At the University of Utah I am a member of the Runnin' FlUtes Choir (it's a play on the "Runnin' Utes"), and it is tradition in our group to give Music Education majors a chance to conduct a piece on a concert. I was very honored and privileged to be able to rehearse and conduct a flute choir arrangement of "The Moldau" by Bedrich Smetana. It was arranged by Kyril Magg.
Rehearsing and conducting this piece for the Flute Choir was certainly a learning experience for me. It has given me even more respect for all of my current and past music teachers and conductors and the great work that they do.
There is so much preparation involved in conducting a piece, and the Moldau is no easy piece! I played this piece with the flute choir my first year at the U. Learning the flute part was a challenge, but learning the score and conducting the piece was a completely different experience.
Challenge # 1: Multi-Tasking
My first couple of rehearsals, even though I had listened to the piece a dozen times, studied the score and practiced, I found myself getting lost in the music quite a few times. There are many repetitive sections, and because I was spending so much time looking at and engaging the players, I would easily lose track. If I was looking at the score, I would forget to pay attention to the details of how the ensemble was playing the music.
To help me with this, eventually I had to mark every section with different letters and numbers, which helped me stay at the right place in the score, as well as memorize the phrasing better (such as knowing how many times a certain phrase or idea would be repeated). I hope that over time I will figure out ways to keep myself engaged in both the score and the group.
This reminds me of the few times I have been asked to speak in church--I would bring notes to glance at as I spoke, but often when I would look up and speak to the congregation, I would look down and have no clue where I left off. One time I sat there going "uhhhh" for a minute, and repeated myself a couple of times before I got on track. Well, that's me and a score. Multi-tasking certainly has never been my talent.
Challenge #2: Error Detection
Another challenge for me was being able to listen to and hear all of the different parts and detect issues. If I was following a certain line or two, it was easy for me to ignore other parts that were going on. One thing I did to rectify this was to make note of the lines that had difficult parts in certain sections and focus mostly on those. By the end of rehearsing with the group, I think I was starting to get a hang of this.
Challenge #3: Rehearsal Preparation
My first couple of rehearsals actually went fairly well, because I had very specific musical aspects I needed to work on with the various sections. But there came a rehearsal that I found myself completely lost about how to fix a certain section. It was the last section of the piece. It is technically difficult for the players, and there are several tempo changes. I knew I wanted to work on that section, but I didn't have a plan on how I was going to address issues. In fact, I didn't even make an actual assessment beforehand about what the actual problems would be, which was the players listening to each other and moving their notes together. I found myself staring at the score a couple of times, with absolutely nothing constructive to say. I was not prepared for this. I was teaching my peers, fellow flute players I had played next to for years, and now they are all staring at me and waiting for me to tell them what to do. If it felt awkward getting lost in front of my colleagues that I know well and are all good friends, it will feel really awkward when I go out in the real world in front of a group of students who don't know me at all, and will judge me according to every move I make! After that rehearsal, I made sure I had a clear plan! Though the plan would often deviate (flexibility is important!), at least I didn't again find myself staring at the group going, "Duhhhhhhh."
The Performance
After all was said and done, the performance went very well. We have great players in this group. What would I have done differently? I wish I had recorded my rehearsals. I thought about it a few times, but I always forgot to bring the camera.
These are the pieces played on the concert. I will soon including audio recordings/
La Milonga
-C. Caliendo
Brazilian piece, very lively and jazzy!
Four Japanese Folk Songs
1. Kuroda Bushi
2. The Girl of Shonai
3. Soran Bushi
4. Kusatsu Bushi
-Traditional
-Arr. Cathey
Just like it's name, four Japanese folk songs, a really great arrangement.
Carmen Fantaisie
Flute Soloists:
Ashley Bolnick
Tori Sohm
Stefania Neumann
-Bizet (1838-1875)
-Flute Solo Part: Borne
-Arr. Simpson
The 3 soloists were members of our flute choir. This is a very virtuosic piece, split into three sections, and the soloists did an amazing job. The flute choir arrangement was taken from the flute and piano arrangement by Borne, and the having a flute choir accompaniment brings so much color to this piece.
Jamaican Rhapsody
-Traditional
-Arr. Nowak
Includes the piece "Daylights come back, me wanna go home?" At least that is what I think the lyrics to the song is....It's in the movie Beetle Juice! haha
Trio Sonata in G Major
III. Adagio e piano
IV. Presto
-J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Alicia Kim-Flute
Cindy Chen-Flute
Rachel Jorgensen-Cello
A classic trio by Bach
The Moldau
Melanie Addington-Conductor
-Smetana (1824-1884)
-Arr. Magg
If you haven't heard the orchestral version, listen to it! This is my all time favorite classical piece.
Innes Glas Mor
1. Lovely But Rugged
2. Kylemore Abbey
3. Gogarty’s Pub
-Lisa LeMay
***Amazing piece. There is a penny whistle part written. There are so many awesome moments in this piece, it's a brilliant arrangement.
Maple Leaf Rag
Joplin (1867/68?-1917)
Arr. Hurwitz
What we didn't have room to put on the program was the 7 (or something) different titles given to this piece. Each part had a different title on their part. I played the second part, which was the "Maple Leaf Rug." Others were "Rack," "Ruck," and several more I can't remember. So cute!! Haha. Another great arrangement.
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