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Not exactly the music of the spheres
I finally got to play DW music in concert!
No, it wasn't as awesome as it sounds.
To be honest, I'm not sure why we performed the DW medley last night. Our concert band - which is for adults who want to learn to play an instrument or pick music back up after having last played in high school - is probably middle-school level in ability, and one of the things we do is play concerts at retirement homes in the area. That was the concert last night. We haven't rehearsed the DW medley very much and the soloists that play for a couple of the excerpts can't play their parts yet, so I have no idea why our director included it in the play list. It's not like anyone in the audience had ever heard of the show. And the playlist was really long - ten pieces, when we usually only play seven - so we really could have used one less piece, especially one this long.
The medley has the following pieces in order:
Doctor Who Theme (Eleventh Doctor's version)
Martha's Theme
The Dark and Endless Dalek Night
Rose's Theme
The Cybermen
The Doctor's Theme
DW Theme reprise
(The arrangement actually has "I Am the Doctor" as the finale after "The Doctor's Theme", but our band is not good enough to handle the complex rhythms in the 4/4 - 3/4 section, so we replaced it with replaying the main theme.)
We actually did pretty well for a while. The saxophonist who does the solo for Martha's Theme finally nailed it, too. We got all the way through "Rose's Theme", which is andante in 3/4, and... Our director completely missed the transition into "The Cybermen", which is allegro in 4/4. So there he is beating in a slow three while the band is trying to accelerate to a fast four. It was a disaster. Luckily, the flautist who plays the solo for "The Doctor's Theme" took charge and, while he didn't play it perfectly, he brought the band back together and we played the rest fine (except the percussionists who missed the transition back to the main theme, but the rest of the band ignored them and entered at the right time to take the song through).
What a mess.
But it was still awesome playing DW music. And honestly, that's the fun of live music - we make mistakes and correct them, and make music and memories. We'll have it ready for the June concert, which is our main concert. And I'll be in my Fifth Doctor costume, too. :D
No, it wasn't as awesome as it sounds.
To be honest, I'm not sure why we performed the DW medley last night. Our concert band - which is for adults who want to learn to play an instrument or pick music back up after having last played in high school - is probably middle-school level in ability, and one of the things we do is play concerts at retirement homes in the area. That was the concert last night. We haven't rehearsed the DW medley very much and the soloists that play for a couple of the excerpts can't play their parts yet, so I have no idea why our director included it in the play list. It's not like anyone in the audience had ever heard of the show. And the playlist was really long - ten pieces, when we usually only play seven - so we really could have used one less piece, especially one this long.
The medley has the following pieces in order:
Doctor Who Theme (Eleventh Doctor's version)
Martha's Theme
The Dark and Endless Dalek Night
Rose's Theme
The Cybermen
The Doctor's Theme
DW Theme reprise
(The arrangement actually has "I Am the Doctor" as the finale after "The Doctor's Theme", but our band is not good enough to handle the complex rhythms in the 4/4 - 3/4 section, so we replaced it with replaying the main theme.)
We actually did pretty well for a while. The saxophonist who does the solo for Martha's Theme finally nailed it, too. We got all the way through "Rose's Theme", which is andante in 3/4, and... Our director completely missed the transition into "The Cybermen", which is allegro in 4/4. So there he is beating in a slow three while the band is trying to accelerate to a fast four. It was a disaster. Luckily, the flautist who plays the solo for "The Doctor's Theme" took charge and, while he didn't play it perfectly, he brought the band back together and we played the rest fine (except the percussionists who missed the transition back to the main theme, but the rest of the band ignored them and entered at the right time to take the song through).
What a mess.
But it was still awesome playing DW music. And honestly, that's the fun of live music - we make mistakes and correct them, and make music and memories. We'll have it ready for the June concert, which is our main concert. And I'll be in my Fifth Doctor costume, too. :D