Word: cymbals
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...only setback to playing the cymbals is that it takes two hands. I can’t take notes. And I’m so nervous that I can’t fully absorb the experience. I could be missing some crucial togetherness and community that making a unified sound creates, unity that transcends the loneliness and competition of college. But I am not unified. I am a beat behind and I keep missing notes. A bass drum player arrives late and squeezes in next to me in the concert shell (technical term for the vague semi-circle...
...point Joshua H. Rissmiller ’06, the student conductor, leaves his perch on a bench to warn me to be careful with the big cymbal crashes on a song called “Veritas.” I sit out the first round and then, feeling confident, go for a big crash when I see Creel ready to lean forward into one. I stop to congratulate myself on this triumphant sound—and promptly miss several more crashes. At this point, even the sundress-clad toddlers may suspect I am faking...
...managers and conductors. Names are passed around, and eventually you are part of the standard list. I’ve made the rounds with three different orchestras, the percussion and wind ensembles, four operas and numerous pit orchestras, but playing in HRO is about more than just a few cymbal crashes at one rehearsal...
...physically set off from the rest of the orchestra, and we really only interact with each other. Being a percussionist also means doing lots of waiting. My section probably has the best rest counters and listeners in the whole orchestra simply because we play so little. For example, my cymbal part for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 doesn’t even begin until a good nine minutes into the first movement. The five of us, my four first-year section mates and I, know the second violin part down pat from peering over the shoulders...
...beats are equally impressive: “A Charmed Life” lays uplifting bass plucks over cymbal-heavy jazz drums; “Satisfied?” boasts an infectious dub groove; “How Real It Is” breaks unexpectedly into vibrant drum ’n bass. At his best, J-Live succeeds in making his voice one with the tracks; they become inseparable. Whether he’s imploring a girl to choose her men wisely, ruminating on the false sense of righteousness the government forged after Sept. 11, or telling studio thugs...