Brad Tatum and Yee-Ning Soong setting up
for rehearsal in Auer Hall at
IU-Bloomington's Jacob School of Music.
Photo taken by Tommy Atkinson.
for rehearsal in Auer Hall at
IU-Bloomington's Jacob School of Music.
Photo taken by Tommy Atkinson.
After 11 hours of travelling, we all made it yesterday to IU-Bloomington--Tommy and Brad by car, and myself via a series of delayed planes. We are rooming in Willkie Hall. Apparently IUB is a dry campus, but I did not realize this and had brought Dragonfly IPA from a local microbrewery into our fridgeless residence hall to celebrate everyone's safe arrival.
This morning our rehearsing started promptly at 10am in Auer Hall in the Simon Music Building. Brad was working on 4 hours of sleep since he was unable to fall asleep until 4:30am. We stopped by the Copper Pot--a cute coffee shop--to buy some wakeups for Brad on our way to practice. Luckily for us, we ran into John Manganaro who had also arrived early to the workshop, so he stopped by to listen to us rehearse and give us feedback.
We played Duvernoy 3 and Brahms mvmt 1 for him. His main points: do more with phrasing and dynamics in Duvernoy, really go opera buffa on it. Figure out conversations between instruments. Be aware of balance issues; given that Brad is on a period instrument while Tommy and I are on modern instruments with much more power. In Brahms, be aware of the underlying metronome-like part in the piano--more listening from the melodic parts in order to mesh better, esp. at rehearsal mark A.
We all broke for lunch at Mamma Bear's, which has excellent pizza. After a brief respite during which Brad caught a much needed 40-minute nap, we headed over to Merill Hall at 3pm for coaching with Professor Rick Seraphinoff (who heads the natural horn workshop) who also provided many insights into our ensemble.
His remarks concerning Duvernoy 3 included not following strict rhythm (which Manganaro also touched upon as well), and to just 'feel' the pulse in order to stay together esp. concerning the horn part (which I imagine naturally wants to lag behind a smidge since its response time involves the passage of air, and not just pure muscle reflexes like in the violin and piano parts). We managed to play Duvernoy on the fortepiano in Ford Hall, where our masterclasses are to be held. Intonation was not perfect (as can be expected), but Seraphinoff seemed pleased by how quickly Tommy and Brad were adapting to the 'correct' pitches. It was my first time playing at length on a fortepiano, and while fast passages seemed to fly out easily from my fingers, they seemed to fly out Too easily; if I dared to think about a note, it seemed to play on its own. The shallow keydip contributed to fleet fingers, but also left me feeling powerless. I am still left wondering how much dynamic range I can possibly get out of the instrument, and if it is even worth bothering to think about.
For Brahms mvmt 1, we returned to Seraphinoff's studio, and stopped almost after every rehearsal mark to discuss issues. Beginning to A, Seraphinoff pointed out the awkward silences that ensued at times from the middle of my two-note slurs. He also remarked that he liked Tommy's phrasing, and commented to Brad that they could work on getting the horn part to mimic the swells from Tommy's opening lines. A-B, Seraphinoff seemed to approach the rhythm issues there from the opposite of Manganaro/opposite of how the three of us had until now approached the problem--he said to not keep strict time, and to not pay attention to the piano part--that Tommy and Brad had to take the lead and lay down the bigger picture and that I had to follow and fit my part into theirs. This seemed to be the main issue that we touched on during Seraphinoff's coaching--when to take the lead and when to follow.
After 4:30pm--where Seraphinoff had to rush off to pick up a natural horn for the upcoming week, and to make one for a person flying in from Venezuela--the three of us went to rehearse the two pieces a bit more in Auer Hall and Ford Hall. When our attention span and discipline were fully depleted, we went to dinner at Lennie's--home of Bloomington Brewery--and met up with Paul Hopkins (another horn player from Maryland) who also arrived after 11 hours of driving.
Hopefully we shall get a full night's sleep. Tomorrow: workshop begins, more practicing, playing Duvernoy 3/Brahms mvmt 1 for masterclass, coaching with Stanley Ritchie!
--Ning
This morning our rehearsing started promptly at 10am in Auer Hall in the Simon Music Building. Brad was working on 4 hours of sleep since he was unable to fall asleep until 4:30am. We stopped by the Copper Pot--a cute coffee shop--to buy some wakeups for Brad on our way to practice. Luckily for us, we ran into John Manganaro who had also arrived early to the workshop, so he stopped by to listen to us rehearse and give us feedback.
We played Duvernoy 3 and Brahms mvmt 1 for him. His main points: do more with phrasing and dynamics in Duvernoy, really go opera buffa on it. Figure out conversations between instruments. Be aware of balance issues; given that Brad is on a period instrument while Tommy and I are on modern instruments with much more power. In Brahms, be aware of the underlying metronome-like part in the piano--more listening from the melodic parts in order to mesh better, esp. at rehearsal mark A.
We all broke for lunch at Mamma Bear's, which has excellent pizza. After a brief respite during which Brad caught a much needed 40-minute nap, we headed over to Merill Hall at 3pm for coaching with Professor Rick Seraphinoff (who heads the natural horn workshop) who also provided many insights into our ensemble.
His remarks concerning Duvernoy 3 included not following strict rhythm (which Manganaro also touched upon as well), and to just 'feel' the pulse in order to stay together esp. concerning the horn part (which I imagine naturally wants to lag behind a smidge since its response time involves the passage of air, and not just pure muscle reflexes like in the violin and piano parts). We managed to play Duvernoy on the fortepiano in Ford Hall, where our masterclasses are to be held. Intonation was not perfect (as can be expected), but Seraphinoff seemed pleased by how quickly Tommy and Brad were adapting to the 'correct' pitches. It was my first time playing at length on a fortepiano, and while fast passages seemed to fly out easily from my fingers, they seemed to fly out Too easily; if I dared to think about a note, it seemed to play on its own. The shallow keydip contributed to fleet fingers, but also left me feeling powerless. I am still left wondering how much dynamic range I can possibly get out of the instrument, and if it is even worth bothering to think about.
For Brahms mvmt 1, we returned to Seraphinoff's studio, and stopped almost after every rehearsal mark to discuss issues. Beginning to A, Seraphinoff pointed out the awkward silences that ensued at times from the middle of my two-note slurs. He also remarked that he liked Tommy's phrasing, and commented to Brad that they could work on getting the horn part to mimic the swells from Tommy's opening lines. A-B, Seraphinoff seemed to approach the rhythm issues there from the opposite of Manganaro/opposite of how the three of us had until now approached the problem--he said to not keep strict time, and to not pay attention to the piano part--that Tommy and Brad had to take the lead and lay down the bigger picture and that I had to follow and fit my part into theirs. This seemed to be the main issue that we touched on during Seraphinoff's coaching--when to take the lead and when to follow.
After 4:30pm--where Seraphinoff had to rush off to pick up a natural horn for the upcoming week, and to make one for a person flying in from Venezuela--the three of us went to rehearse the two pieces a bit more in Auer Hall and Ford Hall. When our attention span and discipline were fully depleted, we went to dinner at Lennie's--home of Bloomington Brewery--and met up with Paul Hopkins (another horn player from Maryland) who also arrived after 11 hours of driving.
Hopefully we shall get a full night's sleep. Tomorrow: workshop begins, more practicing, playing Duvernoy 3/Brahms mvmt 1 for masterclass, coaching with Stanley Ritchie!
--Ning
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