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Radical Totality

~ an experimental creative laboratory by Mark Snyder

Radical Totality

Tag Archives: Lee County Community Orchestra

Rolling on the floor, laughing

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in Uncategorized

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ahimsa, aikido, bad dancer, death, double bass, family, fatherhood, Hayley, kinesthetic learning, Lee County Community Orchestra, meditation, Melanie, mortality, mu-shin, no-mind, pacifism, wu-wei, Zen

It’s funny how life decides to challenge you.

I wrote here last week about my reaction to my father’s impending death.  Five days ago, life decided to throw me a curve ball.

Just after 8 Friday morning a man came after me, possibly wanting to kill me.  He was armed with several weapons, including a K-Bar military knife. It’s not clear exactly what his intentions were because I wasn’t where he thought I was, and by the time I was aware anything had happened he was already in the custody of the police, who had to take him down with guns and Tasers drawn.    I think there’s a decent chance that if he had guessed right I might not be here writing this post.

I had already been thinking about my own mortality because of my father’s dying- but I had no idea when I left for work Friday morning how close I was to leaving my kids without a father.  Strangely (or perhaps not), I found I didn’t fear death at all.  What I did fear was the devastation my death would bring to my children, whose future depends on me being here.  Dealing with the possibility of violence is an occupational hazard for me (and this is not the first time I’ve faced a wanna-be assassin), but it really sunk in in a powerful way that this was for real- that somebody who maybe did too many drugs might one day ruin my kids’ lives by sticking a K-Bar through my chest.

Not without a fight.  I am an avowed pacifist.  I quietly brushed off all the suggestions to get a concealed-carry permit (which would do me no good at work anyway, since of course I could not carry a weapon in the building).  Yet, I suddenly felt that I could not use pacifism and ahimsa to allow me to be a sitting duck the next time.  I would not wish my attacker any harm (I actually pity the guy who came after me), but that doesn’t mean I have to let him run me through, even if I were perfectly able to do so without blinking. 

Monday I started training in an aikido dojo.  The great thing about aikido- the real challenge of it- is that aikido is about using the energy of an attack against you and neutralizing it, without harm to wither the attacker or defender.  The last thing I needed was to take on something else! but I have to be able to do something if I am ever faced with this situation again and need to defend myself.

I am no stranger to the mental and emotional discipline of martial arts.  I’ve done this type of meditation work for years and am well comfortable with the concept of no-mind (mu-shin in Japanese, wu-wei in Chinese: it’s the feeling you have when you are so comfortable at an activity that you just disappear into it and do it effortlessly and naturally, without thinking)- but I have not done the physical discipline of martial arts before.  Heck, I just got back in the gym this summer.  (Doing well with it, by the way- down about 10 lbs and feel a heck of a lot stronger).  I was pleasantly surprised last night at the orchestra’s first rehearsal that I was able to play with no-mind despite laying off all summer to rest a thumb injury caused by bad technique.  It flowed effortlessly and freely, without any conscious thought about technique, position, etc.  It just played- a far cry from the night before with me stumbling and staring stupidly around the dojo.

I’ll confess right here- I find it tough.  It’s strange for a musician, but I am not a good kinesthetic learner.  I have trained myself to be able to learn fine motor skills (such as playing the bass), but I’m a tough learner with gross motor skills because I’ve never really done it.  (Sadly, I could never learn to dance.  I’d just get too confused, like a kinesthetic dyslexia.  Which foot do I move?  Left?  No, right?  Do I move forward or backward?  Where does my weight go? etc.  It’s why I am a terrible dancer.).  It’s the same with aikido.  So far it’s slow going for me to pick up a form- sensei and my sparring partner, who is also a black belt, have been very patient with me- but once I got it I got it.  I’m sore as hell, using muscles I haven’t in years.  I’m exhausted.

And yet I feel stronger- and younger.   I felt like an old man last week.  This week I’m rolling into somersaults like a kid as I get thrown to the floor.  I think I owe that guy some thanks- so long as he accepts it without any weapons, or else he’s going to end up down on the ground!

Armed Forces Salute

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

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Armed Forces Salute, double bass, Lee County Community Orchestra, music

Armed Forces Salute, arr. Lowden, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass in the back, far stage left, with sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Mozart- Symphony No. 25 in G minor. I. Allegro con brio

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

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double bass, Lee County Community Orchestra, Mozart, music, Symphony No. 25

Mozart- Symphony No. 25 in G minor.  I.  Allegro con brio, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass in the back, far stage left, with sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Gershwin- Rhapsody In Blue

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

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double bass, George Gershwin, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, Rhapsody In Blue

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass far stage left, in the back, with the sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Dvorak- Symphony No. 9 (“New World”). IV. Allegro con fuoco

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

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double bass, Dvorak, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, New World Symphony, Symphony 9

Dvorak- Symphony No. 9 (“New World”).  IV.  Allegro con fuoco, performed by the Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  May 13, 2013.

