Dear IC Bass Students,
First of all, please welcometoSam Shuhan, Andrew Ryan, Andrew Whitford, Ethan Joziewicz, and Alana Dawes to our studio! (New folks, please do confirm thatyouhave receivedthisemail).
Your Assignment:
Attachedyouwill find bass partsfor four pieces:Brahms IV,Tchaikovski IV,Beethoven III, andSchumann I.These are the main pieces you will be playing in ICSO (Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra) and ICCO (Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra) next year. We will use these piecesfor your fall seatingaudition; our conductor, Jeffrey Meyer, and I will choose severalexcerptsforyoutoplay behind a screen in youraudition, which will probably take place on Tuesday the 24th of August. (Don't worry about that now. Youwill receive specific times and location info as the date approaches).
You will notice that there are no excerpts marked for Brahms IV or Tchaikovski IV. This is because you are responsible for knowing these complete works. As you might imagine, Professor Meyer and I are likely to ask you for some of the obvious licks in these two pieces, but we are equally likely to ask you for a random passage of simple music to see if you are able to convey the affect, tempo, dynamic, articulation, groove, etc. I encourage you to mark cues into your parts for these pieces, to play along withmultiplerecordings many several times, and to be able to sing the themes. Really learn these two pieces well. Additionally, there are 3 specific passages marked in Beethoven III and 2 marked in Schumann I.
Consider this your Summer Orchestra Repertoire Assignment, and begin now. WARNING: you will not be able to do this work in the final weeks before school begins. Since itis the policy of theIthacaCollegeBass Studiotoknow ourmusicbeforethe first rehearsal, think of this assignment as a head start on the semester homework, andcometoschool preparedtoplaythis musicat your highest level.
Listening:
At Ithaca College you are studying Western Classical Music. Surely we can never learn to "speak this language" without listening to it often and deeply. You will understand these pieces only by listening to them attentively - not simply by having them playing in the background while you do email, or something else. Use your time this summer to train your listening skills, learning to listen critically to articulations, length of notes, balance between sections, and subtleties in phrasing and style. I also recommend buying scores to a few of these fabulous pieces, especially the works you are sure to live with for the rest of your professional lives. It can be a joy to follow along with a score while listening to a large orchestral work, and more importantly, this act teaches us how to "pronounce" the notation we see on the page. In this way you will be more inside the piece, and also more excited about this amazing opportunity: for surely it is a remarkable privilege to play these masterworks with such inspiring colleagues, in a terrific hall, for the cheering, exuberant audiences at Ithaca College.
Your efforts this summer to understand this music, to connect with it, to relate to it, and of course to play it, will add tremendously to the quality of your experience when you rehearse and play together next year. Through your summer efforts, I am certain our bass section (this year more than ever) will bring integrity to the whole orchestra, and help raise both the morale, and the performance bar within the string section. We are only as strong as our weakest link, as they say. Please begin to study these pieces now, and use the weeks just before your audition to touch-up and polish these passages, and prepare for a genuine audition experience.
In addition to the four works listed above, please findatleast one recording of the Ravel, Prokofiev, and Rimsky-Korsakovtolistentoextensively throughout the summer as well.
2011-12 ICSO (Symphony Orch.)
•Brahms Symphony no. 4
•Ravel Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Left Hand)
•Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Selections from Suite 1 and 2 (Possibly... Suite 1: 1. Folk dance, 5, Mask, 7. Death of Tybalt, Suite 2: 1. Montagues and Capulets, 2. The Child Juliet, 3. Friar Laurence, 5. Romeo at Juliet's before Parting, 7. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet)
•Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 4
•Rimsky-Korsakov, Capriccio espagnol, op.34
2011-12 ICCO (Chamber Orch.)
•Schumann Symphony no. 1
•Beethoven Symphony no. 3
I am looking forward to an exciting, and inspiring year with you all. Please be safe and kind to yourselves this summer, and come to your audition and to the studio with warm, open hearts. We are going to have a terrific year together!
NW
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Nicholas Walker, DMA
IthacaCollege, School ofMusic
953 Danby Road,Ithaca, NY 14850-7000
(607) 274 3462IthacaCollegeOffice
2326 Whalen Center
(917) 405 5299Cell Phone