Musings on a Pops Program

Last Wednesday the Phil reconvened to rehearse for our upcoming Pops Benefit Concert. The concert, for those of you that don't know, will be Friday August 6th at 8pm in Queeny Park. Tickets are $10 for bleacher seats and $20 (which is a special Anniversary price!) for seats at a table. The program includes some real crowd-pleasers: Sousa marches, a John Williams medley, several Mancini charts, show tunes, and an Armed Forces salute.

It's a funny thing about pops concerts. As a musician you've probably played the tunes before but even if you haven't then you've certainly heard them. This is especially true with John Williams' movie scores (I mean come on, who hasn't heard the Star Wars or Indiana Jones themes for decades?). Despite the ubiquitousness of a lot of the music on a pops concert, most of it is still Just Plain Hard for many of the instruments. Certainly the brass get to show-off their best qualities but often the strings are scurrying around in high positions and leaping up and down the fingerboard while the woodwinds "noodle" as fast as they can. Ironically, the rehearsal period for pops concerts is usually much shorter than for a "normal" concert because.

What this means is that when we hit the ground on Wednesday night we were running at a full sprint. I don't know about the other musicians but I, for one, have got a lot of practicing to do this week so that Star Wars and Indiana Jones sound like Star Wars and Indiana Jones.