Recent Montreal music events

A lot has been going on this past little while.

Once again, I played clarinet in the orchestra for a McGill Savoy Society production. This year, we did H.M.S. Pinafore. Pinafore was also the very first production that I played in, 10 years ago. Once again, it was such a pleasure to be in the Savoy Society!

On March 7, the Sam Roberts Band played the last show of their Lo-Fantasy tour. The show was here in Montreal. And what a show it was! Stunning visual displays, a wonderful mix of older and newer songs, and a very enthusiastic audience combined to create a most memorable concert. This was my fourth time seeing the Sam Roberts Band, and it was my favourite show of theirs that I've seen.

I love living in Montreal, where there are so many great things happening.

Confessions of an alto clarinetist

During my first year at McGill, I joined the McGill Clarinet Choir, in which I played the contra-alto clarinet, an instrument that I loved. It seemed that nobody in the group wanted to play the alto clarinet. People saw it as a nasty, out-of-tune, bad-sounding instrument that was unforgiving and difficult to play. Someone would always get stuck with the instrument, and they wouldn't be happy about it.

In my second year at McGill, I was at a wind symphony rehearsal. We were going to play Ingolf Dahl's "Sinfonietta", which has an alto clarinet solo in the second movement. The conductor asked me if I wanted to play the alto clarinet in that piece. I wasn't entirely sure why he'd asked me - perhaps he'd heard that I played the contra-alto clarinet, and thought it would be a good idea to ask me if I wanted to play the alto. I was aware of the instrument's bad reputation, but I agreed to play the alto clarinet - I figured that maybe if I devoted some time to the instrument, I might be able to play it somewhat well. Besides, I'd get to play a solo in wind symphony, which I wouldn't get to do if I just stuck to the B-flat clarinet.

I rented the school's alto clarinet, and started to get to know the instrument. It was indeed difficult to play in tune. But I kept working on it. I played the solo in the Dahl piece. After that concert, I continued playing the alto clarinet in the wind symphony. Occasionally I'd get other solos. One time, I had an unaccompanied quarter-tone glissando solo in a piece by Husa. That piece was broadcast on the radio.

I came to love playing the alto clarinet. I found opportunities to play it outside of the wind symphony. I played in a trio made up of two B-flat clarinets and alto. I sometimes played alto clarinet in an orchestra, substituting for bass clarinet or saxophone parts. I found that the alto clarinet could be useful for bass lines, kind of like a bass clarinet, but more portable.

I came to love the sound of the alto clarinet. I found that it could sound almost like a cross between a clarinet and a saxophone. I found that the alto clarinet could be a very expressive instrument.

In one of my later years in the clarinet choir, I was planning to play the contra-alto clarinet, as I always had in clarinet choir. The usual start-of-year argument was going on, the argument over who had to get stuck with the alto clarinet. Feeling sorry for the instrument, and getting tired of people berating an instrument that I had grown to love, I gave up my contra-alto clarinet position and offered to play the alto.

There haven't been many pieces of music written for solo alto clarinet. For some time, I worked on a concerto for solo alto clarinet, with clarinet choir accompaniment. In the piece, I tried to show the different moods that the alto was capable of expressing. When the piece of music was finished, I performed it with the McGill Clarinet Choir. Here is a recording of the performance.

The alto clarinet is a much-disliked instrument, but I think that a lot of this animosity is unjustified. I think that more people - both listeners and clarinetists - should give the alto clarinet more of a chance.

The joys of Savoy

Last weekend and the weekend before, the McGill Savoy Society performed The Pirates of Penzance. I had such a good time! I played the viola part on clarinet in the orchestra.
The shows went really well. On each performance night, I gave cookies to my fellow Savoyards.
After the last night was the cast party. Cast parties are always fun, and this one was one of the better cast parties that I'd been to.

MusiMarch

I've been enjoying the MusiMarch festival. It's a new music festival at McGill. I went to the concerts on Tuesday and Thursday, and I listened to the second half of the concert on Wednesday.

This year's festival has an interesting idea: the concerts mix old and new music, showing connections between older pieces and newer pieces.

The concert on Tuesday started with some traditional African music. There was also a really cool piece by Polo Vallejo for 6 congas. I never knew congas could be capable of so many things! At some points in the piece, it sounded like there were several lines of music going on at once. It kind of reminded me of the compound melodies in Bach's unaccompanied cello and violin pieces. This concert also had a very enjoyable arrangement of Vivier's Pulau Dewata, and a premiere of a piece for cello and ensemble and electronics by Sean Ferguson. I don't know if I've ever heard any of his music before, but I liked this piece.

While listening to the music festival on the internet on Wednesday night, I heard the Ligeti horn concerto, played by the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. It's so beautiful. I'd heard the
CME play it a few years ago too.

I liked the concert last night (Thursday). It opened with Bachianas Brasilieras #5. I've heard that piece many times, it's an old 20th-century "classic", I've played it several times in a few different arrangements -- but I still absolutely love it. Incidentally, this was the first time I've ever heard the lesser-known 2nd movement of it. This concert also included a haunting cello piece by Gilles Tremblay, and some early vocal music selections. A piece that I especially liked was "Fumeux fume" by 14th-century composer Solage. The concert ended with a weird piece by Julian Anderson called "Book of Hours".


In other news, today is Ravel's birthday. It's also my half-birthday. I am now 23 and a half.

Looking back and ahead

2007 was a pretty good year. I graduated from McGill, went to Vancouver and Windsor and Ohio, played an opera in a bar, found some five-leaved clovers, went to Orford and Laval with my youth orchestra, discovered Sims2, helped out at the bird observatory, and played in the McGill Savoy Society.

I think my favourite thing I did last year was go to Vancouver.
Here's a photo of Stanley Park in Vancouver.


Some orchestra things are coming up. There's a trip meeting this Sunday, and the concerto competition later this month. And the spaghetti dinner that I still don't know much about.