[Music] A weekend of rehearsals

After the Bassoon Quartet concert on Friday, this weekend has seen me massively overdose on music. Seriously, it's been crazy.

Every semester for the University Symphony Orchestra we have a weekend rehearsal just before the concert. It's a great opportunity to really get the music in shape, work on some of the details, and generally become really comfortable with the repertoire before the concert. Having said that, I actually haven't made it to many of them in my time here in St Andrews, as they often clashed with lifesaving competitions. But this time around, for my last one, I was in town and made the commitment.

Saturday wasn't so bad. We started off with a woodwind sectional rehearsal at 10am; with just eight of us or so these are always good fun, and this was no exception. The two hours flew by, and we got some really good work done on details for the Mahler symphony that we're playing. I then had six hours off whilst the other sections had their turn, then at 7pm went back to the hall for another 3 hours or so of full orchestra rehearsal. That wasn't too bad actually, and it was obvious that a lot of work had been done during sectional rehearsals as the orchestra was sounding much better than it had done during the regular weekly rehearsal.

Sometimes, I think this is what we sound like to outsiders. (Credit: toonpool.com)

Today has been a really long day. Not only did I have more rehearsals for the Symphony Orchestra, but I started the day with a different group. A couple of weeks ago I agreed to play with the 'New Music Ensemble' for a concert on the 27th of April. There are only four rehearsals, so it wasn't too onerous a commitment, and sounded quite interesting. The only problem was the workshop today, which was from 9:15 to 11:45am - not the most wonderful thing on a Sunday morning! I'm glad I went though, as the workshop covered the three finalists for the Music Centre's latest competition for the University's 600th anniversary celebrations. The pieces were all interesting; not my normal style, but fun and with lots of potential. It's a small ensemble as well, with only about 15 people for the biggest piece of music that we're playing for the concert.

After a quick break for lunch, it was back to the Symphony Orchestra rehearsals. We rehearsed for three hours, had an hour's break or so, then rehearsed for another two hours. We then had another hour or so off, before rehearsing for a final hour and finishing around 9pm.

Poster for the University of St Andrews Symphony Orchestra concert this semester.

After this weekend, I'm confident that it'll be a good one. (Credit: University of St Andrews Music Society on Facebook)

It wasn't as bad as it sounds though really. The time went fairly quickly, and in the second big break the  music society committee were kind enough to provide complementary pizza and drinks for everyone, which was very welcome indeed! The last hour wasn't as onerous either, as that was taken up with auditions for the orchestra's new conductor, so it was a bit more varied as we experienced several different conducting and rehearsing styles.

It really was a long weekend, but I think that come the concert on Thursday, the hard work will really pay off. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to lie down.