although we zoomed through a number or two per the session, we did not often go back and revise what we had learnt; even though the show was months away, as soon as the music is learnt, there is the small matter of the staging. Giving them only 5 mins break halfway through the rehearsal perhaps is very stingy, but it means we make use of the two and a half hours that we get two nights a week. At the end of each rehearsal, a couple gin and tonics are needed by everyone, maybe a little shattered, but I keep everyone busy resulting in a fun rehearsal. In the new year, I will need to sort out the small matter of getting together a chamber orchestra. It may need to be small, but I will need a good strong ensemble to underpin the madness which I am positive will erupt onstage. At the end result, I don't expect a sell out show, but the knowledge that we did a top quality production with a high musical standard - casting is next week, so getting the characters right is essential. Fingers crossed we power on like a train with no breaks - relentless and ever steaming forward relentlessly.
After my last adoration and infatuation of a lady, I was not in a rush to meet anybody new. I was always courteous but nothing more than cold and polite to everyone I have met and in my social circles. After the way I felt that my heart could not take any more pain, and so I bided my time for the pain and heart-ache to dissipate; and in any case, she found someone special in her life. A stable income, a nice house and a nice guy, and being the owner of a rather adorable Labrador to boot, her new partner was ideal for her and her situation. I supported her in any that I could as a friend; now we are the best of friends, because I knew this was where she was happiest most. Nothing was awkward, because we were adult about everything, and she knew that I had no ulterior motives other than to make sure she was doing the right thing for her and ensuing her happiness. In any case, we still meet up from time to time, drinking coffee and laughing about various anecdotes we tell each-other. However, in my low period a few weeks ago, whilst I was suffering from a bout of bad inner feelings and illness, I met a person. A fellow pianist, and a flautist, she too was new and exciting. We met in a bar, with some mutual friends of ours. After a few too many drinks, we hadn't really talked but yet we parted thinking nothing of it. Later a few days later, we crossed paths and exchanged telephone numbers and had lengthy conversations. It may be very early days yet, but we spend hours together but we provide such relief from each our own work. Taking the slow road here is the only option as I really want to get to know her really well before throwing myself in the deep end again. After having made a couple of "casual" inquiries, I discovered that she may, for the sake of coyness, she wouldn't say either way - feel the same way in the want to get to know me properly and really well. Things can only hopefully move forward from here - both of us has admitted to the moment we step into our own homes, hoping for a phone call from the other or an answerphone message, and checking hours later even if there has been no ringing.
In all, this has been a very eventful few weeks, illness, sadness, an opera which is still going on and me meeting this person. With the changing of autumn to winter, the boiler-man announced that he will come and fix my heating next week, so I can look forward to toasty evenings in. The only thing I would change about the last few weeks - more chocolate digestive biscuits.
With love from the (not so) Lonely Artiste.
Recently, an acting company approached me to take up the post of Musical Director for their next production - of a comic opera/operetta. Opportunistic or foolish are the verbs you can choose to apply to me here, whichever works best for you. Either way, two nights a week, getting through the music for a song or chorus number, learnt and off-score, is no mean feat. The first few rehearsals however, the rehearsal pianist and my assistant failed to turn up. Nevertheless, leading from the piano, meant that I was in my comfort zone and powered through the music. Although we zoomed through a number or two per the session, we did not often go back and revise what we had learnt; even though the show was months away, as soon as the music is learnt, there is the small matter of the staging. Giving them only 5 mins break halfway through the rehearsal perhaps is very stingy, but it means we make use of the two and a half hours that we get two nights a week. At the end of each rehearsal, a couple gin and tonics are needed by everyone, maybe a little shattered, but I keep everyone busy resulting in a fun rehearsal. In the new year, I will need to sort out the small matter of getting together a chamber orchestra. It may need to be small, but I will need a good strong ensemble to underpin the madness which I am positive will erupt onstage. At the end result, I don't expect a sell out show, but the knowledge that we did a top quality production with a high musical standard - casting is next week, so getting the characters right is essential. Fingers crossed we power on like a train with no breaks - relentless and ever steaming forward relentlessly.
After my last adoration and infatuation of a lady, I was not in a rush to meet anybody new. I was always courteous but nothing more than cold and polite to everyone I have met and in my social circles. After the way I felt that my heart could not take any more pain, and so I bided my time for the pain and heart-ache to dissipate; and in any case, she found someone special in her life. A stable income, a nice house and a nice guy, and being the owner of a rather adorable Labrador to boot, her new partner was ideal for her and her situation. I supported her in any that I could as a friend; now we are the best of friends, because I knew this was where she was happiest most. Nothing was awkward, because we were adult about everything, and she knew that I had no ulterior motives other than to make sure she was doing the right thing for her and ensuing her happiness. In any case, we still meet up from time to time, drinking coffee and laughing about various anecdotes we tell each-other. However, in my low period a few weeks ago, whilst I was suffering from a bout of bad inner feelings and illness, I met a person. A fellow pianist, and a flautist, she too was new and exciting. We met in a bar, with some mutual friends of ours. After a few too many drinks, we hadn't really talked but yet we parted thinking nothing of it. Later a few days later, we crossed paths and exchanged telephone numbers and had lengthy conversations. It may be very early days yet, but we spend hours together but we provide such relief from each our own work. Taking the slow road here is the only option as I really want to get to know her really well before throwing myself in the deep end again. After having made a couple of "casual" inquiries, I discovered that she may, for the sake of coyness, she wouldn't say either way - feel the same way in the want to get to know me properly and really well. Things can only hopefully move forward from here - both of us has admitted to the moment we step into our own homes, hoping for a phone call from the other or an answerphone message, and checking hours later even if there has been no ringing.
In all, this has been a very eventful few weeks, illness, sadness, an opera which is still going on and me meeting this person. With the changing of autumn to winter, the boiler-man announced that he will come and fix my heating next week, so I can look forward to toasty evenings in. The only thing I would change about the last few weeks - more chocolate digestive biscuits.
With love from the (not so) Lonely Artiste.
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