The All-New Bunrab

I went to the US Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Workshop this past week - and discovered that I enjoy it for its own sake, not just for Steve's memory, and that other people look forward to seeing me there for my own sake, not just because I'm Steve's widow. That was an interesting discovery.

There are a lot of things to enjoy at such a conference, even if one isn't a tuba player. It's a whole bunch of music for free. Recitals by excellent professionals, evening concerts by the Army's professional groups - Army Blues, the concert band, etc. And some of the sessions that were lectures or recitals-with-talks were interesting for any musician. The morning warm-up for tuba players included suggestions about breathing and maintaining embouchure that were surprisingly relevant to a bari sax player. And the conversations in the lobby and the bowling alley dining room (the only place for civilians to eat on base most of the time) and at restaurant meals are with people that share a lot of interests in discussing music of all sorts, and griping about community band conductors, and building a music library, and lots of other stuff that isn't just for tubas.

I got to make lots of ophicleide jokes with people who understand ophicleide jokes and have more in turn. There were vendors who recognized me, and wanted to chat. And I bought a cleaning kit for the bass trumpet, and a swab of sorts meant for cleaning a euphonium that I think will do a much better job on the bari sax neck loops than what I'm currently using. And a couple of euphonium mouthpieces which will fit into the sax neck, which is part of the ophicleide jokes. And I am going to practice the bass trumpet more, and maybe even borrow a euphonium to bring to next year's workshop, to participate a bit.
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One of the things I don't like is the process of getting there. Even though Ft. Myer is less than 50 miles away from me, the routes that all the mapping services and GPS suggest are roads that I particularly hate. The BW Parkway is poorly maintained, especially when it crosses into the district and becomes DC-295. Here's one of the more disconcerting steps in the Mapquest directions: "Southwest Freeway/I-695 N becomes I-395 S." That was at least equaled, if not exceeded, in weirdness, by driving right under a sign on the way home that stated that the road that I was on was "I-295 S/ DC-295 N" - really, really disconcerting.The entrances and exits of DC-295 aren;t in the same spots NB as SB. Neither are the entrances and exits to the George Washington Parkway. And neither are the entrances and exits to US-50. All of which means that one can NOT reverse directions to get home.

Saturday night, driving in the dark, I decided on an entirely different route. Since the concert got out early enough that we could still get out by the Wright Gate (the north gate to the army base, which closes at 9 p.m.), I went straight up Ft. Myer Drive which ends directly being an entrance to GW Parkway going Northwest, straight to the west side of I-495, the Beltway. No need to read dimly lit local street signs, no need to watch for intersections or parking lots or pedestrians once I was on GW. That route winds up being some 20 miles longer, total, to get home - but being so much simpler, with so many fewer turns, and more time on higher-speed highways, that it takes no longer - and is MUCH less stressful. I think next year I'll use that route to go TO the fort, right off the bat. Yes, it sounds bizarre, yes, it uses up more gas, but so much easier on my sensibilities (avoiding US 50 altogether has a LOT to recommend it) that it'd be worth the extra $2 worth of gas.

In other news, I finished Rage is Back (see previous post) and also Albert of Adelaide, an adult fable about a platypus who escapes from the Adelaide Zoo to go looking for the Old Australia, where animals are all free and live naturally. Instead he meets up with an arsonist wombat, and they have adventures which unfortunately include a bunch of killing. I think the takeaway is supposed to be something about the power of friendship and mutual support, but the lesson I got out of it was more that the supposed good old days were actually violent, and lives were uncomfortable and short, with violent ends; modern "captivity" is actually a hell of a lot better quality of life. That's just me; you read it and see if you get more of that touching "buddy" feel out of it.

Okay, the last post that wasn't a meme or something was while we were in MA for my cousin's wedding. So here's some pictures:
( the George Washington Bridge )

( My cousin gets married )

( Knitting )

( Oktoberfest )

( back in September )

That catches us up, I think, on everything except books. I've gotta catch up on those yet.

And there were a great many of them.
Getting onto an army post (I am told it's not a base - the navy and the air force have bases, the army has posts. OK.) involves going through security. Luckily, we know about the North Gate, where the lines are considerably shorter than at the West Gate. One time this weekend, we even had the underside of the car inspected with mirrors.

Anyway, I did not attend all the events, so I can't report on everything. I enjoyed John Stevens' class in how to start in on arranging and composing for the tuba-euphonium ensemble; at this point in my would-be arranging career, everything is helpful, but Dr. Stevens was particularly accessible and handed out excellent notes.

The Army Strings seem to be quite short of strings - at the concert on Friday night, they had hired outside players for the last stand in every string section. The first half of the concert was the combined Armed Forces Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble, which this year included people from the UK Royal Navy and the German Air Force. I really need a field guide to uniforms, because not all the people from "the Marines" wear the same uniform, for example - so who the heck is the red jacket with the gold braid and no black frogs instead of white braid and frogging up the front? Who are the people in suit jackets instead of tunics? The second half of the concert Friday night was the Army Orchestra, which is the Army Strings plus various wind players from other Army ensembles, with the aforementioned ringers to beef up the strings; they had two euphonium soloists for euphonium concerti, and one tuba soloist for a tuba concerto; one of the euphonium soloists was one of the UK Royal Navy guys.

