Giving Rossini a gallop for his money

Holy cow. I had to really keep from smiling with delight in class today because my middle-high band sounded so good.

It's a little disconcerting when I get to 1:30 in the afternoon, because after struggling with raw beginners (5th grade) and semi-cooked beginners (6th grade) I expect my bands to continue to sound like, well, beginners.

But as soon as my middle-high band warms up, I know I'm dealing with a whole different level.

Not so much of behavior, but of sound, and level of ability.

Right now we are working on a "young band" (which is a euphemism for semi-cooked beginner players) version of Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell Overture.

I've played this piece in all its original orchestral glory, and it begins with a tone poem--a soundscape imitating nature or other sounds--in this case, a thunderstorm with a heartbreaking cello solo. Only when the storm is over does the piece launch into the familiar strains of the "Lone Ranger" theme.

Well, the kids have been working, well, not exactly very hard, but enough that the piece is starting to sound good, all 65 measures of it. Our version begins with a trumpet fanfare to which low brass and snare are added for a final enthusiastic note before the clarinets take up the main theme.

Kids have to count measures rest. They have to watch me for their entrances, which I make great show of penciling into my music as a way of modeling what they should do. They've never had to do that before, it's all been unison.

The clarinets are then joined by the flutes and trumpets, who afterwards take off with the secondary theme. The snares pretty much have the same rhythm throughout the piece except for the end, when, tacked onto a short piece such as this is an ending worthy of any fifties Hollywood western. Everyone has to observe the same rests and if anyone plays on the rest, well, I stop and make them do it again.

When I hold them to a high standard, they meet it.

I would say 80% of the notes are correct, and none of the subtle things that make a jumble of notes into true music, but the fact that we are this far along with one of our concert pieces 6 1/2 weeks out is a triumph. We are going to need all the rest of that time to work up our other stuff.

Hi ho, Silver, and away!