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Grandview At Las Vegas
[triennial - points]
I am signed up as a substitute extra player with an extremely good church-based brass ensemble that's putting on a concert (in church, but not at a church service) on October 14. One of the tunes, Salvation Is Created (by Pavel Tchesnokov, 1877-1944), gets me choked up whenever I hear it -- to the point that my throat narrows & it's hard to keep on playing. It had that effect even before I selected it as music for my mother's funeral 25 years ago. I suppose that's why I selected it. The combination of the music's beauty & its association with remembrance of my mother packs a powerful emotional wallop. I expect, however, that rehearsals between now & October 14 will dimininsh the impact -- at least (I hope) to the point where my playing won't be affected.
Some years ago I was recruited to be part of a semi-professional brass ensemble to perform as part of a Christmas musical program at a small Capitol Hill church. The church choir sang some tunes, we played some tunes, but there were no tunes featurng voices & instruments together. That meant we never rehearsed together, & so I never heard the choir till their actual performances in between our brass numbers. It was just a little church so I was expecting no more than a so-so rinky-dink church choir -- & I was not prepared for what I was about to hear. They sang beautifully. And the music of the Christmas season has its own emotional effect on those of us brought up in that tradition. When the choir started singing the Austrian carol Still, Still Still, the music was extremely lovely & beautifully sung -- very much like the version recorded on a wonderful Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album. Tears started running down my face. I had to dry my eyes & get myself together pretty quick, because another brass number was coming up next, & I had to come in on a top-line F-sharp right at the start of the piece. (It was OK. I nailed the F-sharp. The rest of the program went fine, too.)
At that funeral service 25 years ago, the other music was equally powerful in emotional impact. Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem was extremely moving, performed by a young soloist whose rendition matches the finest commercial recordings I've heard of that music. (I've never heard that singer since. Wherever she is these days, I hope she's still singing.) BTW, Fauré's Pie Jesu could have been the model or the inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu from Webber's Requiem. Both are lovely & moving, though Fauré's might be a bit more delicate & ethereal, I don't know.
Mother's other funeral piece was the magnificent funeral hymn by Ralph Vaughan Williams, For All The Saints, sung by the full congregation with pipe organ.
It is a privilege to be part of the upcoming brass ensemble concert next month, which will feature some outstanding numbers including...
The only downside is that the scheduling is regrettably bad from our timeshare vacationing perspective (The Chief Of Staff's & mine, I mean). The performance was scheduled originally for last spring. If it had been played as scheduled, it would already be over & the calendar would be clear for us to go out of town next month for a nice timeshare vacation -- before the timeshare points we've been saving dry up & blow away, as they're about to do. The concert postponement happened after a couple of players (including me) had to miss an important rehearsal. That rehearsal was shaky enough, I'm told, that the music director got cold feet & put the whole thing off till fall, so we'd have more rehearsal time. To the extent that my not being there contributed to delaying the concert, I have only myself to blame. The Chief Of Staff deserves yet another Oak Leaf Cluster for her previously earned Good Sport Award. So it goes.
Meanwhile, music -- sung, heard, played, whistled, hummed, remembered -- is specially enriching to the human experience, whether the tunes are fast or slow, happy or sad, loud or soft, frivolous or profound, juke joint or Carnegie Hall. As Duke Ellington said of music in all its various kinds & styles, If It Sounds Good It Is Good. At my advanced age, I'm grateful my ears still work well enough to hear the music, & that my geriatric face remains pliable enough so that I can still pucker up & blow.
Some years ago I was recruited to be part of a semi-professional brass ensemble to perform as part of a Christmas musical program at a small Capitol Hill church. The church choir sang some tunes, we played some tunes, but there were no tunes featurng voices & instruments together. That meant we never rehearsed together, & so I never heard the choir till their actual performances in between our brass numbers. It was just a little church so I was expecting no more than a so-so rinky-dink church choir -- & I was not prepared for what I was about to hear. They sang beautifully. And the music of the Christmas season has its own emotional effect on those of us brought up in that tradition. When the choir started singing the Austrian carol Still, Still Still, the music was extremely lovely & beautifully sung -- very much like the version recorded on a wonderful Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album. Tears started running down my face. I had to dry my eyes & get myself together pretty quick, because another brass number was coming up next, & I had to come in on a top-line F-sharp right at the start of the piece. (It was OK. I nailed the F-sharp. The rest of the program went fine, too.)
At that funeral service 25 years ago, the other music was equally powerful in emotional impact. Pie Jesu from the Fauré Requiem was extremely moving, performed by a young soloist whose rendition matches the finest commercial recordings I've heard of that music. (I've never heard that singer since. Wherever she is these days, I hope she's still singing.) BTW, Fauré's Pie Jesu could have been the model or the inspiration for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu from Webber's Requiem. Both are lovely & moving, though Fauré's might be a bit more delicate & ethereal, I don't know.
Mother's other funeral piece was the magnificent funeral hymn by Ralph Vaughan Williams, For All The Saints, sung by the full congregation with pipe organ.
It is a privilege to be part of the upcoming brass ensemble concert next month, which will feature some outstanding numbers including...
Millenium Fanfare (Kevin Kaska)
How Firm a Foundation (Dwight Gustafson)
Suite for Two Horns & Orchestra (Georg Philipp Telemann)
Salvation is Created (Pavel Tschesnokoff)
Declamation On A Hymn Tune (Jack Stamp)
Adagio (Samuel Barber)
Symphony In Brass (Eric Ewazen)
The Great Gate At Kiev (Modeste Mussorgsky)
Be Still my Soul (based on "Finlandia")
How Firm a Foundation (Dwight Gustafson)
Suite for Two Horns & Orchestra (Georg Philipp Telemann)
Salvation is Created (Pavel Tschesnokoff)
Declamation On A Hymn Tune (Jack Stamp)
Adagio (Samuel Barber)
Symphony In Brass (Eric Ewazen)
The Great Gate At Kiev (Modeste Mussorgsky)
Be Still my Soul (based on "Finlandia")
The only downside is that the scheduling is regrettably bad from our timeshare vacationing perspective (The Chief Of Staff's & mine, I mean). The performance was scheduled originally for last spring. If it had been played as scheduled, it would already be over & the calendar would be clear for us to go out of town next month for a nice timeshare vacation -- before the timeshare points we've been saving dry up & blow away, as they're about to do. The concert postponement happened after a couple of players (including me) had to miss an important rehearsal. That rehearsal was shaky enough, I'm told, that the music director got cold feet & put the whole thing off till fall, so we'd have more rehearsal time. To the extent that my not being there contributed to delaying the concert, I have only myself to blame. The Chief Of Staff deserves yet another Oak Leaf Cluster for her previously earned Good Sport Award. So it goes.
Meanwhile, music -- sung, heard, played, whistled, hummed, remembered -- is specially enriching to the human experience, whether the tunes are fast or slow, happy or sad, loud or soft, frivolous or profound, juke joint or Carnegie Hall. As Duke Ellington said of music in all its various kinds & styles, If It Sounds Good It Is Good. At my advanced age, I'm grateful my ears still work well enough to hear the music, & that my geriatric face remains pliable enough so that I can still pucker up & blow.
-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
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Here a few more from Les Miz: "Do You Hear the People Sing?", "Bring Him Home," "On My Own/ A Little Fall of Rain." And then, from Dumbo, "Baby Mine."
