These are the short films that we will be performing for our January 8 concert. Enjoy!
Music by Julian Nott
Author: Raúl Gómez-Rojas
MYS Percussion Corner
CHECK SOON FOR 2023-2024 INFORMATION!
Symphony Orchestra PART ASSIGNMENTS
TBD
Symphony Orchestra Notes – 10.25.22
Dear MYS Symphony Orchestra,
Wow! You made me very proud in the way you worked with Oregon Symphony Music Director Laureate Carlos Kalmar. WAY TO GO! Sounded great. He was very impressed.
REHEARSAL RECAP (10/23)
- In the first half of rehearsal, we read Margot Pullen‘s untitled first draft. This is already a very detailed score, with wonderful textures and colors. We will perform this piece in our March 2023 concert.
- We also rehearsed 3 out of the 5 YCP Dances for our current program: Courante, Minuet and Swinging 60’s. These are our final parts. Please add this music to your practicing (with a particular focus on getting things up to tempo).
- After the break, we went over the 4th movement of Dvořák, and then you worked on it with Carlos Kalmar.
- REMINDER: don’t forget to practice what we did in the last rehearsal during the first half of your week. Then, after Tuesday, you can focus on what we’re doing at the next rehearsal.
REHEARSAL PLAN FOR SUNDAY 10/30
(see below in red for percussion)*
4:00pm-4:10pm – Project Back Pocket. No wheel-spinning, but I would love to hear 2 or 3 people, including winds, brass or percussion on Sunday! Also, keep it EASY, short (1 min), simple and effective. The goal of this is not to show off your chops, but to connect with a diverse audience.
4:10pm-4:45pm – YCP: Waltz in C#, followed by Mississippi Reel.
4:45pm-5:30pm – Dvořák, Mov. 3
— break —
5:45pm-5:55pm – write on index cards for Nancy Ives
7:00pm – Dvořák, Mov. 1 and maybe 2.
* PERCUSSION ON 10/30
Percussionists: you’ll be with the full orchestra the entire time this Sunday. Please make sure to GET THERE EARLY SO YOU CAN BE SET UP IN TIME FOR OUR 4PM START! I would recommend getting there at 3:30pm at the latest.
LOOKING AHEAD: 11/6
- OMG IT’S CONCERT WEEK!! As I mentioned already, please double-check you have our weeknight and Saturday rehearsals on your calendars!!
- Thu 11/10 and Fri 11/11, 7pm-9:30pm; Sat 11/12, 2pm-5pm
- Soundcheck rehearsal and concert on 11/13 as per the call sheet.
Thank you, and happy practicing!
Dr. G.
NEW PART ASSIGNMENTS for YCP Pieces
This applies to woodwinds and horns. All other part assignments for YCP pieces remain the same.
Please see the PDF here or the screenshot below. Cheers!
[update as of 10/25/22: all woodwinds will play Kate Andrew’s Swinging 60’s]
Opportunity: Tilikum Chamber Orchestra
Hi all,
As I mentioned last week, there is an opportunity for Symphony Orchestra string players to join me and the Tilikum Chamber Orchestra for their November rehearsals and concert on December 3. Details are below. Please e-mail me to let me know you’re interested and available to join. I’ll send you all the PDF parts.
REHEARSALS
Mondays in November (11/7, 11/14, 11/21, 11/28)
7pm-9:30pm
Lake Oswego High School, 7:30pm
2501 Country Club Rd, Lake Oswego, OR
CONCERT
December 3, 2022
“A Musical Gift Exchange”
with Guest Conductor: Dr. Raúl Gómez-Rojas
Lake Oswego High School, 7:30pm
2501 Country Club Rd, Lake Oswego, OR
REPERTOIRE
Aaron Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody
W. A. Mozart: Serenade No. 12 in C Minor for 8 winds (NO STRINGS)
Edward Elgar: String Serenade, Op. 20
Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Message from Nancy Ives
(photo courtesy of Fear No Music)
Hello, MYS Symphony musicians!
I’m so excited at the prospect of collaborating with you all to create the shared inspiration for a new piece written especially for you.
Inspiration, the seed that a piece grows from, can come from many sources. As I mentioned on Sunday, I once wrote a piece inspired by a painting that used sound effects on the cello to evoke a hike on a glacier. The main focus was the feeling of joy seen in the hikers in the painting, but the sound effects created a sense of place and transported the audience out of the concert venue and onto the glacier. It didn’t hurt that I performed the premiere in front of the painting, of course!
