I've been trying my best to deal with a great deal of stress lately...more than I ever have before. And this is legitimate stress, too! I feel like my horn playing has been suffering. I have really low endurance and my high range is having a lot of trouble working. It hasn't felt like this since my early days of horn playing...it's really kind of scary right now. I am just hoping that it's something that will go away and I'll be back to my normal self again soon. I have a big concert this summer that I really need my high range for. This definitely isn't because I've been playing too much...on the contrary, I haven't been playing very much for the last couple of months. I just need to make sure that I get a good warm up in every day, and a good cool down, and to not push it too much if I'm tired.
I just finished a really great arrangement of the last movement of "The Pines of Rome" for brass choir. I've scored it for 6 trumpets, 4 horns, 4 trombones and 2 tubas, plus percussion and the 6 offstage buccine parts (2 trumpets, 2 horns & 2 trombones). I have hopes to play this at my brass camp this summer, but I'm just hoping we have the right players for it. This isn't going to be easy! But, with the right players, we could sound really good on this, and I know that everyone there is going to love it! I have such a great history with this piece...
What is that history, you ask? Well, when I was a high school senior I visited CWU in March. I remember hearing them perform on a Sunday, and they played Brahms 4. The next day they started a new program, and were playing Pines of Rome. I attended that rehearsal, only to find out they didn't have a 4th horn, so I got to do it. I played it that summer at a music camp, as well, that time on 1st horn. I also played it on 1st at CWU, which happened a year after the CWU Orchestra conductor, Nik Caoile, and I had played through the last movement together before a rehearsal once. I remember I had gotten to rehearsal early and played random orchestral excerpts (like I always did), and I was playing Pines that day. Dr. Caoile heard me doing that, grabbed his score from his office, and told me to start from the quiet horn calls in the 4th movement. We played it together all the way to the end. I like to think that I had an influence on him programing that piece the next year. And then, I played the last movement with the brass section of the Army Field Band at CWU when they visited the following year, I believe.
And now I hope to do it with my beloved students, and share my experiences and knowledge with this piece.
I still really want to get original writing in, but I just haven't done it yet...
Take care and value music.