71/2 Cents might not buy a heck of a lot, but it's enough for the UPS man to come

January 12, 2007 at 9:50 PM

Homework for Friday, January 12th, 2007
Write about the most exciting thing that happened to you this week.

Well, let's see. There's the essays, and the homework, and the projects, and the rehearsals, and the wakey-wakey-at-5-AMs. I for one, need my sleep.

I was on the verge of deeming the essay hopeless when IT happened. Yes. It couldn't be. But it was. YEAH MAN, 'twas the UPS truck pulling up to my driveway!

Call me crazy if you please. But I was really happy that the two books I ordered about science and math were in. (Did I mention that they're my least favorite subjects?)

I've read my fair share of books on violinists, but not nearly enough on how and the why of 'music'. So I took it to myself to order two books on the more behind-the-scene. Okay, call me crazy again. Math and Music? Science and Music? Why spend Sunday afternoon reading that instead of say, Agatha Christie? Well, for one thing, I love confusing people.(Refraction of sound and complicated curves anyone?) I also feel that learning how and why different pitches occur will help me a lot, both on the violin and in physics next year. ;) It's not easy reading, but I feel I can handle it. (Besides, maybe I'll understand Bill better when he gets ll Pythagoreanish.)

On other note, I'm playing violin for the school musical, The Pajama Game. It's my first musical and boy, do I have a lot of experience to gain! The first rehearsal was a lot of fun (but scary!), as the entire pit orchestra was trying to sightread the parts. My mouth must have dropped six inches when I first saw the music. The score is hand written (even though it is rented?) and there are at least three key changes on every page! The violin part is at least 100 pages long, though most of it reiterates earlier pages. The first question I asked when I saw the music was, "Where the heck is the key signature?" Apparently, the key signature (or time signature) is not loved, for it appears only when keys are changed... which is, about every four lines or so. When you forget how many sharps or flats there are, there's nowhere to check. Don't even mention cut time. It's hilarious when half the orchestra is playing twice as fast as the other half.

All the swingy and jazzy rhythms were also hard to get used to. ("Swing those notes." Me: What?) Some of the terms and notation were new to me. For example: I didn't know what a 'vamp' was! (This left my stand-partner in utter shock.)The single sentence spoken by my conductor described my shock well enough: "This is Broadway, and you're expecting Mozart!"

From Bilbo Prattle
Posted on January 12, 2007 at 10:31 PM

:-D

From Karin Lin
Posted on January 12, 2007 at 11:40 PM

Yeah, playing in a pit orchestra can be...the pits. It can also be a lot of fun. I don't know what the deal is with all the handwritten music either. Still, I played in the pit all four years in high school and loved it, especially when we did "The Sound of Music" instead of all the more swing/jazz type musicals that had awful violin parts. Have fun!

From Sydney M.
Posted on January 12, 2007 at 11:51 PM

Oh gosh... I didn't join pit this year, despite the band teacher's solicitation of it to me. It's every darn day after school for 2 hours!

From Jim W. Miller
Posted on January 12, 2007 at 11:50 PM

I thing swing means something in the middle of dotted and triplets. Vamp comes from the old days and means keep going awhile so the singer can shake off their heroin haze and stumble onto the stage.

From Mendy Smith
Posted on January 13, 2007 at 6:17 AM

My father used to teach many many years ago "Physics for Musicians" at a university in Texas (forgot which one). He focused on the physics of acoustics. To this day the university still teaches this class. There are mnay interesting things for a musician to learn in this field of physics if one is ready to go to the "dark side".

From Linda Lerskier
Posted on January 13, 2007 at 7:07 PM

Bill,
:)?

Karin,
What other musicals did you do? You know, the music is kind of catchy. ;)

Sydney,
You would've had it better. Rehearsal is everyday, but Tuesday, for 3 hours.

Jim,
Only you. :) Good way to explain it. Guess I'll have some history to explain to my stand partner. ;) (What's a vamp? Well, it has something to do with heroin...)

Mendy,
The dark side needs light bulbs.

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on January 14, 2007 at 2:24 AM

I played in the pit orchestra for South Pacific and Music Man in high school. That was a long time ago . . . but I think Music Man has some surprisingly good fiddle-ish parts and the violin part for "Bloody Mary" in SP is pretty good too. I also played in the pit for a college production of "Gianni Schicci" one year and playing O Mio Babbino Caro was wonderful.

From Michael Poulton
Posted on January 14, 2007 at 4:21 AM

Hi, mm I I know exactly how you feel with musical music. I am currently playing in my school's musical, "The Wiz" and the violin parts are horenndous- all hand written, key signatures ommitted and music scattered all over the place. The music is very high (posiion wise) and reading those ledger lines is a complicated process! Anyway, good luck with it!

This entry has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

71/2 Cents might not buy a heck of a lot, but it's enough for the UPS man to come

Subscribe

Laurie's Books