He's so very quotable...

There is a HUGE wind outside, scattering juniper pollen far and wide, pissing off the birds (or, so I interpret their frantic cheeping.)  I wanted to go for a walk, but I think I should let things die down a bit.  Otherwise, it wears me out instead of energizing me. For instance, I walked with C up the hill two days ago and crashed immediately afterwards.  And I've never been able to nap in the middle of the day before.  So, I'm blaming the pollen.

I could take advantage of this time to practise, of course. The APO concert is this Friday, and the last two rehearsals have been very, very scary.  We have focused the rehearsal time on The Planets (by Gustav Holst), to the detriment of the Mozart and the Haydn horn concerto.  Now we have one rehearsal left, tomorrow.  Yesterday D, our conductor, kept saying, "We need to spend about twenty minutes on that movement....Let's go on, we'll look at it Wednesday."  I think we'll be there until midnight!

"It's about terror,"
He says.  Right, color me scared:
One more rehearsal.

I don't really like the Holst.  The "hymn" part of the Jupiter movement makes me think of The Big Valley. D says it's "noble," but I think it's banal.

On the other hand, it's fun to see all the special instruments:  a bass flute, curled around itself; a bass oboe, long and belled at the end:  a cross between an English horn and a bassoon; a bass clarinet, and a contra bassoon; two harps, two sets of timpani, a sampler and a xylophone.  (I'm getting the full meaning of the timpani, as we are squished up next to them.)

Despite the terror, I do enjoy this orchestra.  The musicians are mainly competent and kindly, and they seem to enjoy life.  D definitely does.  On St Patrick's day, he came dressed in green  plaid and commented that one of the movements in the Holst was a jig....how appropos he said.  On looking around, I observed that most of the musicians were also on board with the green theme.  The ginormous piccolo player came draped in shiny green velvet, with a tall shamrock-covered hat. The rest of us all had muted shades of green:  forest, pea, lime.  There was no true green to be seen, and, oddly enough, people who didn't wear green seemed to go for the negative of it:  purple.

So, I'm looking up through a sea of random green, checking out the tempi and thinking, "Normal people are out drinking green beer and throwing darts, not panicking about fitting in all the notes."  But musicians are not normal.  Who but a musician would spend sleepless nights, deciding whether to conduct in 1 or in 2?

In rehearsals, I find myself jotting down things D says because HE IS SO CUTE!~

"It should be between 147 and 152. Yes, shoot for 152 in practice. It's easier. Except for the triplets."
A violinist
Conductor is NORMALLY
A very good thing.

Notes from rehearsal...
Re: Dvorak
The maestro thinks its
Much more interesting when
We play together.

Re: Adams
He places each note
Precisely where he wants it.
It's an adventure.

Post-rehearsal....
A mild suggestion
To the strings: "Play together.
It'll be more fun."

I am quite puzzled
When I read "aargh" for "arco."
I need new glasses.

A haiku to understatement.....
"It's going to be
An adrenalin rush if
We don't know it cold."

(Rehearsed the Barber
Third movement at half tempo.
It is still scary.)

Ferocious triplets:
"See, it's what the people want."
If they only knew.

We play the trio...
"It's a mid afternoon sound."
Um, that's naptime, right?