Birth of a Piece #3

 

I read through Margi Griebling-Haigh's piece,"Sortilège", with Randall Fusco on Friday.  It was really great to hear the "total picture" after weeks of practicing just the bassoon part and studying the piano score.

The harmonic language of the piece is much more clear to me now.  I anticipated some ensemble issues (as did Randy) by marking some piano cues in my part, but more were needed where I didn't expect them. This is not unusual for me! I'll probably put a few more in as we learn it together. 

Randy's playing supported most of my musical nuances.  Some needed more inflection on my part.  We adjusted a few tempos slightly to help the rhythms set into a groove more.  The piece is composed as a set of free variations based on my name!  It has many sections and lots of tempo changes.  Margi is great at sketching musical moments with concision.

All the technical passages are possible with some broadening for the most difficult of them.  These invariably happen at places where it is good to let the music stretch a bit anyway.

At the end of our work I felt Randy and I had articulated many ideas we agreed upon about the piece. These were mainly related to style, tempo, rubato/ritards and colors.

I'm looking forward to our next rehearsal!