h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

we have *another* concert this weekend! right in the middle of the exam season! (of course, i no longer have to sit for written exams, but the undergrads still do) and... get this... on *valentine's day*! needless to say, almost everybody's plans have been shot to kingdom come . the only good thing about it is that it's all ensemble work, which is a great deal easier than having to play orchestral pieces. and... because it features so many groups, i only get to play one piece - a fanfare and chorale for three trombones, euphonium, b-flat bass and piano. of course, the *bad* news is that i have a grand total of three big, harrowing (for me), solo bits..... wish me luck, and hope that i don't play any bad notes, because i don't particularly like the idea of having hurled at me.

What! No sousaphone!

Congrats on the solo bits. They're always a sign of respect for one's abilities.,ok>

Good luck then Farlander.

PS What is wrong with a concert or exams being on Valentine's Day? It isn't a statutory holiday there is it? People should have known that before making plans. They should certainly have known about the exam dates well in advance. Are the concert dates some sort of secret or last minute surprise change?

valentines day's an awful day for a concert! i bet everyone's really pissed off.
the orchestra i used to be in has successfully organised concerts on mothers day for the past 6 years. needless to say, parents got a bit annoyed after a while, and when parents comprise the whole of the audience, you's have thought the conductor would have come to his senses!

the thing about the concert was that it was so badly organised. they threw the plans in our face about a week before the day of the concert, while many of us were still on vacation. up until that time, we'd thought that the january concert was to be our very last for this season, so the news came as a bit of a shock. the publicity was equally bad. the posters only went up about two days prior to the concert, so although a lot of reviewers and media people (newspaper and tv) showed up, the general public turnout was *bad*.

oh, by the way, here are some nuggets courtesy of the mc:

"contemporary music is music written by composers who are alive. or, if they are dead, they had only just died." (well, technically speaking, it *is* right... to a certain extent, but it's a bloody awful way of putting things)

"our next performance features a woodwind quartet. the woodwind section is so named because all the instruments are made of wood."

and this fellow is a lecturer at the music department! we almost died trying to stifle our laughter.

oh and fords - our band has neither sousaphone nor sousaphonist. we've always been a concert (symphonic) band, and we've never touched a piece that required that instrument anyway.

Valentine's day or not, that sounds simply like a very poorly organized concert.
We had one sprung on us last week (although it's not until Easter) which was a bit annoying, simply because they always tell use "all" the concert dates at the beginning of the year. And so far, it's only been announced at one rehearsal, which I wasn't at. Except for the fact that it randomly came up in conversation the other day, I wouldn't know about it, because there have been no mailings.

I hope the concert went well, though.

yeah, it went fine. i actually played a great deal better than i did at rehearsal, having received reassurances that i wasn't blasting everybody's eardrums to bits. cracked a d5 towards the end of one bar (it was a dotted minim), but no other mishap (thank goodness).

did you read my last posting, about the stuff the mc said?

Yeah. A little sketchy.

Does he write his own program notes? Because it sounds like he needs a little help. Just a little.

yeah, he did! the bit about woodwind instruments was a disgrace! (it caused some of the members to look at their instruments in puzzlement, and provoked lydia to snort, 'then what is my flute made of? am i in the wrong section?') his banter wasn't just awful; most of it was factually inaccurate. and he had the nerve to say, 'it's a good thing i'm the mc for tonight; if it had been somebody else, he probably wouldn't know what to say to you'!