Snow, Ice...and Bowings

We lost two rehearsals last week (one on Bach, one on Creation) and Butler was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that gave me a chance to try to catch up on some of my own score prep work.

Thanks to my grad student Leeann Ashby, markings for the chorus are complete and have been posted online for all choral movements (thus saving us precious rehearsal time!).

Marks for the instruments, however, are another matter. I'm behind schedule to be sure. Had hoped to have the orchestra parts complete and to the librarians by now. I might actually finish in a week or so.

In addition to putting in articulations and dynamics (Bach, like all the Baroque and even Classical composers) put in only a scant few dynamic instructions. Any conductor doing works like this has to make his or her own decisions, and then figure out a way to communicate that to the musicians. So, I put the marks in my full score, then transfer them to the instrumental parts.

Same with the bowings for the strings (see photo above). It's a time consuming process, but one that ultimately saves time, and makes the rehearsal process more efficient. So it must be done.

This week, though it's still pretty cold, at least we're able to get around. We had a great Bach rehearsal on Monday...started with the Sanctus. I'll post more about that movement later, but that may be one of my favorites in the whole work (I know, I seem to say that about EVERY movement in the B minor mass).

Back to it...