Trio - "Scherzo on Hyfrydol"

Over on the Sonos in Japan 2007 blog, Jason posted a video of him, Missy, and I playing Boude Moore's awesome trio "Scherzo on Hyfrydol".

As Jason says in his post, the piece was introduced into the Sonos repertoire when he, his wife (Diane), and Rick Hoffmeister joined the group many years ago. Those 3 played it in concert for years. I remember the first time I ever saw them play it - my jaw hung open the whole time in amazement.

Then, in 2003, Rick couldn't come to Japan, so I got to learn his part. It's a challenging part to learn not just because I have to 4iH the big bells, but also because in the middle section (where the melody is first played by the group - the slow "intro" is not in the sheet music & was added later by Sonos) my part is a series of interesting patterns. I have only the C5 and C6 bells and have to keep track of which one plays when as the meter-feel changes from 6/8 to 3/4 each measure. (I say "meter-feel" because the printed music doesn't change meter, but the feel of the music does.)

For example, my part in that section goes like this - six 8th notes to each measure - in 2 bar mini-phrases:

rest C5 C6 rest C5 C6 | rest C5 rest C6 rest C5

I repeat those 2 bars, then comes the palindrome:

C6* C5 rest rest C5 rest | rest C5 rest rest C5 C6

(the "C6*" is a melody note)

and then the closing phrase, which is the same thing twice:

rest C5 rest C6 rest C5 | rest C5 rest C6 rest C5

Then, repeat all of that. That takes care of the first 2 bits of the melody, before we go to the next bit:

C6* rest C5 C6* rest C5 | C6* C5 rest C5 rest C5

then do it again without the C6 melody notes:

rest rest C5 rest rest C5 | rest C5 rest C5 rest C5

then do it one more time with a slight variation as the melody comes back to me:

rest rest C5 rest rest C5 | rest C5 rest C5 C6* C5

C6* rest C5 rest rest C5 | rest C5 rest C6 rest C5

Then start combining bits from the first part together with some repeated notes:

C6* C5 rest rest C5 rest (that's the first half of the palindrome) | rest C5 rest C5 rest C5

rest C5 C6 rest C5 C6 (that's the very first pattern I did) | rest C5 rest C5 rest C5

then the melody comes to the high D6, which I 4iH with the C6:

C6* C5 rest C6* C5 rest | D6* C5 C6* C5 rest C5

drop the D6, then get ready to switch positions with Jason:

rest C5 C6 rest C5 C6 | rest C5 rest C6 rest C5 (a pattern from before).

Maybe my brain works in mysterious ways, but thinking of this section in terms of patterns - complete with a running mantra of 1 2 3 4 5 6 underneath it all - helped me memorize the piece. There's no time to look at music in this one!!

The first time we played this piece on this trip, I noticed something interesting: I was no longer counting "1 2 3 4 5 6" in my head as I played, but was just *playing*. It was a surprise to me since I've been counting the numbers in my head for the past 4 years. I had to tell myself, "That's great, now KEEP PLAYING!" so I wouldn't stumble from the shock! :-)

Here's a pic that Ruben took from the wings:



ps. another cool thing about this piece - I have played it in the following trios:

with Diane and Jason Tiller
with Rick Hoffmeister and Jason Tiller
with Missy Vainio and Jason Tiller
with Michael Raposo and Nancy Hascall
with Missy Vainio and Taiko Otsubo
with Michael and Nancy Kastner
with heather and David Keith

AND - I have plans in the spring to play it with Bobby Griffin and Monika Durbin, which I am *really* looking forward to.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, it's SUPER Stevie!

As Stevie Wiltse posted on the Handbell-L, she flew to the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday to direct one of my church group's rehearsal while I'm in Japan.

I "wrote it off" in my budget as "Clinician - Master Class" - I usually hire extra musicians for Christmas Eve, but wasn't planning to do so this year, so I used the money to bring Stevie in.

She somehow managed to get super-cheap flights from Grand Rapids to San Francisco & even managed to fly First Class!

According to reports from my group, flying is not the only thing she does "First Class" - they said that she emphasized all the same things I do and that they really enjoyed having her direct them.

Judging from all the smiles in this picture, I'm guessing they had a great time!

Christmas Cards are Done

My Christmas cards are finally done - I did get 39 of them done in & sent from Fukushima (near Osaka), but I finished the last 11 on the train last night & mailed them this morning from Tokyo.

Here's the interesting bit: when I mailed the 59 from Saga-shi, it cost 260 yen to send to the US & UK (220 to go to Hong Kong), but when I mailed from both Fukushima and Tokyo, it was only 110 yen to the US, UK, Canada, and Hong Kong.

I have no idea why it cost over twice as much to mail from Saga-shi, but in a few days, I will be visiting a friend who is fluent in Japanese & will ask him to look at my post office receipts and see what the difference is.

Did I mail the Saga-shi cards with some sort of Priority Service?? or is it just REALLY expensive to mail things from a more rural location?

Christmas cards

I didn't get my Christmas Cards completed and mailed before I had to leave for Japan.

I completed 59 of them on the plane from San Francisco to Nagoya and mailed them in Saga-shi, Saga, Japan. I am staying in this morning to complete the rest and mail them from here - Fukushima, Osaka, Japan.

I hope the recipients get a kick out of receiving Christmas cards from Japan!

Fun in Fukushima

Sonos is in Fukushima, a suburb of Osaka (pronounced OH-saka, not o-SA-ka), for a few days. We flew in from Fukuoka yesterday morning & had the rest of the day free. (We also have 2 completely free days before our next concert.)

Jason & Cheryl have both posted about our adventures at the Osaka Castle.

Both posts have pictures of Yours Truly. (Jason's post is in his inimitable style - you'll see what I mean.)

Christmas Toes!

Before I left for Japan, I took a little time to pamper myself. The color is called "Buy Buy Tokyo!" and it's the color I like to use when I go to Japan!

I don't know that I'll be seeing many snowmen, but we *are* going to Nagano, so you never know....

Candlelight Service

I direct The Trinity Ringers from Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park, CA. Tonight, we played for the Kara Grief Support Services' annual Candlelight Service.

We played:

• Meditation by Dan R. Edwards (published by Choristers Guild - there is another Meditation by Dan Edwards published by someone else) as the Prelude to the Service;
  
• Grazioso by Arnold Sherman for the Candle of Memory; and
• Within the Darkest Night by Derek Hakes for the Candle of Courage.

This was our 3rd year playing for this service and we love it. The service itself is very emotional -- it's always a challenge to get up and play while all choked up with tears, but the Kara people and the attendees always shower us with compliments afterwards.

Here's a picture of my Ringers!!

Crazy is as Crazy does!

Larry may be my hero, but he's getting some competition!

I posted on the Handbell-L about my need for a substitute director for Tues, Dec 11. Stephanie Wiltse (director of Embellish from Grand Rapids, MI) contacted me off-list, offering to come out here & said that she had a REALLY great deal on flights.

I thought about it and figured that it would be a good thing for my bell choir to have someone like Stevie conduct for the evening - it would be a Master Class!

So, I consulted my records & discovered that I have enough money in the budget for it & so told her "Let's do it!"

Here's the crazy part: She's flying in to SFO on Tuesday morning & then back home that night after rehearsal. At least she gets to fly First Class, so it won't be *too* onerous.

I love handbells!

***

UPDATE: Larry says, Doesn't that make Stephanie Wiltse a SUPER-hero because she can fly?

.

Larry Sue is my hero!

My good friend Larry Sue is my hero this Christmas season! Why?

First of all, he's sub directing for bell rehearsal on Tuesday, Dec 18th at my Presbyterian Church. That group is getting ready for their 30-minute "Choir of Bells Prelude" before the 11:00 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. While they're perfectly capable of rehearsing on their own (and have done so for 4 of the last 5 years!), Larry subbed for me a few weeks ago (while I was at PASIC) and everybody agreed that rehearsal is more fruitful with a director, so I asked him back.

Secondly, he's sub directing both for bell rehearsal on Wednesday, Dec 12th AND for the "Lessons and Carols" service on Sunday, Dec 16th. Our Choir Director was supposed to direct the bells for that service, but it worked out that he's not able to come to any rehearsals, so that Sunday morning would be the very first time he directed the pieces. I think he's got enough to do on Sunday morning, plus I really want my group to be able to rehearse with their director before the service, so Larry came to my rescue again!

I'm happy and proud to be a part of a community in which people help each other out like this.

THANK YOU, Larry, for making my hectic holiday season a little bit easier!

What *else* am I doing?

This time of year is pretty busy for me. Not only am I a church musician - and a handbell musician at that - but 5 out of the last 6 years, I've gone to Japan with Sonos Handbell Ensemble for a Christmas concert tour.

Since many of us in the group are techno-geeks, we have kept travel blogs which talk about our wonderful experiences in Japan, the marvelous concert halls we play in, and the amazing people we meet.

I will mostly be posting over there for the next month, and will try to remember to post links here to my posts over there.

[Update: here are links to 2 of my posts already:
My Annual Trip to the Consulate
Another Trip to the Consulate]

I invite all of you to check out our blogs. Not only this year's blog (as it progresses), but also our blogs from past years. Each year, I like to go back and read the past blogs to re-live the magic, as it were. :-)

You can find our past blogs here:

• Sonos in Japan 2005
• Sonos in Japan 2006

and this year's blog is here:

• Sonos in Japan 2007.

Please come join us in this grand adventure!

Hal Hopson, addendum

Well, tonight was the night! 4 members of the Choir of Bells (I'd link to our web page, but it appears to not be responding right now) played with our church's Chancel Choir and an orchestra for the annual Christmas concert.

The handbells played on Hal Hopson's Come Ye Faithful: A Ceremony of Carols.

Just before the concert, Brian decided that he'd rather take pictures with his new lens than play bells (plus I'm sure he knew I'd be sitting there wishing I was playing rather than watching), so I played in his place.

It all worked out for the good, 'cause here are some pics (click on any of the thumbnails to go to my Flickr page & see the whole set)!



UPDATE: Here's one more pic!