This piece, Shard, was built on a four-note snippet provided by the commissioner, Portland Cello Project:
Most recently, I wrote a piece inspired by a sculptural installation! Here’s the score.
In this superb performance of In All Our Names, there are several sources of inspiration woven into the music. Musical quotes include bits of Beethoven and a Billy Holliday song, and words are present in two forms: spoken (in translation from the German) and in musical cipher. Here’s the score.
Literature — both prose and poetry — have a great tradition of providing source material and inspiration for music, even apart from being set in music as art song, opera or oratorio. In Celilo Falls: We Were There, Ed Edmo’s poetry and personal reminiscence provided me with musical inspiration aplenty. Joe Cantrell’s photographs added another dimension to the work, but really the source of inspiration he brought me was his the thoughts he shared with me about the timelessness of the human presence on the landscape and the way we are All One.
Here is the score of Celilo Falls: We Were There.
Find a video of the premiere here: https://vimeo.com/760681370/3680ab61b8
Some press about the premiere of the piece which I think give some sense of what it took for me to do something like this with integrity and not cultural appropriation: https://www.orartswatch.org/resurfacing-celilo/ https://www.opb.org/article/2022/06/01/new-music-honors-celilo-falls/
This is the video about A Song of Our Warming Planet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t08CLczdK4
Here are the scores I played for you:
Don’t get me wrong; music does not need “extra-musical content” to be worthwhile or effective. Not at all! Exploring musical ideas is thrilling, intriguing and enjoyable all by itself. I bring up these other ideas because the ability to use the emotional power of music to explore things of importance to us, such as social justice or climate change, is another of the great gifts of being a musician, and one of the best parts of being a 21st-century musician is the freedom to do non-traditional things in the context of a “classical” piece. It is worth noting that using unusual techniques — such as extended techniques on our instruments, speaking or singing, or using alternative instruments — doesn’t have to be difficult. They can be an extension of the musical ideas in a way that can be emotionally effective, and also just plain fun. Maybe you will think of something completely different than any of this, or maybe one of these things will resonate and spark an idea for something similar. Either way, I look forward to collaborating with you!
Cheers!
Nancy
—
Nancy Ives, DMA
Composer; Principal Cello, Oregon Symphony
nancyives.com
Symphony Orchestra Notes – 10.18.22
Dear MYS Symphony Orchestra,
Great work on Sunday. We had a very productive rehearsal. And kudos to Leo Trajano for a beautiful and moving “back pocket” piece. Way to go!
REHEARSAL RECAP (10/16)
- We spent the first half of rehearsal on the first movement of the Dvořák symphony. We did some detailed work on the introduction, and continued building and polishing the rest of the movement. A recurring theme was the energy required in short 8th notes, particularly in the gestures with two quick up-bows (and equivalent in winds and brass).
- After the break, we dug into the 2nd movement. We worked on defining breaks for breathing in winds/brass, transitions, balance and flow. Remember: this movement shouldn’t sound (or feel) slow. It should flow like a beautiful, simple folk song.
- Composer and Oregon Symphony Principal Cellist Nancy Ives came to visit. She introduced our collaboration for a commission of a brand new piece from her to be premiered by us next season. This will be a collaborative process. Please make sure to check my separate blog post with Nancy’s information and requests for you.
- REMINDER: don’t forget to practice what we did in the last rehearsal during the first half of your week. Then, after Tuesday, you can focus on what we’re doing at the next rehearsal.
REHEARSAL PLAN FOR SUNDAY 10/23
(see below in red for percussion)*
“Back Pocket” and YCP music are back this week, plus more Dvořák and a visit by a very special friend of MYS.
4:00pm-4:10pm – Project Back Pocket (2 or 3 volunteers). I’ll spin the wheel for names if we have no volunteers. I would love to hear winds or brass on Sunday! Remember… it doesn’t have to be long. 1 minute is plenty. It should be engaging, and something you love.
4:10pm-5:15pm – YCP: Margot Pullen’s first draft (for March concert), plus work on final versions of the Dances for our November concert.
