I apologize for not having blogged in a few days. The music has been hectic and is dictating my time these days. A quick synopsis of what is going on though. I have began work on a third polka for my quintet, "The Chicken Dance". No matter your opinion, every band must have a version of it to play. Kids love it, and I love it, so yeah, I'm a kid. I also have began work on "I Saw Three Ships". This is yet another challenging christmas carol due to its lack of substance. It was hard to come up with 4 part harmony, yet we're a 5 part ensemble. So I need to put the nose to the keyboard and come up with some interesting counter melody, maybe a descant of another christmas carol.
The problem of "I Saw Three Ships" was solved thanks to a little Jack n Coke. There is a British dance from about the same time period as this folk song called the Dargason. The Dargason is in 6/8 time and has identical chord progression to "I Saw Three Ships". Fellow band geeks would recognize the melody as the 6/8 melody from the Fantasia on Dargason, which is the final movement of both "Second Suite in F for Military Band" and "St Paul's Suite" by Gustav Holst. Holst loved to spread English folk melodies through his pieces, and since Holst was pivotal to the acceptance of Brass instruments in a classical setting, why not pay homage to his style by offsetting the traditional Christmas song with the Dargason melody.
So the subject line of this entry is referring to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. I have come into possession of "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here". Both albums are amazing. I've always liked "The Wall" with its storytelling of rebellion to English Society. The improvisational and composition skills of this group truly is mind blowing.
I have come into a rut with the brass quintet. We are all so busy and we have a gig coming up this weekend, that I am nervous about. I think we're all nervous about it, and its straining the group some I think. Its time for another group get together probably, to just try and chill. After this gig we need to immediately start work on the Christmas gig. I have a ton of new carols for the group to read through. It should be exciting. I think we all need to take a deep breath and realize this concert on the 14th isn't the best situation for us. We were hired only three weeks ago and asked to prepare a 45 minute set. Thats a good challenge! We'll hit it though and we'll have fun and that will reflect on the audience. Hopefully we'll get a good review.
Peace to my readers, and may your chords be major. I leave you with these words of wisdom: "We're starting at D, as in Don't Screw Up" - Dr E. Michael Richards
The problem of "I Saw Three Ships" was solved thanks to a little Jack n Coke. There is a British dance from about the same time period as this folk song called the Dargason. The Dargason is in 6/8 time and has identical chord progression to "I Saw Three Ships". Fellow band geeks would recognize the melody as the 6/8 melody from the Fantasia on Dargason, which is the final movement of both "Second Suite in F for Military Band" and "St Paul's Suite" by Gustav Holst. Holst loved to spread English folk melodies through his pieces, and since Holst was pivotal to the acceptance of Brass instruments in a classical setting, why not pay homage to his style by offsetting the traditional Christmas song with the Dargason melody.
So the subject line of this entry is referring to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. I have come into possession of "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here". Both albums are amazing. I've always liked "The Wall" with its storytelling of rebellion to English Society. The improvisational and composition skills of this group truly is mind blowing.
I have come into a rut with the brass quintet. We are all so busy and we have a gig coming up this weekend, that I am nervous about. I think we're all nervous about it, and its straining the group some I think. Its time for another group get together probably, to just try and chill. After this gig we need to immediately start work on the Christmas gig. I have a ton of new carols for the group to read through. It should be exciting. I think we all need to take a deep breath and realize this concert on the 14th isn't the best situation for us. We were hired only three weeks ago and asked to prepare a 45 minute set. Thats a good challenge! We'll hit it though and we'll have fun and that will reflect on the audience. Hopefully we'll get a good review.
Peace to my readers, and may your chords be major. I leave you with these words of wisdom: "We're starting at D, as in Don't Screw Up" - Dr E. Michael Richards
1 comment:
I *heart* Dr. E Mike.
And you can tell him I said that! :)
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