Night Court 2010

May 6, 2010 at 5:32 AM

Summer time in Houston! It is not the return of the mosquitoes that I'm looking forward to, but my venture back into the orchestra pit.

This year's Night Court production is "Legal Holidays" put on by the Houston Bar Association. We had our first orchestra rehearsal this week. The scores were published the day before rehearsal, so we were all a bit worried about how "day 1" would sound. However, having worked together before we managed to pull off an impressive first rehearsal. The genre of music runs the gambit from classical, marching band, gospel, hip-hop, rock, to Latin music. Some pieces are easy, others are insanely difficult. All but one piece was written specifically for this show, however they are nowhere near their final revision yet.

After running through the music once, we began the process of modifying the scores - adding or cutting repeats, adding instruments, removing instruments, changing a note here or there, and sometimes even re-writing several measures. This process will continue up to the dress rehearsal, especially after we have our first rehearsal with the cast. By opening night, our parts will be heavily marked. It is a fun process, and one that exercises every bit of musical-know-how we hold collectively.

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