Another Day, Another Dollar

6am was surrrrrre a fun time to see this morning :S ... After finally rolling out of bed at 6:40, I did make it to Stratford with plenty of time to spare. The rehearsal went well and I am feeling fairly confident that I can pull off the massive amounts of double-tounging required by Saint-Saens for his Third Symphony (yes the one with the organ). Apparently this music was used in Babe the movie? Here is a fairly sad excuse of a version, but nevertheless...



Again my sincerest apologies to the organists in the crowd... Pay special attention to the 38 second mark of this next movement (which is actually the first) -- you can FEEL the blood pressure of the winds rising (basically for every back and forth movement that you see the strings doing at the very beginning, the winds have to tongue... a very tiring exercise):



This is what I get paid to do folks. As challenging as the Saint-Saens is, I have to say I am most looking forward to the Poulenc Gloria -- one of my most favourite pieces on planet Earth! Ever! It is too bad that this piece has not known to very many people at all though -- Youtube has extremely limited selections for examples. Guess you'll have to come and see it to feel the goosebumps you get from good music! The example that follows is a fairly good snipit although the balance isn't uber-fantastic and there are no visuals. Anyhoo, a movement of the Poulenc Gloria:



Aside from the morning rehearsal nothing terribly eventful happened today although I did catch myself saying a few times that I'm a bassoon major at the faculty of music. I suppose this technically isn't true anymore; whatever am I going to tell people now? This has been my identity for four years! I did learn that saying that I work for the university elicits the idea that I am a cafeteria lady or something... I shall have to come up with something to describe my new vocation...

Well, I am going to go read for a bit and then head for bed. I wish I could share what I'm doing tomorrow morning church-wise but truth be told, I have little desire to make a point of gathering with anyone. Hrmph...

Time for bed I suppose.