bekah's life: January 2008

I am in orchestration and arranging with Dr. Ashton. We had this assignment that was described as the following:

"Copy parts for the 1st and 2d oboes and the 2d clarinet from Haydn's Symphony No. 104 in D Major. Place each instrument on a separate staff on the same page. For the last eight measures, give the 2d oboe a performance cue of the viola line (watch the clef) and provide a performance cue of the 1st oboe part for the last 8 measures in the clarinet."

Ok. What does that sound like to you? I assumed it was in score form, since that is what we had done the day before, and it said "on the same page." So that night I began to work on it--for two hours, completing a whole 5 measures out of 15. I labored on it painstakingly--drawing all lines and stems with rulers. Lining up all notes vertically with my ruler. My pink pearl eraser was my trusty side-kick the whole way. (It has undoubtedly lost a little weight through the journey.) Then I got to the "cues" part. This seemed odd to me. Why would the book want me to write cues in for a score? Then I read "copy parts." Oh no! Could it be that I was supposed to extract separate parts for each instrument? (Who would want a score of 2 oboes, 2nd clarinet, and viola cues anyway?) I immediately stopped what I was doing. I would ask Dr. Ashton later. I checked his office multiple times, but alas he was in absentia. I waited until after orchestra to ask him. Yes, I was supposed to have extracted the parts and made them separate. The book told us "on the same page" so we could save paper. Wasn't that nice of them? "Well...I already started doing it in score. I've been working on it for two hours...do you think I could do surgery on it?" He said, "Ok, this time, and if it's neat." Yes. I didn't have to start over.

So tonight I listened to Mahler 1 (By the way, I adore how Claudio Abbado and the Beliner Philharmoniker start the 2nd mvt. slower and then do an accelerando.) whilst doing the cutting. It started thunder storming.