Real music

This afternoon I'm subbing in on a show that I've been intermittently playing for the last few weeks and then I'm off to West Chester to play with a local orchestra. Not a FANTASTIC group, but they don't suck either. And they're really really nice, which actually counts for a lot in my book. We're playing Rhapsody in Blue (snore) and Copland's Symphony No. 3. Now, I don't care if I never play Rhapsody again, but can I just try to explain to you how excited I am to play real music? Not some crappy Broadway compilation, and not some silly Motown show, but REAL music? There is at least one person I know in the section and I'm looking forward to being down bell from him. Not only a great player, but a funny guy. I'm playing THIRD, which will be new and different. I haven't played third horn in a REALLY long time. For those of you horn players out there thinking "But that's a high part! I thought she was having trouble with her high range?" Well, that's the part that was assigned to me, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it. I know I can handle it, as my chops have been improving steadily. My high C seems to have come back after an extended vacation (I think he said he's been in "Maui," but he might have said "Malawi.") There's a glitch every once in awhile, but I feel exponentially stronger every day.

Anyway, I was trying to explain what its like to play real, symphonic, orchestral music after a summer and early fall of almost exclusively pops shows.

Have you ever gone a really long time without eating at your favorite restaurant? Then one day, you're walking down the street and its lunchtime and you realize you have just enough time to avail yourself of that burrito you've been craving? And then you get excited and start thinking about what you're going to have on that burrito? Its kinda like that.

Or have you ever decided that you are going to stop drinking coffee? And then after about two weeks of headaches you realize that it was a stupid idea anyway? Then you stop by your favorite coffee shop and have a cup of dark roast and the first taste of it is PERFECTION? Its kinda like that.

Have you ever gone a month without seeing your love and then you meet him at the airport and fall into his arms and everything is perfect again? Okay, I don't think Copland 3 is going to be quite THAT good. But it'll be close.

THAT is how I feel today. I really do love playing the horn, especially now that I can do it again. FINALLY.