GCNE Meeting/Rehearsal 12-12-10

Victor, Glenn, Brad, Rick, Dev, Chris

C sloshes in around 8:30 while the rest of the Circle Thraks, Circulates and Batracho's. With all arriving group members now present, a moment is taken to check sound using recently-acquired PA speakers.

With the performance series drawing near, V suggests that the group continue to run through repertoire, to refresh and to see how the Circle is faring with various pieces of the past, present and (later) future. It falls upon the late arrival to call the set:

Calliope;
Flying Home;
Prelude from Bach's WTC;
(an attempt is made to call Third Relation);
Chrysanthemum;
Love is Green (a few false takes required);
Bicycling to Afghanistan (with B on Bass and G sitting out to balance the sound);
Opening.

The latter piece has a new bass part being introduced to it and is given special attention; D picks it up quickly and the full group is given a hearing, to general approval. V is confident to finally extend the arrangement to its scored length, though work is still needed.

Break at 9:54. During this time, it is noted that Martin B. gives excellent, if not bear-like, hugs.

Returning to practice, V expresses concern over persistent rushing (the unintentional speeding-up of tempo) that is present in the group's handling of pieces. In his experience, solid time comes from having a holistic vantage of the sequence in motion; for example, rather than having one's attention absorbed by the difficulty of a single passage or section, one is aware of all parts of the music while the action is taking place. To do this, he proffers, a part of the performer needs to be relaxed, regardless of the intensity of what is going on around (the 'point' of vantage, for instance).

Following this, the group dedicates some time to working through B's arrangement of Debussy's The Sunken Cathedral. Nobody is 'off-book' with this piece yet, and there is no complete recital of it. However, each section is addressed, and it seems promising that the arrangement will soon be on its feet.

To close the evening, Askesis! and a second hearing of Batrachomyomachy, with R counting in.

The meeting ends at 11:40.

GCNE Meeting, 12-05-2010, The Loft

In attendance: Victor McSurely, Brad Hogg, Glenn Hughes. The rest of the circle is out due to various circumstances.

8 pm finds Victor and Brad beginning to swap out the speakers in the loft's PA system for the speakers that the circle will be using for the performance series (the plan is to experiment with quadrophonic sound, with the circle playing in the round). Glenn arrives shortly after, and we take the necessary time to tune and warm up.

Victor puts forward the question of "What would we play, were we to have a 35 minute set ready, right now?" Several pieces are mentioned, including Chrysanthemum. Victor and Glenn take a bit of time to review this piece and relearn some parts that haven't been played for a while. Thrak also gets a nod: how would we play it as a trio? This leads to Brad learning a separate part and retouching a part he'd already been playing, with some group work on the piece.

From here, we take an extended moment to actually properly run a short set, which roughly consists of (no particular order):

Growing Circle
Intergalactic Boogie Express
Askesis
Improv
Derailed at the Junction
Thrak
Circulation
Chrysanthemum
Improv
Flying Home
Circulation
Where is the Nurse?

This lasts around 35 minutes, after which we take a break and talk about dude stuff.

Following the break, we spend some time going over the Sunken Cathedral arrangement. With only three people of a desired seven, it's a little thin, but the section that we end up working on (bars 22 through 63 or so) allows us to at least look at a few of the parts and make some decisions about timing and preference for pick vs. fingers. Following all this, it's acknowledged that the meeting is done, and we call it a night at around 10:15 p.m.