Posted by Mary Ann on September 08, 2003 at 10:08:23:
....gotten myself into.
Last year, I played tuba for the next-to-last orchestra concert. It was the usual...play 12 measures, count 157 measures, play three measures, count 118. Etc. Turns out the guy they got for the very last concert (for which I was out of town) got into some kind of spat with somebody and ditched the concert. Really. (Good way to permanently remove yourself from the call-back list.)
I am taking a year off from playing horn in the orchestra, but there are two concerts this year which need tuba, and I got a call asking would I play them? I said sure, why not. First concert is in October. And, BTW, what is on this concert? ...Oh, you'll like it, it's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Yikers. That is, Pictures at an Exhibition of the World's Smallest Tuba Player Panicking over playing Bydlo in six weeks.
Well, I got myself to the used CD store last night in a BIG hurry, and transcribed the solo. If my ears and CD player are operating correctly, there are some treble clef G sharps in there. Loud ones, and very, very soft ones. Yikers again. The solo on the CD I got sounds very suspiciously like it is being played on a bass trombone, not a tuba.
So....I drug out my 182 F, and the solo is doable but quite a stretch. However, if I put some duct tape on a Schilke 60 bass Tbone mouthpiece shank, I can play it, and in six weeks I should have it reasonably solid. (It IS a community orchestra, you know; a squeak here and there is acceptable if not desireable. My macho-girl-brass-player mentality will have me trying to sound absolutely top notch, despite the improbability of meeting that goal.)
So...wish me luck. This is going to be one of those spare-underwear-in-the-truck concerts.
Can anyone say "Inderol?" (which I won't use, BTW...if I take enough to calm me down, it is also enough to made me addled.)
MA