Saturday, February 28, 2004
How fast my mood can swing. Yesterday during Mardi Gras I was at the top of the world. The rehearsals for the musical today totally changed my mood.
The cast are doing fine, they’ve learnt their songs and are almost there. What pisses everybody off is that Mr CET has not been dedicating himself to this performance; so far he only came on Wednesday and didn’t perform well during that session. Today he’s cooked up some excuse not to come, and we are all very angry. He’s the main character, he has so many songs to sing, and he commits himself from zero to fifty per cent. The whole musical will collapse without him, and I do not think it is fair that he should volunteer himself to the project and not be committed and make others wait on him. Everyone joins the musical on a voluntary basis and on commitment. No one is enslaved to the project. I don’t understand how he, a relief teacher can be so absolutely busy, especially since he’s teaching only one class. There’s always some stupid excuse which we can tell that are created from his lack of commitment to the project. We are desperate for an understudy in case CET tries to be funny in any sense.
For the strings rehearsal, we go on to the other pieces, but the attempts haven’t been very rosy. The whole session was very messy, although we finished all the songs in the musical already, and we can soon go on to the incidental music. However, I am very worried for the cellos. They are not used to playing the sort of the music I write for that instrument, because in the CO the cello usually plays a bass role. In my case the cellos are an integral part, taking counterpoints and melodies. I am very willing to simplify the scores, but I do not wish to simplify to the extent that it cheapens the whole work and that they end up playing sustained notes for an hour or so. It makes me feel very bad. I haven’t been feeling good, even up till now; I thought of one-to-one sessions with the cellos themselves, away from the Saturday sessions I do with the Chamber people. At least I can clear problems with rhythm and pitch. I think my cellists will be less pressured just practising between the two of them alone, without the rest of the strings.
At last this coming Wednesday will be the first, fully-combined orchestral rehearsal. With Mardi Gras finally over all the musicians should be able to attend, except those who have some music lessons elsewhere (which I don’t want them to change because those should be their priority). I’m praying all will attend, because I cannot afford to loose any more people. And I hope they won’t loose their scores or anything, because I’m really sick and tired to printing scores already… I’ve already busted two ink cartridges and my father has threatened not to buy anymore.
With the release of the A-level results looming ahead, I can only expect the worse. I wish people would stop saying, “You can do it, no problem…” It only makes me feel even more like drowning myself. ¶ 2/28/2004 10:15:00 pm
The cast are doing fine, they’ve learnt their songs and are almost there. What pisses everybody off is that Mr CET has not been dedicating himself to this performance; so far he only came on Wednesday and didn’t perform well during that session. Today he’s cooked up some excuse not to come, and we are all very angry. He’s the main character, he has so many songs to sing, and he commits himself from zero to fifty per cent. The whole musical will collapse without him, and I do not think it is fair that he should volunteer himself to the project and not be committed and make others wait on him. Everyone joins the musical on a voluntary basis and on commitment. No one is enslaved to the project. I don’t understand how he, a relief teacher can be so absolutely busy, especially since he’s teaching only one class. There’s always some stupid excuse which we can tell that are created from his lack of commitment to the project. We are desperate for an understudy in case CET tries to be funny in any sense.
For the strings rehearsal, we go on to the other pieces, but the attempts haven’t been very rosy. The whole session was very messy, although we finished all the songs in the musical already, and we can soon go on to the incidental music. However, I am very worried for the cellos. They are not used to playing the sort of the music I write for that instrument, because in the CO the cello usually plays a bass role. In my case the cellos are an integral part, taking counterpoints and melodies. I am very willing to simplify the scores, but I do not wish to simplify to the extent that it cheapens the whole work and that they end up playing sustained notes for an hour or so. It makes me feel very bad. I haven’t been feeling good, even up till now; I thought of one-to-one sessions with the cellos themselves, away from the Saturday sessions I do with the Chamber people. At least I can clear problems with rhythm and pitch. I think my cellists will be less pressured just practising between the two of them alone, without the rest of the strings.
At last this coming Wednesday will be the first, fully-combined orchestral rehearsal. With Mardi Gras finally over all the musicians should be able to attend, except those who have some music lessons elsewhere (which I don’t want them to change because those should be their priority). I’m praying all will attend, because I cannot afford to loose any more people. And I hope they won’t loose their scores or anything, because I’m really sick and tired to printing scores already… I’ve already busted two ink cartridges and my father has threatened not to buy anymore.
With the release of the A-level results looming ahead, I can only expect the worse. I wish people would stop saying, “You can do it, no problem…” It only makes me feel even more like drowning myself. ¶ 2/28/2004 10:15:00 pm
