Another evening well spent

[jwgh]

A college friend of mine (who lives near DC now) has a girlfriend who is in the the United States Army Field Band. She was on tour when I visited Maryland recently, so he suggested that she and I should try to meet up while she was in New England. (I was also given some crossword puzzles to deliver to her. Apparently when you're on a tour bus for four weeks you go through a lot of crosswords.) After some email back and forth today was the day we settled on.

So first I saw one of their concerts in Westerly, Rhode Island. It was pretty fun. (I have a weakness for John Philip Sousa, which always helps at these sorts of events.) I only wanted to throttle two of the people sitting around me (a couple who kept giggling and making hats out of their programs), and they left at intermission, so that was all right. A few of the things they played were:

- Jack Tar - the evening's first John Philip Sousa piece. I think that this must have been edited down substantially as it was very short and didn't seem to follow the usual form for JPS pieces (theme, restatement of theme, second theme ...)

- Equus - An Eric Whitacre piece. The gentleman who introduced it said that the composer wanted to write a piece of music which never stopped going, like the horse that inspired it. This confused me. Anyway, I quite liked the piece, although my friend's girlfriend was less enthusiastic.

- "Largo al factotum" from Il Barbiere di Siviglia - This got a standing ovation.

- A Paul Simon Songbook - a medley of Paul Simon songs performed by chorus and orchestra! Some bits of it were pretty good. A lot of it I didn't quite see the point of. The audience liked it, although not as much as the bit from The Barber of Seville.

- Salsa Montunate from Sonata Latino - This was pretty good and had about a million false endings. ('Ha ha, fooled you again!')

- Armed Forces Salute - As they played each branch of the Armed Service's theme song, veterans in the audience from that branch stood. It was quite nice.

Then they did The Stars and Stripes Forever, and then a few encores that I mostly don't remember, except that the last song they did was a Dixieland version of When The Saints Go Marching In that I quite liked.

Afterwards I got directions to the hotel they were staying at and met with my friend's girlfriend for dinner. I had been instructed to bring embarrassing stories about him, but sadly I couldn't remember too much. (Well, maybe one or two things.)

It was nice to meet and chat with her -- hopefully I will get to see both of them the next time I'm down near DC.

Comments

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

Sadly I am soured on JPS. In high school played clarinet, which wasn't too bad, but my poor sister got a raw deal on JPS pieces because most JPS compositions have really, really boring parts for French Horn. And lots of waiting and counting measures. ARGH!

Fortunately for her, she went on to conservatory and professional orchestras with interesting repetoires. That's a plural, orchestras, as one must typically sub in for others (and wait for Mahler and Strauss pieces, which need many more Horns than usual) until a ripe old age. The people with health benefits and full-time positions in American symphonies are old, very very lucky, very very very very very talented, or blessed with nepotistic connections. She played in a Mexican orchestra with health benefits and full-time work, though. Those jobs are a tiny bit easier to get, although apparently the number of French Horn players competing for just one seat is still very high.

Oops. Sorry, long tangent. What instrument dos your friend's girlfriend play?

I never wanted to play The Stars and Stripes Forever ever again after all those endless sweaty hot summers marching around and going to games and competitions and having to play it again, and again, and again, and again. Please, no! Wind symphony and La Forza Del Destino were much more fun.

People who make hats out of their programs ought to leave at intermission. Rude.

[jwgh]

What instrument does your friend's girlfriend play?

She sings alto. A lot of the songs were instrumental or only had vocal parts at selected intervals, so there was a lot of hanging around not singing for the chorus.

Their big featured number was, of course, the Paul Simon medley.

She told me afterwards that they have four programs (because if they went on tour for four months and did the same program every night they would go insane). So there are four numbers in their repetoire that feature the chorus: the Paul Simon medly, the Billy Joel medley, and ... hmm, I forget the other two.