Starlit Field Beyond the Flames

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Band exchange at Hwa Chong was disastrous.

Our band was the most unprepared band there and we actually performed.

We were the 7th band to perform (Out of total 9 bands) so we got to listen to other bands perform first.

All the other bands had more members, and were about 90% prepared for SYF.

Our band on the other hand, lack members, and we JUST RECENTLY changed our SYF choice piece from boring Grade 4 piece, Cantilena, to Grade 5 piece, Finale from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2: Little Russian.

Go listen to both songs if you people can find them online. Cantilena is WAY easier compared to Finale.

I kinda understand why Mr. Ong changed the choice piece. Cantilena will never get us a gold, no matter how well we play. Plus we'll be at a disadvantage as all the other bands' choice pieces are all around 9 minutes long. Cantilena? Like 3 minutes...

When Mr. Ong changed the piece, it gave me a little hope. That if we work hard for Finale, we'll be crying tears of joy on the SYF day because we achieved a Gold award and not Silver or anything below. Finale WAS something I looked forward to every band practice. Not anymore. Not after the exchange.

So back to the topic. After the 6th band performed their marvelous choice piece, we went up on stage. When we played the tuning note, I realised the acoustics of the stage there was WAY different from the RP one. When I played MF it sounded like FF.
Set piece: Overture No. 2 (Set piece for SYF).
As a band, we started off great. The balance was there and all.
Everything was fine for this piece I guess.
Well I have to admit I kinda fucked up at the Clarinet melody part (Bar F). What can I do? The fucking high D won't come out properly. I blame the reed completely. SOMEONE broke my best reed, Zonda 3 1/2, back at RP so I had to use a substitute.
So other than that, nothing really went wrong for this piece. I'm just disappointed because I know I could have made that section sound as good as, or hell, better than how other bands played it. I'm not a show off, I know my capabilities.
Choice piece: Finale
This song, when we played it during the exchange, was fucking disastrous.
I think everyone at least made a small mistake.
Again, I'm disappointed in myself for screwing up at the semi-quaver running notes part towards the end of the song. I think I was tired or whatever, I just couldn't double-tongue there, and had no breath.

I'm so not gonna let our band put up another humiliating performance ever again. I want the band to get a Gold. We seriously deserve it after all the long tiring practices we had, all the study/social time we had to sacrifice for band. Plus the results show it. Last year we got a Silver for the National Band Competition. It was the first time playing in a competition so we were quite satisfied with a Silver. Not to forget the year end performance we had last year. Almost everyone said we sounded great.
I'll at least perfect the parts for the Clarinet section. Its the least I have to do.

Speaking of being humiliated, I think people lose hope after going through such experience. Not me though. I'll make the SYF performance our revenge time. I hope other band members feel the same way too, about wanting to perform well during SYF and having a good laugh about the horrible playing at the exchange.

Its better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit.

Phew, I got most of my frustration out.
At times like this, I wish she was with me. Someone I can talk to (Of course, all the "fucks"s will be replaced when I'm talking to her =P)
I wanna see her!! =(.

SHUT UP.
10:02 PM