RE-BANDING
“Practice should always be performed musically … practice for an audience not yourself”
After 7.5 months (32 weeks) or 223 days (however we look at it) an unexpected, yet hopefully anticipated return by the Queensland Wind Orchestra to concert rehearsals came as a sudden reprieve to the ensembles Covid-tacit condition.
I call it unexpected while anticipated because pragmatically, in this pandemic, every thing, event or plan, must be considered provisional. Conditions and restrictions change often with the opening and closing of state borders, health advice and directives. To get to a rehearsal I need to obtain a permit on-line to present at the New South Wales / Queensland border (creeping along in a 45 minute bottleneck of traffic on Australia’s major coastal highway M1) and time-shift between NSW daylight savings time and Queensland solar-time. But these added complications and the Covid-rules required to be able to rehearse together once again are “No problemo” …
Commitment and solidarity are two words to describe our ensemble reunion. Reduced rehearsal time to 2 hrs, no breaks, 4 meter social distancing and other requirements were all taken calmly in stride. That old British Imperial meme’ “Keep Calm and Carry On” applied to this band of highly motivated (mostly) introverts who were intensely focused on playing wind band music. A happy, yet efficient time of organizing gear, saying hellos and sorting out a new “distanced” orchestra setup; proceeding easily into warm ups, announcements and then the music.
At last! The sound in the room, as we warmied up on Alfred Reed’s Greensleeves" and grew into a tutti - forte was physically tangible. A worm, immersive, present, resonate sonic reflection of where we had musically left off nearly eight months before. The magic was present and the ensemble gestalt was re-engaged. The transparency of sound and harmonic resonance present in the rehearsal space confirmed the belief and ideal that such a musical space could exist once more. I hadn’t made it up in a Covid-trance; this transient, ephemeral, aesthetic place of communicative expression was there / here, always possible. IT just needed us.
A sight reading rehearsal with QWO is exciting, edgy and fun as everyone goes for it and we hit within the 90th percentile. Mr Jacobs, quoted above, use to say about note accuracy that professional baseball players who hit 400/1000 balls were conducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; but not so for musicians, especially wind and brass players who needed to play / be in the 100+ percentile. He fondly told the story of listening for mistakes coming from his long time colleague Adolf Herseth (1st trumpet with the Chicago Symphony) and that he estimated it happened about once every three years; “He was perfect, just perfect.” Another thing I heard him say once was: “Never practice, always perform”.
QWO did perform for itself that night and confirmed its privilege to make great music; and that was more than enough.
The current concert QWO project intention is to perform a live-streamed concert in our regular hall at the Old Museum in Brisbane. An opportunity to perform in a proper acoustic space in real-time for a virtual audience (as no one else will be able to attend - at least for now - who knows until the day). An expensive and technically challenging production, manifesting by corporate sponsorship, institutional and organizational collaboration and fueled by trust and good will (that’s a lot of “and’s” (sic.)).
It takes a lot of people, time and energy to make live music happen again; community music. Musicking; engaged and in action.
We can / will see just how this actually goes, while immediately appreciating every moment of playing and polishing our music for what-ever and who-ever, where-ever the occasion happens to Be; feeling immense thanks and gratitude for the opportunity to play.
Details to follow - On with the show!