Charles Ives Meets President Bush

Thanks to Tom Allen, and his great CBC morning show (which tragically will be going off the air this coming fall to make way for the new CBC2 programing changes - but that's another blog post) for finding this good one:

Quote from Tom Allen's "Junk Drawer":

Here's the musical event Charles Ives waited for his entire life. On April 16, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited the White House. Two musical groups were there to welcome him - the Herald Trumpets from the US Army Band, and the President's Own Marine Band. The President, not surprisingly, was there, too. Protocol says that any time the President of the United States turns up in an official role, the band has to play "Hail to the Chief." As you hear from the clip, protocol apparently doesn't say they have to play it in just one key. The story is that one group came to rehearsal and the other didn't, so they ended up, at the big moment, playing the same piece in different keys. I've received, predictably, contradictory reports of which group, the Army or the Marines, fired in the wrong direction, but the result was a direct hit for music fans who like their military bands on the experimental side. It's fantastic!

Here's the link to the video and sound

It is a real player video and might require you to upload something to hear it.

How loud is too loud?

At a few key moments in our RES concert a week ago, a back desk first violinist wore her construction-grade ear protectors in order to block out the five or six percussionists behind her. I could not figure out how one could actually play with those things on, but this player is often seen wearing them in large orchestra concerts.

However, an article from the New York times came across my email this morning, outlines the European "noise-at-work" limits, which directly impacted the premiere of a new orchestral work. The article can be found here.

Week one comes to a close

So far, it's been a great week here in Ottawa. The first full week of adjudicating is coming to a close tomorrow, and so far it's been pretty light. I've adjudicated all the choral classes this week, everything from junior choirs, through church choirs, through high school choirs and even small ensembles. Without going into too much detail, I've heard some GREAT choirs, particularly from the two art schools (one French and one English).

Tomorrow I'm adjudicating the pipe organ classes. I'm looking forward to it, but maybe slightly apprehensive. Organ was my first major, and I still play quite a bit, but I haven't been solely involved in organ playing for almost ten years now. To top it off, BOTH of my teachers from when I was living in Ottawa will be there tomorrow, and I'll likely be adjudicating their students. That's some pressure!

After that though, I get the rest of the day off, where I'll be going to this concert, and I'm really looking forward to it. Then the weekend off, and then six straight days of A LOT of junior piano classes to adjudicate!

Homeward Bound

After an extremely successful concert last night with the ESO and RES, in a program listed in this post I awoke at 3:45 am, had my caring, loving, and understanding wife drive me to the airport for a journey that had me changing planes in Winnipeg, and finally arriving in Ottawa for my two week stint adjudicating at the Kiwanis Music Festival, outlined in this post.

After a quick visit with my sister and her family, I arrived at my suite hotel, which is absolutely lovely, watched some Masters coverage, had a really deep afternoon nap, went to the adjudicators wine and cheese (which I would have missed completely if it weren't for a wake up call), and am now getting ready for an early night, as I start adjudicating choral classes tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for the morning because my eldest niece is competing in a junior vocal class, and I finally get to hear her sing!

It should be an interesting week, especially as it is the festival where I grew up. I'll update my experiences in the adjudicator's trenches as the week goes on.

Behind the Scenes again

Under the file of "you never know who is going to read your blog" I went back to the church this afternoon to do some work in my office, and also to watch a bit more of the action on the movie set, when during a break, John Landis, the director, came up to me to say that someone had told him about my blog and that he read it. (Thoughts went through mind about whether or not I had inadvertently said something offencive or not - not that I had reason to, it was a great experience).

Anyhow, he didn't seem upset, and we had a great discussion about the behind the scenes of music in movies. Turns out even though the sound of the organ will not be what we were hearing last night, they will have someone play the same piece I did in post-production for the sound (it needs to be incorporated into the soundtrack, which of course can't be done live). So some poor musician in California has to watch my performance and time his exactly to my finger movements. NEAT is what I say. They are pros though of course, and Landis says they do it seamlessly. I'm looking forward to seeing it!

We went on to discuss all sorts of interesting things about orchestral sound tracks, including the fact that Elmer Bernstein conducted all his sound tracks without click track, and just used the movie footage as a live guide through recordings. Bernstein wrote and conducted the scores for "Animal House", "Trading Places" and probably my absolute favourite movie of all time "An American Werewolf in London" - yes, it's a cult classic, but my Dad and I can't get enough of it, all of which Landis directed.

I have to admit that I've been a little start struck by the past two days, and not from the lead actors, who I have never heard of or seen before - but from this gentle, humorous, and giving director, who takes great pride in his work, and has been extremely approachable and open to talking about his trade, and experience in the field of film and TV work.

Wedding Thriller Pt III

After my last post, this is what has transpired:

Mostly nothing.

Sitting around, waiting - waiting - film for 5 seconds, then waiting waiting. A lot of eating, and more waiting.

