Sorry about that whole not-writing-blog-posts-out-of-laziness thing. I'll work on that. Eventually.
Well....yeah. Regionals. That totally happened. But I'll start from the beginning.
I got my music in July (ridiculous, I know) and I looked at it and my first reaction was "Awesome. More Beethoven." and let's be honest, when you're a senior who is already busy with a million other things which aren't all that important (a cross country road trip being one of them, if we're talking about July (side note: if you are a string player or you are past Lauren looking at this blog post from a time machine DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO ON A CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP FOR A MONTH AND DON'T PRACTICE WHEN YOU GET BACK BECAUSE YOU APPARENTLY THINK THAT'S OKAY BECAUSE ITS NOT OKAY) (The other day I got a point taken off of an essay I wrote because I do my parenthesis like this. So I apologize if you're reading this, Mrs. Brimhall)). But really, I honestly had just about zero motivation to work at my regionals stuff. I had already not made it twice, and that is completely and totally maddening, like knowing you got a math problem wrong by putting the decimal point in the wrong space, and you want to go back and fix it but you can't. So I chugged along and worked at the music and had it learned by around late November. And by learned I mean I could play through it, but it had no emotion and I sounded like a robot, or maybe a cello off of garageband. But I felt absolutely no desire to fix it. Which is weird, because usually around November the all-out panic and practice like crazy stage happens for me. But instead of doing what I usually do, I put it away. Seriously. For, like, a month and a half. Looking back I regret this decision a little bit, but apparently that method worked out pretty well for me, because I got back from break and whipped those excerpts back out and actually WANTED to work on them.
So I drilled those excerpts and pulled them apart and put them back together again piece by piece (any of my classical musician friends will get what I'm talking about (thank GOODNESS for metronomes)). And all this while working my new job as a receptionist at the offices at SanTan Mall everyday after school. And also while learning a quartet piece (and practicing until 9 pm some nights with my group) and also learning/memorizing the solo part to ThePianoGuy's "Nearer My God to Thee" for solo and ensemble festival. Let me repeat, January 2013 WAS RIDICULOUS.
But anyway, the last weekend of January rolled around, and I got up around 8 am on Saturday to get ready for my audition. It was raining (which is ALWAYS a good sign (wait, nope)) and I threw on my concert black and got out the door and on the road to Highland High School in Gilbert. I auditioned, and honestly, I felt pretty "eh" about the whole thing. I mean, I didnt bomb it. That I was positive of. But I was proud of myself, and relieved, and went on to play in my ensembles and hang out with my friends and have a good time.
So then it felt like night happened way too quickly and I found myself watching Spirited Away (uhhh yeah. I got talked into that.) and obsessively checking my iPod to see if that email announcing the results had come yet and WHY DON'T I HAVE ANY NEW EMAILS ITS ALREADY 730 COME ON MRS PAYNE IM DYING HERE IF MY LIFE WERE A BOOK THIS WOULD BE THE SUSPENSFUL PEAK OF THE BOOK LETS SEE IF THIS IS A SAD BOOK OR A HAPPY BOOK MRS PAYNE SERIOUSLY ITS 732 PICK UP THE PACE I MUST KNOW and this is what resulted in my iPod being confiscated by a concerned friend (thanks, Sam) and me trying to focus on/ enjoy Spirited Away. Two or three eternities later I was finally given back my iPod and there was a new email from Mrs. Payne. I checked it and let's just say I got pretty emotional:
My first reaction was some unintelligible babbling. Wait, nope, I'm pretty sure my first reaction was crying, which, for poor Sam and Ryan was probably a thought process along the lines of "Oh my gosh she's crying uh oh this is bad um sorry lauren it's all good atleast you're a good person STOP CRYING". So after the initial awkward we all celebrated and I think I emailed Mrs. Payne multiple times saying "Are you SERIOUS?! Seriously though."
Anyway, the next Monday I got my music, and, to my surprise, I got to play one of my favorite classical songs of all time, suite 2 from L'Arlesienne by Bizet, and the overture from La Forza Del Destino by Verdi (the fact that the title was "The Force of Destiny" worried me a bit, and when I listened to the recording and read the conductor's notes ("this music flies!") I found out I had reason to be concerned). Anyway, I practiced and went to regional rehearsal, which is always fun. There's something cool about being in a room of kids who love music as much as you do, and it kind of bonds you all. Even though you didn't know eachother the week before, you all become this tight knit group and end up laughing and crying together and whatnot, and, the more I think of it the weirder this sounds. So I'll move on.
There are two rehearsals for regional orchestra- one all day Friday (an excuse to miss school- yesss!) and one on Saturday from about 9 am till 2:30, which is when the concert is held. That means that in about 11 hours you have to pull together two legit pieces of classical music and sound somewhat acceptable. And somehow, it happens. And rather quickly. And that is all fine and dandy, and a really cool experience, but my favorite part is ALWAYS the performance itself. There is something (sorry in advance for the cheese) magical about what happens on stage during a symphony performance. Listening to a symphony while on stage is an entirely different experience than sitting out in the audience. In the audience, you DO hear a lot of the music. You hear the cresendos and the crazy runs in the violins and the flute solo and you see the conductor cueing and being entertaining, and the section leaders leading and all that. But, on stage, you see all that and FEEL what's happening in addition. I could feel the rumble of the basses notes as they traveled through my cello to where where my cello was resting on my chest. I could feel the timpani in the soles of my feet (another weird (and poignant) part of playing in a symphony is that you can't really hear yourself play- just the group as a whole and the entire puzzle with all the pieces in place). And, besides physically feeling the music more than you wuld as a spectator, you feel it more emotionally on stage as well. I teared up a couple times on that stage during my regionals performance, mostly out of pride for my fellow musicians and friends I had made over the course of two days. When the first violins nail a tricky run in a song, you can feel the rest of the sections sigh in relief. When the orchestra as a whole finally gets a part together and cresendos and ends together, it's such a weird feeling of raw happiness and I can't really describe it, there's really nothing like it. As cool as it is to listen to a symphony perform, it's even cooler to be up there among it's members.
And, since I don't have a better closing paragraph thought up, a quote I found that I think sums up things pretty darn well:
“Singers and Musicians are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime[...] Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every note, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life – the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because musicians and singers are willing to give their entire lives to a moment – to that melody, that lyric, that chord, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Singers and Musicians are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.”
- David Ackert, LA Times
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La Forza Del Destino:
http://youtu.be/GHk1RmPzA5E
(my favorite part is at 3:57 :)
L'Arlesienne:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7YfUCAaFEE
(Farandole is my favorite movement.)
