So I have this thing that whenever I am especially lonely, I will go back to old songs that I've played in band and listen to them again and reminisce.
This happened today.
I've always found comfort in listening to my pieces and how they all just seem to come back alive for me again.
Today I also listened to rose variations by Robert Russell Bennett which we played in band during our CMEA band tour last spring.There's a part that seriously sounds like the sleeping beauty waltz and I die a little inside whenever I listen to it.
The other day it was Arabesque by Samuel Hazo which I played the first semester of my freshman year and I just remember grooving along to that song. It goes and builds and there is so much anticipation in it.The flute solo at the beginning with the warm undertones just goes to show how under appreciated the lower octave of a flute really is. I can still the notes under my fingers and how we would just fly through that song.When the percussion really comes in you can almost see dancers twirling around.
Or Moscow 1941 is another favorite from way back in middle school. This is similar in feeling to Arabesque where it just builds and it really takes you on a journey. I remember the horns being super prominent and just adding that gorgeous extra color.
Alligator Alley by Michael Daugherty is what my beloved band teacher freshman year of high school threw at us. He got really excited because he suddenly had four yes four bassoonists to have fun with. And seeing as we hadn't really gone up into the higher octaves of our instruments like ever and it was a bassoon solo in that octave we had some trouble. I remember my chops hurting like hell afterwards but it was a good introduction on what to expect.
Nessun Dorma is from Puccinis Turnadot and it is the absolutely gorgeous piece that just builds and releases. Tension release. Always having you on the edge of your seat. This was during my junior year marching season and that was our ballad. Gorgeous arcs and slow moving grace. Dear lord this was an event but I loved it so much. This was my favorite marching show by far by the drill and the music.
The closer for that show was the Firebird Suite which if you've ever seen fantasia 2000 its the part with the big green bird that brings life back to the earth. Absolutely gorgeous. And such quick changes from the hellish part to the green bird part. Oh and the company front we did for that was legendary!
And then of course Ghost train and Godzilla Eats Las Vegas by Eric Whitacre are some of my favorites as well. I finally got to play Ghost Train in College and Godzilla was the last semester of my senior year. Whitacre has this knack of really pushing the limits with time signatures, keys and he loves to expose certain parts. He keeps it raw and bare. But there is beauty in taking the band and distilling it into something greater. That's why wind ensembles are so great because each player has to know their stuff front and back.
I really feel that the horn, bassoon, oboe and English horn are some of the most under utilized and most unique sounding instruments in the band. If I could be reincarnated as a sound I would be a great horn rip.
Music for me has always been a solace and a challenge. If you weren't in Steve Meyers Mountain Sports Writing last semester you wont know the struggle I've had with being a bassoonist.
The men love to point out i'm playing a massive piece of wood.
Reeds are awful.
We usually don't get that great of parts or any parts at all.
Sometimes we are totally forgotten.
We can outplay most of our directors in 8th grade. No joke.
We are rare and a pain in the ass.
But I wouldn't trade the last almost 12 years of playing for the world.
That is where my adopted family lives.
In the twisted curves of a note run and in the stink of a band room after a parade.
That's where some of my deepest and most meaningful relationships are rooted.
In the soil of the love of creating and learning music.
And even though i'm just doing band still for fun, I cant imagine not doing it.
Not having that constant supply of band nerds to hang around with and brag about the pieces we've done.
Sure sometimes I want to kill Andy, the dumb flutes and that's about it.
But i still come back.
Because this bassoonist cant stop now.
Its in my blood to never stop doing something I love.
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