Then after 8 hours on set, having done basically nothing - the director (John Landis - of "An American Werewolf in London", "Animal house", and "Blues Brother's" fame) said

"I need a shot of the organist!"

So for nearly 1/2 hour, I was the centre of attention. First they wanted me to show the organ by playing the ubiquitous Toccata and Fugue in D minor (just the opening), a few hockey arena licks, and one request for the Moonlight Sonata.

Afterwards, they wanted something 'Wedding like" so I playing "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and the director decided that was going to be the one. However, just to clarify, they only wanted my hands, the music would be canned from somewhere else - go figure - after all my posts on lip-syncing, there I am just a prop, showing my hands to whatever recording they find in the public domain. I also had to do a bit of acting! I had to walk to the console, lift the lid, pull some stops and then start playing.

Apparently, I just found out, I'm still on stand by in case they need be for background continuity.

However, this will be the end of the live blog on my experiences in the TV and film industry.

I'll follow up with a post when I hear of the release date

post viewing party to follow.

Wedding Thriller Pt II

So far, this is how the day has gone:

Waited 20 minutes in line to sign my ACTRA contract

Waited 20 minutes in line for Wardrobe

Waited 10 minutes in line for Make-up, only because the determined me as a "priority" and rushed me to the front of the line and drove me back off to the church, where the show is being shot.

Waited about an hour for the first shot, My call was "BACKGROUND" and I had to walk across the front of the church, over to the organ, and pretend to play, all the while the altar boys lit the many candles in the church. The candle lighting prop wasn't very good, so I offered the use of the church's but that was turned down because apparently their candle lighting prop is to the MURDER WEAPON in another scene!!

Now it's break time, apparently my close up is coming up soon!

See you at the next break!

Wedding Thriller Pt I

It's the morning of the "big shoot". I'm due in make-up, which is about a block or two away, in about a half an hour. In the interest of "confidentiality" I cannot reveal what the nature of the shoot is, except to say that it will appear on a major US network this Summer, and it is of the Horror genre.

Our little parish church has been completely transformed in the last two days from a quiet lower-town Anglican Parish into a high Catholic pro-Cathedral (Affectionately knows now as "Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion"). A great majority of the pews have been removed, and replaced by a confessional stall, a lower altar has been placed at the front of the nave, and on our high altar there is a bigger than life size crucifix, a few statues of the BVM, and candles, everywhere. There is even a memorial tomb in the south west of the church, and stations of the cross on every empty pillar. If you didn't know it was Anglican Church before, there is no way to determine that it is now.

Part of my "job" this last day was to find wardrobes for our young acolytes, who are parishioners, but not servers in the church. I located some suitable cassocks and surplices from our stock here that will hopefully fit them. I intend to wear my usual garb, including my academic hood, which might be a bit Anglican for them, but we'll see.

See you post-Make-up.

One sleep until STARDOM

Well, stardom might be a bit of a stretch, however tomorrow is the day that I play the wedding that I blogged about below - you know, the one where the Groom is a serial killer? Anyhow, I thought as a fun project, I will do a "live blog" of the days events - during my breaks from make-up, sound check and whatever else is being done.

I'll try to give an insight on the days events from the view of the "Special Skills" extra behind the organ console.

I'll plan an autograph session in late July.

Lights ...

Camera ...

ACTION.

Thinking on the podium

Well, here we go again - another story of an operatic production which nearly collapses due to a sick singer... and this time - the quick thinking conductor steps in!

Read the story here

(Courtesy of "The Rest is Noise")

The weirdest wedding ever

I have been singing or playing weddings now for almost 30 years. First as a young treble chorister with the cathedral choir in Ottawa, also as a soloist with my Dad at the organ console, and then eventually behind the console itself. I've never bothered to count how many weddings I've sung or played, but I figure it has to be close to 500+.

I've seen, heard, and played just about anything you can imagine at weddings. I've accompanied the most tone deaf of all tone deaf "sister-in-law of Aunt Trudys", I've waited 2 hours for a late bride, and the highlight wedding thus far was when the officiating, elderly, and mostly blind priest set the altar on fire before the wedding service was began (perhaps a story for another post). I've played weddings in all denominations of churches, houses, hotels, and even a few outdoor events.

Next Wednesday however, I'll be playing the most interesting wedding of my career. The Bride and Groom have only known each other for maybe a week. I'm not certain that they have a priest yet. All I have to do is play the infamous "Wedding March" from Wagner's Lohengrin, and I need to be there from probably 8 am until 8 pm. After the wedding is over, the bride and groom will not legally be married. Oh, and I forgot to mention. The groom is ... a serial killer!

Sounds kind of like a movie doesn't it? Well, truth be known, it is a filming of an episode of a TV horror series set to be released this summer.

It will for sure be the first wedding I've ever played where I'll be required to wear makeup.