| Patrick,
It would be great to have you join this ongoing Starer book project!
Speaking of terrible time, I had a job this weekend at a Church where I haven’t performed before. My friend Tim Moke hired me, and I knew all the other players. This should have been a really fun musical experience.
We did an anthem with the choir that had some mixed meter measures (3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 2/4, 4/4). Before we started the conductor told us that he might find himself going with us more than conducting us because there were some rhythmic challenges in the piece. OMG! What a mess this guy was! He told us that he would give us four bars and then we should start at the top of the piece (with that 3/8, 3/8, 3/8, 2/4 pattern). His 2/4 was less than 2 eighth notes long in a completely different tempo than the one pulse that he had set up. This was during the rehearsal just before the service.
Tim and I looked at each other and said, “Just go with us”. No problem. We played loud and held everything together. During the service he told us that we needed to play much softer so that the choir could be heard. When we started the piece, he gave this flailing 2/4 bar and the piano player started a beat early and the whole thing fell apart. Tim stopped the group and ended up starting us. Man, this conductor was more like a saboteur! There were several other times when he just had a blank stare on his face wondering what was going to happen.
The most bizarre thing about this was that he also played the organ on one piece (a Bach Cantata with 2 trumpets) and his time was very good. He just had no idea how to handle mixed odd meter keeping the eighth note constant.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona |