Sunday, 24 April 2005

The Major General Music is a cruel one, he is...
Yup, I think I'm getting old, decrepit, and even more brutally sarcastic. I'm even starting to LOOK old. The MSVMA Executive Director asked me what year in college I was because I "looked older than the others." Help!
"Tyler, how did you spend your weekend? Did you party? Did you sleep? Did you practice for juries? Did you play piano?"
Nope.
I'm an over-the-top music geek. An unenviable, over-the-top, all-out music geek. How did I spend my weekend? I'll tell you how I spent a good part of my weekend. I spent it up in Big Rapids, MI, assisting Ludington HS choir Rebecca Sopha run an insanely chaotic State Choral Solo & Ensemble Festival-Central Site, proudly sporting a name tag that read, "Hello my name is Tyler M. Racey Hope College/Ludington" (gotta cover all those bases, you know!). Why? I'm a glutton for punishment and it looks good on a resumé as a music education major.
I represented Hope College well. Some crazy parent from Haslett went insane seeing the "Hope College" part of my name and yelled for her occupied daughter to talk to me while in transit to the sight-reading room farthest from her performance room because apparently her daughter's going to Hope. So that I did-yay for Hope College.
How bad can it be? Plenty. I spent two days basically charging up and down the stairs in the commons area of Big Rapids High School fetching performance and sight-reading results, which has its physical activity benefits but can tire one out prematurely. And don't ask me how many times this conversation occurred:
"How long will it take to get results in?" asks the curious and uninformed-yet-well-meaning parent.
(Insert sigh) "It depends," answers Tyler M. Racey Hope College/Ludington for the (insert REALLY big number here + suffix -"th") time.
"Why can't I find out right away?"
"Because the workers periodically collect results from the rooms, one at a time. Depending on when your event is, it may take as little as 10 minutes or as long as 45 minutes."
"Oh. That sounds strange."
One of my other favorites was when I would encounter directors (or worse, parents arriving in the stead of a director-in absentia) barging into the tight space of the festival nerve center, the headquarters, looking for their ratings that weren't complete. Then the Tyler M. Racey Hope College/Ludington would run up the tall stairs to the sight-reading rooms in search of ratings to find a mile-high stack with a disgusted adjudicator wondering where the runners are. Then the Tyler M. Racey Hope College/Ludington would proudly descend the stairs to the jubilation of the directors, parents, and spectators, attempting to mosh the Tyler M. Racey Hope College/Ludington, who would joyously shout, "Hurray for me!!"
The most famous annoyance is the adjudicators in the performance rooms. They take their own pretty little time picking at the soloists or ensembles. The timers in the room will notify the judges with one-minute warnings and then when time is up, the timer will say "Time." Instead of saying, "Okay, you may leave" to the scared little high schoolers, the judge says instead, "Thank you" and keeps on talking away like nothing happened. One occasion that sticks out is when the judge continued for close to three minutes after time was called, to the point where the timer diplomatically-yet-firmly said, "I'm sorry, but time expired several minutes ago. You need to finish NOW." The nice Big Rapids girl took no crap-go get 'em, sweetie! And this, folks, is why festivals never run perfectly on schedule. Judges refusing to cooperate = off-time schedules.
I got my laughs in, though. The poor little high schoolers were petrified of sight-reading. Despite some really nice adjudicators, they were terrified of sight-reading. Being the music geek I am (and being afraid of it myself last year), I investigated in the sight-reading book at the toughest stuff MSVMA could conjure up this year to trip up their pretty little soloists. So I turned to page ## which escapes me (see, I'm old) and looked at "Tenor-Advanced." After looking through it quickly, I started to laff hysterically at it. My choir teacher didn't lie-I've been sight-reading stuff many times harder than that lot for months now. I almost sneezed at it-this stuff was ADVANCED?
Note: THIS WAS ADDED AFTER THE ANGELA POSTED HER FIRST COMMENT
I wasn't perturbed by everything-my brain short-circuited after I wrote about the things that annoyed me, so perhaps an addendum would be appropriate here in the comment conversation.
There were good points too-I got free food while I was there and I stayed free overnight on Friday night! Didn't do much in the hotel-the continental breakfast was crammed full of people with small children and the only decent thing on TV was "The Tonight Show" and that wasn't too exciting. I also saw Mr. Russ Larimer, the fantabulous director from Traverse City West High School, who asked me how two of his former students now at Hope are doing. I did grin and say they're doing wonderfully. Mr. Larimer himself had many excellent performers at the festival which I did enjoy. Oh yeah, and my own colleagues from Ludington did well, too. A lot fun stuff, a few annoyances, and plenty of experience now at running a festival-here comes another thingy for the resumé. Hurray for me for a punshing weekend!
Today's word for the day is: "cauldron." Why? Because it sounds funny. Say it out loud and don't laff.

Comments(3)

You sound almost perturbed by everything. This is a cauldron of strange musicalness. I remember sight reading. That was my absolute most favorite of anything ever. Also I think your writing is sounding more like me. That could be good, that could be bad too soon too tell I'd say.
chickenlittle27
Yes well I said almost. Not actually and I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't fun those things usually are. And didn't you know that Fantabulous is one the words that Angelas do say frequently? Yes well that is because I am fantabulous: 'Hurray for me!' I don't think that you really needed the addendum. Possibly you are simply fishing for more comments.
chickenlittle27
Nonsense! I just wanted to offer the fuller version of the story, like a re-released film with extra footage and there was plenty of fun stuff too. However, this addendum did in fact yield another comment, thanks to my efforts! Hurray for me! And no, I did not know that the Angela also enjoys the word "fantabulous." I used it frequently before ever meeting the Angela. It is a good word, though. Huzzah!
Major_General_Music