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David Chaulk - Low Brass Perpetrator
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Tue, 23 Dec 2008
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| Torunn |
I'm sitting on my sofa watching the Bach B Minor
Mass (Leipzig Gewandhaus and some little boys
wearing the obligatory sailor outfits)while holding
the most beautiful, perfect little girl in the
world - Torunn Rose Clarkson. She's now one week
old, although I can't really remember what life was
like before she came. Someone asked me, a few days
ago, whether it was true that having a child is
totally transforming. It most certainly is! She
has immediately become the centre of Charmian's and
my universe. One of the most gratifying
discoveries, so far, is how Torunn responds to
music. She seems to love it! I can play her
anything from Joni Mitchell to Bjork to Elvis
Costello to Stravinsky to Mahler and she responds
by smiling and going to sleep - no matter how much
she's been fussing. I can play the piano to her -
even Rochut Etudes on the trombone - and the same
thing happens. She certainly experienced a lot of
music while in the womb - opera, ballet, symphonic
concerts, pops concerts, brass band contests
(appropriate considering that she was conceived at
one)and lots of mummy's and daddy's practicing at
home. Nature or nurture? I don't know but, either
way, it's pretty cool and she has a lifetime of
music ahead of her. Lucky little girl:) Right now
the Sanctus is waking her up and I think she may
need a nappy change!
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Posted 18:38
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Mon, 13 Oct 2008
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| It's been a while! |
Unbelievably, 2008 is almost over. How did that
happen? Musically, it's been a great year. I've
been on stage for some stunning performances -
Mahler, Stravinsky, Bartok, Brahms, Janacek,
Tchaikovsky, Bic Runga and Che Fu to name a few.
I've joined the Artist Teacher staff of the New
Zealand School of Music. Pelorus Trust Wellington
Brass had a dream year - Aussie and Kiwi
champions with a new CD on the way. I was invited
to join Professor David King's National Australia
Brass - the banding highlight of my life so far!
I got to make some really cool new friends - Jens
Lindemann, Michael Bertoncello, Wycliffe Gordon,
David King and Wayne Bergeron (and his gorgeous 3-
yr-old daughter Ella) for starters. None of those
things, however, matched one Monday night in
early April when Charmian and I found out that
we're going to have a baby girl in December. That
put everything else in perspective. We're in the
home stretch now and I'm experiencing a mix of
terror and excitement! Can't wait:) I'll have
baby photos on the site by Christmas. All name
suggestions will be gratefully received (and
probably ignored by Charm). I've already had a
number of suggestions - Pelorus, Shires, Alessi,
Greenhoe - roundly dissed. Now.....if i can just
get a CD out........
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Posted 16:23
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Tue, 11 Dec 2007
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| Hypothetically Speaking - A Cautionary Tale |
The following is, of course, purely hypothetical
and resembles - in no way, shape or form - any
situation past or present. Yeah right!!
Imagine a thriving little tier 3 orchestra in a
far away land in the South Pacific. Further
imagine that after an influx of new players and
the appointment of a dynamic young conductor the
orchestra's artistic standard increases to
unimagined heights, audiences sky-rocket and the
community embraces the little orchestra in a way
hithertofore unseen. Then (because of events too
convoluted and corrupt to explain in a humble
blog) a new CEO enters stage left. The new despot
doesn't have any sort of appropriate experience
or skill but is extraordinarily well connected.
He (or maybe it's she - still hypothetical, of
course!!) doesn't even seem to have any sort of
interest in or passion for orchestral music. On
the other hand the evil despot loves the
spotlight and the social opportunities the
spotlight brings. It turns out that the brilliant
young conductor is hogging too much of the
attention (acording to the narcissistic, control-
freak despot) and has to go. The tyrant then
surrounds himslf with mediocre sycophants who are
easily influenced to carry out his evil (and
largely incompetent) schemes.
Hmmmmmmm.......doesn't sound that good - I wonder
what would happen to the orchestra if a horrible
thing like this actually happened???
Well, for starters (hypothetically of course) the
playing standard would go down the commode.