I’m the tall bass far stage left, behind the curtain, with the sunglasses hanging off my collar.

Notes on LCCO Spring concerts

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Arban, Berlioz, bruch, Chaminade, classical music, double bass, Dukas, intonation, Kol Nidrei, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, orchestra, performance, Sibelius, Symphonie Fantastique, Vivaldi, Von Weber

We’ve just finished our spring concerts.  They came off well, and it was quite a show, including many soloists, prayers of repentance, a trip to Italy, a (musical) beheading, and a marriage proposal (she said yes).  The concerts were videotaped (what an anachronistic word!), so when they get posted online I’ll post links if anyone’s interested.

Tuesday’s dress rehearsal was awful.  I have only been playing the bass for a year (and it’s very frustrating being a beginner on a difficult instrument when I am a much better musician on other instruments), and pretty much jumped in sink or swim style, so there has never been a point in my career on the double bass (unlike the bass guitar) when I have not been in over my head.  Tuesday I was awful.  Intonation is an issue for me since I’m still a rookie, but Tuesday I was like a pitcher who can’t find the plate and who gives up a 5-0 lead in the 1st.   I’m convinced some of that was the room.  The high school band room we normally rehearse in has a lot of natural reverb which helps.  This church- while a beautiful hall- seems to have been designed to suck up all ambient sound (I imagine it works for them- the church service is amplified, while the noise from the congregation gets sucked up).  That made it an entirely different prospect to hear and get the intonation correct-  I was not the only one struggling in the room.  I had to resort to the elementary school trick of placing a few camouflaged stickers on the fingerboard to mark where the really problematic notes were so I didn’t blow them (high G, I’m looking at you.)  That worked well enough, though I will admit it was a humiliation to have to resort to that in performance.

Friday’s dress rehearsal was much better, in part because of the stickers, and in part because I was getting used to the room.  My kids were there- and weren’t all that happy about it- but they behaved like angels and that made it much easier to focus on the music.  I did miss one piece taking the little one to the bathroom because she was too scared to go by herself.

The program was as follows:

Alla Marcia from Karelia Suite, Sibelius

For me, a nice little warmup with a lot of octave eighth notes.  Pleasant little ditty.

Serenade from Harold In Italy

Another nice, easy, pretty piece- easy bass part, most of it pizzicato.  Morgan Brewer did a nice job playing the viola solo- a part commissioned by Paganini that he refused to play because he didn’t get to play *every* measure.

Kol Nidrei, Bruch

Bruch’s setting of the Yom Kippur prayer disavowing any vows made to God but not kept in the coming year.  The Kol Nidrei has a fascinating and controversial history , which I wasn’t aware of when this first appeared on my stand, as I’m not Jewish.  Who knew a piece so slow could be so difficult?  It’s an amazingly beautiful piece, but a real challenge to keep the bass’s tone sounding good playing pianississimo.  Also, it’s *so* slow it’s very easy to get lost.  Playing this piece is a wonderful challenge but I found it a bit exhausting.

Concertino for Flute and Orchestra, Chaminade

Another pretty piece with a fairly straightforward bass part.  Jessica Traversino played the flute solo so well her boyfriend proposed!  It’s not often we get to play classical pieces by female composers- historically, though I’m no expert on music history, it seems to me that women weren’t given the support or opportunities in Western music until the last century or so.  All the more reason to be proud of playing a piece written by a woman in 1902

Intermission   

L’Estro Armonico Concerto, No. 10, Vivaldi

Interesting little piece featuring a violin quartet.  Because of the solo/tutti structure of the piece, I spent about half the piece standing around at rest.  Normally I play most of the time, so I was not used to just standing there counting rests.

Fantasie Brilliante, Arban

Wicked key (Db- five flats) but a straightforward bass part.  Carol Judd rocked the house with her Wynton Marsalis-inspired solo trumpet arrangement.

Villanelle, Dukas

An odd piece (though it fit) written by the composer of  The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (most famous because of the film Fantasia).  Lots of strings of 8-10 measures of tied whole notes on the bass.  The horn was nicely played by Eric Keith.

Concerto for Clarinet No. 2 in Eb Major, Von Weber

A very Mozart-like piece that showcases the clarinet, well done by Lauren Wilkins.  A few challenging parts for me, including a 16th-note run that is just an Ab scale on the string, but it’s just too fast for me as a beginner.  Still a lot of fun to play.

March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz

This one closed the show and is a real bear.  This one pushed me well beyond the limits of what I am capable of on the bass, but I did a more than passable job on it.  When I look back at this season a few years from now, I am positive I will look at playing this as one of the clear experiences that made me a better bassist.  And tomorrow morning, when the base of my left thumb hurts like hell, I’ll be looking back and blaming Hector Berlioz!