I think my favorite concert of the whole conference was the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble 40th Anniversary Alumni All-Stars. This concert featured nine pieces written for this ensemble, for this 40th anniversary. While some of the pieces were forgettable, several were quite memorable. I'll get the negative out of the way first: I would be very surprised if the Gunther Schuller piece ever gets played again after the ensemble finishes this 40th anniversary tour - if it gets played at all by any other group in the next decade, or any group other than this one, I'd be able to count the number of times on my thumbs and have thumbs left over, I'm sure. It was technically challenging and mathematically interesting, and totally unpleasant to listen to. I mean, 10 separate euphonium parts, 12 separate tuba parts, plus two percussion? Tone clusters. Ugh.
OK, now that I've got that out of the way, let me tell you about the stuff I liked. First, John Cheetham's "Bassa Nòbile" was wonderful, and I am quite sure it will become a favorite and a standard in the tuba literature rapidly as soon as it's published for general use. Watch for it, you music directors on my flist. You'll like it. Eric Ewazen's "Basso Cantante" was also quite nice, and also accessible. My favorite overall was Martin Ellerby's "Epitaph VI: Phoenix Rising (Coventry/Dresden)." It was truly beautiful. Because it is commemorating the bombings in WWII of the English city of Coventry including the Cathedral of St. Michaels (and later the bombing of Dresden and its historical buildings), it includes extensive variations on "The Coventry Carol" and I am afraid that will make the piece popular for misuse as a Christmas piece rather than a solemn memorial piece. It was so pretty, though, with the melody often shared by the lower tuba line and the orchestra bells, an unusual combination that worked with surprising clarity.

The Grand Concert at the end was the Army Band - "Pershing's Own" - with soloists. Nickitas Demos' piece "Air Metal and Roll" featured both a euphonium soloist and a trombone soloist, so there's a good chance it will get re-performed at the Eastern Trombone Workshop in March, for those of you considering whether to attend that. It was a lot of fun. My favorite on this concert was another Ellerby piece, his Tuba concerto, and I think Ellerby is one of my new favorite band composers.

A good time despite mediocre food was had by all. We were talking with our friends Jim & Barbara afterwards at the party, and plotting next year to bring a picnic supper of some sort for Saturday night dinner, so we wouldn't have to eat at the Quarterdeck three nights in a row, and particularly, wouldn't have to leave base and then come through security again, and find a parking space again, for the Grand Concert. That'll depend in part on the weather next January - who knows what the heck the weather might be like then? - but I am already plotting a menu.

OK, I slept all day Sunday, which is why you didn't get a report on the Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Conference (hereinafter ABTEC or just TC) as soon as it ended. Them tubers know how to party!
( report, contrast, and compare )
( shameless plea )

Rehearsal tonight! Supper at the Broadway Diner!
This week's upcoming events: the usual rehearsals; appointment with electrophysiologist on Wednesday to see about additional pacemaker improvements/surgery; must find dentist, as I have had a temporary crown on one tooth since June, when the old crown fell off the week before we were leaving Austin, and that temporary crown is finally beginning to show some wear and tear - it should have been replaced by a new crown within a month of when I got it. Dentist, dentist, must find dentist. Must pay for another month of storage unit, and put more things into it. Things we have already accomplished as the week begins: get spare keys cut for house. Purchased chinchilla food, and a new, allegedly dripless, bottle for the swampy guinea pigs. I will believe that when I see it.

This evening was the first concert of the three+ day Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Conference, down at Ft. Myer Army Base near the Pentagon. I know I am going to get a whole lot of crocheting and knitting done, since I will not be watching the mouthpieces and fingering techniques and whatnot nearly as closely as S will. This evening's concert was fun, and we got a chance to meet up with an old friend we hadn't seen in over 10 years, back when he used to play tuba in the Austin Symphonic Band with us - he's living in WV now, so he's only 75 miles or so away from DC also. I suppose we may eventually get tired of devoting so much of our retirement years to chasing band music around, but it hasn't happened yet!

Oh, and my new Pro-Tec soft case for the baritone saxophone finally arrived, too - which will make carrying that to rehearsal a lot easier. Weighs about half what a hard case does. When I ordered it, I used my PO Box address, as I usually do; they delayed shipping to tell me they had to have a street address, couldn't ship to a PO Box. So where did they finally ship it to, two weeks later? You got it, the post office. Ah well, it's here. It's got zipper pockets, and padding, and stuff!

Now to go make a quart of iced tea for tomorrow - the base only has one place that will sell iced tea to civilians, the base bowling alley, and they were out of tea this evening! Must not let that happen again.