Maybe, players would become so frustrated that
they'd stop trying as hard. Probably the
behaviour of the brass section would become quite
reprehensible. Some players might even start
openly booing the psuedo-conductor and concert
master whenever they come on the stage (OMG -
that could never really happen, could it?). Then
as the despot and his merry band of head-up-their-
ass sycophants behaved in more and more bizarre
ways (what if - for instance - management asked
the players to sign a blank contract to be filled
in by management later? What if they attempted to
take responsibilities like auditions and artistic
assessments out of the hands of principal players
and into the hands of an arythmic, tone-deaf
barbershop quartet?)the now weary and sad players
might start finding ways of jumping ship - at
least the players good enough to find another
ship? Ticket sales might go down the same commode
as the artistic standard but the tyrant and his
henchpeople could probably give away so many
comps that most people wouldn't know how rotten
things really were. And the whole time, the CEO
would probably filter any info the board had
access to so they wouldn't have a clue what was
really going on.
Nah....... it could never happen. Could it?
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Posted 00:45
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Thu, 08 Nov 2007
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| On the road with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra |
I've spent the last four weeks touring - three
weeks with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and
Edo de Waart and the last week with the
Christchurch Symphony Brass Quintet. As much as
I've loved the music making (especially the
Rachmaninov 2nd Symphony and Ein Heldenleben) I'm
more than ready to go home. I have one more NZSO
concert tomorrow, then it's back to Christchurch.
The NZSO is a very interesting group. Because
it's a national orchestra it spends a lot of time
touring the country - at least 12 different
concert programs a year. All the time spent on
the road creates a chemistry and culture than I
haven't seen in more traditional orchestras that
do almost all their work in one city and one
concert hall. People spend a lot of time together
in airports and hotels and they get to know each
other very well. There are the usual cliques but,
for the most part, people seem to get along with
just about everyone else. It's a fun, vibrant
environment. The players work hard and a lot them
play just as hard. It's not necessarily for the
faint of heart. Most importantly, the orchestra
is in stunning form and Edo dragged some
exquisite performances out of the ensemble. For
those of you who can't easily hear this group
live go out and buy some of the more recent Naxos
recordings. They're superb and you'll probably
get quite a surprise. The NZSO has had great wind
and brass sections for some time but the current
sound coming from the violins is absolutely world-
class. I've loved every minute of my time with
them and I look forward to working with them as
much as possible in the future. In the mean time
I can't wait to get home to Charmian and the rats!
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Posted 17:19
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Wed, 10 Oct 2007
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| The Wisdom of James Morrison |
Went to a James Morrison masterclass a couple
weeks ago - the Aussie Jazz legend, not the
Pommie depression-pop guy. Since he's such a
natural, I wasn't sure how well he'd be able to
describe how he does what he does. Well, what we
got was a solid hour of the best common sense
advice for brass players that I've ever heard.
Stuff like "if you want to play higher blow
faster, if you want to play lower blow slower"
and "if you want to play louder make the hole in
your mouth bigger, if you want to play softer
make it smaller". The sorta stuff that most of us
say to our students but usually in a 1000 word
dissertation that they can't understand or
remember. James' descriptions will probably stick
with me until the dementia becomes much more
advanced. One of the questions he responded to
was about switching instruments. That's relevant
to me because I regularly switch between bass
trumpet, alto, tenor and bass trombone and
euphonium. That's a mouthpiece leap from a Griego
11 to a Minick L. Somtimes I have to play 3
instruments in the same week of work. Sometimes I
find it difficult to adjust. I can play all of
them well enough but it can take me a while to
successfully change from one to another. Morrison
talked about practicing the change. He said that
most doublers / triplers practice each of the
instruments in isolation from one other - an hour
on the kazoo, later an hour on the dulcimer,
tomorrow half an hour on the saw. He advocated
practicing them in the same session - for
instance, spend 20 minutes warming up your tenor
then go to your alto. The first time it'll take a
few minutes to feel good. Next time it'll take
less time for the transition to work, eventually
it'll only take a few notes. I've been trying
that for the last couple weeks and it works. I'm
guessing that in a couple months it won't be a
problem at all. Thanks James!
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Posted 17:19
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