05/04/2025
Hey Gang! It's about 1:00 am, and looking like a RAINOUT for later today (Sunday May 4). Weather.com has showers starting in Ferndale at 10am, rain starting at noon and continuing all day. We'd probably be dry inside the tent, but you'd get a good soaking to and from your cars, bringing up the amps,. etc.
So REHEARSAL IS CANCELLED.
We'll try again on Tues May 13.
* No word back yet from the Hazel PERK Cafe. I've left three messages.
* Here's the main two themes of Ravel! We're going to need NINE people who can play this, to fully flesh out the arrangement. All ninewill eventually play this theme, as the piece swells into a crescendo. We'll also have two more versions, an octave and two octaves higher. AND there are some lavish and rich harmonies towards the end. And the wild ending, of course. All that has to be fully orchestrated into the nine parts. And there are some rather easy supportive parts too.
So, this is probably 15% of the project. i'd love it if you will start learning these parts while i finish the rest. i think maybe we will simplify some of the unusual timing. This is a little tricky! It's much much easier if you think of the 8th note getting one beat, rather than the 1/4.
One of the most notorious parts of Bolero is the repetition that sounds like a pipe organ, about halfway through. That's accomplished by playing this exact melody, only way up on the fretboard and in the keys of G and E respectively. The original melody is in C! So, it's in three different keys all shoved together. The G and E keys must be low in volume and high in pitch, because what you are doing is in fact emphasizing the third and fifth overtones. These parts should be just loud enough to "sweeten" the melody in C. I'm a little worried about how it will sound! But it's probably a historical sacrilege if we don't do it.
Interested in overtones? Here's a very cool video, directly pertinent. Science and math and music! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ius9LP86BlY
This one page of music took me waaaaaaay too long, and totally because of my failing eyesight. But i "see" (pun intended) a doctor this week for a referral for cataract surgery, which WILL finally happen this summer.
Love you guys! See you a week from Tues.
steffie
REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
* Tues May 13 6-8
* Sun May 18 1-3
* Sun May 25 1-3
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
* Sat May 31 5:30 - Palmer Park Art Fair
* Sun June 1 - Perk Vintage Fest somewhere between 1-4
* Sat June 21 - Livernoise
* Sun July 27 - Music @ The Gazebo Series - 4-ish pm
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One of the repertoire's true miracles of orchestration, Boléro has some surprises in store if you pay close attention. It's much more than the same tune repe...
