Coda!

Well, my first concert with Rwinds, and also the first full concert Rwinds has put up, Coda 1 being a joint effort with RJC. I'm glad it went well.

So as usual, we started off moving percs down to the atrium, along with instruments. Then we spent half an hour or so waiting for the lorry to turn up, after which we had to move the instruments over to the columbarium gate since the construction prevented the lorry from coming in. Still, we did it quite fast, and we were soon on our way to VCH.

The usual at VCH, soundchecks and tech rehearsals. Was very rushed though, i think we took barely 2 hours, and at the end of it all I had 10 mins to eat dinner and prep before going up to tune.

I swear I had nothing to do with the mc script... But I liked it :)

So, we started with Conzensus, a rather slow, stately deal. I like that song. Allows me to lounge a lot in my comfortable range, sometimes going a bit lower. Quite good job, overall.

Suite on Celtic Folk Songs was next. I always thought Celtic was Scottish? Anyway it was quite good. March was ok, I think listening to the recordings, some people might have been confused at the dal segno and repeats, but overall good. Air was nice. I loved Wenyang's picc solo this time, though I still think it sounds better on a flute. Reel was ok, though a but slow, and again, people were confused with the dal segno repeats.

Danse Diabolique, I think the song that has given the sax section the most trouble with all those quaver running bits. Well, at least I managed to get them this time, which was quite good. Also, the trombones did well, compared to some pracs.

Mononoke Hime Medley was up next. Playing it brought back fond memories of Investiture 2004... I also have to say that this is the only band score I've seen where the bari sax has more to do than the tenors. Comparatively easy song, and it was quite nice, especially the horn solo.

Vox. Vox vox vox. I like it. Vox Stellarum has a nice ring to it. And the composer/conductor, Wong Kah Chun, is imba. Some may not agree with me, but I like this song quite a lot. Then again, I've always liked the kind of heroic style that's used a lot here. Also, up there on stage was the first time I've ever been able to pull off the whole song without any mistakes, technically. Of course, some parts were too loud/soft etc, but overall it was nice. Very challenging piece (though I think La Mer is more troublesome). I hope I get the chance to play this one again.

The intermission turned out to be very chaotic, compared to the usual. I guess it's because about 20 batches or so worth of people turned up, as opposed to the usual 3 you see in sec schools. Backstage was quite packed, and it was quite difficult to get around.

I can't comment much on the ensembles, since I was backstage preparing for my own. Our performance was the first time our full section actually played the songs together. It seems we were well received, and I quite liked Sin Yee's arrangement of An American in Paris. I think I did quite well for my standards too, though some slipups in both songs. The getup was interesting though, seems that the audience liked it.

Gulliver's Travels I think was quite nicely done. Most of the parts I was worried about turned out quite nicely, especially the bass melody in movement 2. I always wonder why movement 4 is the way it is though, considering the horses in the actual book are far from what the song would have you believe.

Tong Hua... the song I almost fell asleep (literally) in during a prac. Though my part was boring, I quite like the song.

Les Miserables was also boring for me, though I really like some parts of it, especially Do You Hear the People Sing. A good concert end, in my opinion.

Of course, it wasn't really the end of the concert. For our encore we had It Don't Mean A Thing, very nice jazzy deal. Considering we practiced the song once or twice only, it was quite nice. As with Vox Stellarum, this was the first time I managed the song properly.

So after the concert, we did a couple of photos, then packed up and moved stuff to the lorry. In an interesting case of deja vu, the bus was late. It showed up eventually though, and we headed back to RI for the traditional batch J8 visit.

Overall I was quite happy with the concert, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. I must say that I enjoyed the many practices as well. Oh, and I'm in love with the RJC bari sax.
I think that I actually improved more through the 3 months here than I did in the last 6 months of my time in the RIMB. In the RI band, firstly, I was stuck with a rather bad instrument. It was easy to play, but the tone wasn't very nice, and it had a lower range. The RJC Selmer Paris bari, on the other hand, took a long while to warm up to. I have to use a lot more air too, which can be tough sometimes. However, the end result is much better.

Also, perhaps I had a bit more challenge during this concert than for Prometheum or Myriad. Mostly, the songs that we had for those concerts were very boring for me, and I didn't really have much drive to improve there. I mean, holding long notes doesn't take too much skill, and the majority of the songs I had then seem to do that a lot. Coda's repertoire gave me more stretching room, so to speak, and I could improve more with those songs. So, although I'm not that good yet, and still the worst of the Rwinds section, I think I still improved quite a lot.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed practicing and performing for Coda 2, and I'm also glad attendance was quite good. I look forward to Coda 3 (along with everything else that comes next year).