— break —
5:30pm-6:00pm – Dvořák, Mov. 4
6:00pm-7:00pm – Visit by Carlos Kalmar, Music Director Laureate of the Oregon Symphony. We will work on MOVEMENT 4 of Dvořák with Maestro Kalmar. I said something different in rehearsal, but this is what we will do. MOVEMENT 4.
* PERCUSSION ON 10/23
Percussionists: you’ll be with Kevin downstairs from 4pm to 5:30pm. Then, move upstairs and be ready for Dvořák, Mov. 4 by 6pm at the latest.
LOOKING AHEAD: 10/30
- More Project Back Pocket
- We’re starting to get pretty close to the concert!! 10/30 will be mostly Dvořák, including definitely movement 3.
- We might also work on a couple of the YCP dances, depending on how it goes on 10/23.
Thank you, and happy practicing!
Dr. G.
Symphony Orchestra Notes – 10.11.22
Dear MYS Symphony Orchestra,
Thank you for a great rehearsal on Sunday. And thank you to Lida White and Ian Ko for volunteering to play their Fall term “back pocket” pieces. Wonderful job!
New this week, we’re starting to post and archive all of my e-mail notes to you on this blog. You’ll be able to easily log in and check current and older rehearsal notes. This will also allow for comments and interaction, which we can explore together in the coming weeks.
REHEARSAL RECAP (10/9)
- We spent the first half of rehearsal reading the second draft of the YCP dances. Thank you for your reading and your feedback.
- After the break, we spent a bit of time on the first few Back Pocket pieces.
- Dvořák, Mov 3: we worked on the whole movement, with emphasis on the sections starting at m. 142 and the coda.
- Dvořák, Mov 4: we also worked on the entire movement, and then worked backwards from the end, including all the tempo changes after #12.
- REMINDER: don’t forget to practice what we did in the last rehearsal during the first half of your week. Then, after Tuesday, you can focus on what we’re doing at the next rehearsal.
REHEARSAL PLAN FOR SUNDAY 10/16
No sectionals or YCP dances this week. Composers are currently working on the final edition of their pieces, and we’ll start rehearsing those properly on 10/23.
4:00pm-4:10pm – Project Back Pocket (2 or 3 volunteers). I’ll spin the wheel for names if we have no volunteers.
4:10pm-5:30pm – Dvořák, Mov. 1
— break —
5:30pm-6:30pm – Dvořák, Mov. 2
6:30pm-7:00pm – Visit by Nancy Ives (composer and OSO principal cellist)
LOOKING AHEAD: 10/23
- More Project Back Pocket
- Sunday 10/23, we will start rehearsing the final versions of the YCP dances. I will share new part assignments for the winds (mostly one person per part). This means that most woodwind players will not play in all of the dances, just one or two (especially flutes and clarinets).
- We will go back to movements 3 and 4 of Dvořák.
- Also, we will listen to the recording of the premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain Suite, which we will be playing in the spring.
Thank you, and happy practicing!
Dr. G.
Project “Back Pocket”
When I was a student, the picture on the right described me quite often, and I would like to help you not ever be in this situation. By the end of this season, I would like for each of you to have 3 short pieces “in your back pocket” that you can play reliably and on-demand in any situation. We will do one piece per term. Here we go:
- Let’s pretend that your best friend invited you to their family reunion. They want you there in case there’s nobody interesting to talk to, or in case they need an accomplice to sneak out.
- You show up about one hour after the party started, because you were coming straight from rehearsal, so, you have your instrument on you.
- You go in, people notice your instrument and they DEMAND that you play something for them. They start chanting your name. You look around and find your best friend all the way across the room. They shrug and mouth the words “I’m sorry..”
- So, you’re stuck and you HAVE to play. You have no sheet music.
- As you reluctantly and awkwardly take your instrument out of its case, you look around to room to get a sense of your audience. Among the multi-racial, multi-generational guests, you see: 4 young kids running around (elementary school age), several middle-age relatives, and 3 older guests (grandparents, perhaps?).
- WHAT DO YOU PLAY? You have 1 minute to play something by memory that will definitely be a crowd pleaser. It can be anything from any genre, as long as you can make it work on your instrument. And even if not everybody knows what you’re playing, they can enjoy it in some way.
So, start thinking about this. Find ONE piece that you can play by ear or memorize. It should be about one minute long. Starting in October, I will pull 3 names randomly each rehearsal, and you will get to play your “back pocket” piece for all of us. Nerves and all. You’ll thank me in a few years 😊