This piece is also clear evidence that Berlioz used way too much opium.  The Symphonie Fantastique is a programmatic symphony that tells the story of a man (thought to be Berlioz himself) who falls in love that is unrequited.  In this movement, out of desperation he attempts suicide by overdose of opium, but instead of dying he goes into a delirious hallucination (yes, this is 1830’s psychedelia) that he has murdered his beloved and is going to the guillotine for the murder.  The movement is replete with a depiction of his dreaming about her just as the guillotine slams down (listen for the solo clarinet, then WHAM!!! and the pizzicato rolling of the head).

It’s clear Berlioz had issues.

True story:  last summer, when I decided I had to leave the orchestra I was playing and had to find a new one, my choices came down to two.  I was in Chapel Hill at a wonderful chamber music festival (that was, again, over my head).  The music director there is also the director of the community orchestra in Chapel Hill.  Since many of the members of that orchestra are also music students at UNC, the caliber of musicians they have is entirely beyond me, yet he recruited me pretty hard.  His selling point:  they were going to perform all of Symphonie Fantastique.  I pulled down the bass part from IMSLP and looked it over.  I said “Hell no.”  I’d only been playing the bass a few weeks and there was *no way* I could play it.  So to Lee County I went!  Then, come January, what do I find on my stand?  The Marche Aux Supplice.  I can’t get away from this thing!

Our next concerts are in May.  We’ll play (among other things) some Dvorak, some John Williams pops (Star Wars Suite, Harry Potter Suite), music from The Sound of Music, and Copeland’s Fanfare for a Common Man.  

Here’s a couple of pictures.  I’m the bass in the green shirt (for St. Patrick’s Day).  I had a black jacket to fit the dress code, but it was too damn hot under the stage lights.

Resampled952013-03-179516-01-1395614 2013-03-179514-58-2695181

Vital

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

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abstract, aleatoric, bass guitar, granular synthesis, Gyorgi Ligeti, Lee County Community Orchestra, micropolyphony, music, soundscape

Vital

An aleatoric soundscape created using granular synthesis.  Inspired by Gyorgy Ligeti’s use of micropolyphony.

Dress rehearsal went well.  We’ve adjusted to the room.  It’s a difficult hall to play in.  It’s very strange- I have never heard a church whose acoustics are so dead- there is no natural reverberation at all.  It sucks all unamplified sound out of the air, which makes playing orchestral instruments difficult, to say the least.  Concert is tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon.

Moonlight

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

abstract, aleatoric, baseball, bass guitar, double bass, intuitive composition, Lee County Community Orchestra, music, solo, soundscape

Moonlight

An ambient aleatoric intuitive composition soundscape created by me.

I needed to cut loose after a terrible dress rehearsal tonight with the orchestra.  I was like a pitcher who can’t find the plate and gave up a 5-0 lead in the first inning.  I expected Reinette, the principal bassist, to come out to the mound and send me to the showers- but she’s too kind for that.

It is so frustrating having expectations so much higher than your actual ability on a difficult instrument.  With the double bass, I have to struggle with every bit of minutiae, since I’m a beginner and because it is so difficult to play, especially being self-taught.  The bass guitar comes naturally- I can ask “what can I do to use this creatively?”  Nowhere near that on the double bass yet, and it’s frustrating.

By the way, if you’re in the neighborhood, our concerts are at the Grace Chapel Church on Highway 1 in Tramway (Sanford), NC on Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 3 pm.  Admission is free.  C’mon by if you’re not doing anything.

The Christmas Song

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

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Christmas, Lee County Community Orchestra, music

The Christmas Song, by Torme and Wells.

Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  December 1, 2012.

I’m the tall bass in the back wearing a Santa hat.

The Bells of Christmas

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Mark Snyder in music

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Christmas, Lee County Community Orchestra, music

The Bells of Christmas, arranged by Kronstad.

Lee County Community Orchestra, Sanford, NC.  December 1, 2012.

I’m the tall bass in the back wearing the Santa hat.

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Observer

News, data and insight about the powerful forces that shape the world.

kushtrimthaqi

Just another human being who's trying to reach new levels of consciousness.

A PILLAR OF SOCIETY

annamosca

Poetic Landscapes Of The Spirit

M.O.A

Poetry On A Roll

"free-verse" poetry from the soul

notes by scribblerbean

life in the margins, caffeinated.

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Disorder shall prevail thanks to Sister Entropy

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Selected Poems

She's in Prison

Poetry by Leanne Rebecca Ortbals

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reading the Zora Neale Hurston boxed set plus two books.

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Just another WordPress.com site

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Read A Little Poetry

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? ― Mary Oliver

Awake & Asleep

Letters from Edinburgh to Manila, and Back

Poesy plus Polemics

Words of Wonder, Worry and Whimsy

"It is as it is"

New Beginnings

By Erika Enriquez

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POETRY, RANDOM THOUGHTS AND STUFF LIKE THAT....

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