Ode To Spring

While many Christians celebrated Easter a couple weeks ago, Orthodox Easter falls on May 1 this year.  I've found Russian Orthodox services to be especially moving and fascinating ever since I first attended one at a cathedral in Zagorsk almost 20 years ago.

Beautiful spring days like today always bring up a lot of different memories for me, but I often harken back to my senior year of high school when I was asked to join the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra.  They needed another trombone and the high school band director had recommended me to the conductor.  Thus began my short tenure in community orchestra--I headed to college in the fall and never played trombone again, despite Jon Hallstrom's best efforts to convince me to join the Colby symphony.

So in the spring of '87 we played a series of concerts featuring Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, second only to Beethoven's Ninth in my pantheon of classical music.  One of the great things about the piece is that in addition to playing some rousing parts throughout, Second Trombone gets a lovely solo...

The Russian Easter Overture is based on themes from the musical tradition of the Russian Orthodox church, with the tenor trombone solo representing the medieval chant of a priest. The composer marks the solo "a piena voce" - at full voice; thus, interpret the solo as a vocalist would.

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The solo is written with little indication of dynamics or expression, so most trombonists play it at a comfortable mezzo-forte with a broad, rich tone. I find it easiest to let the line itself dictate the interpretation: crescendo as it ascends, decrescendo as it descends, and taper the volume at the end of the phrases. Traditionally, the repeated notes in the 8th measure are played softer, with a long cresendo/decrescendo in measures 11 through 12. The player needs a big breath between the first two C's in measure 11: the last note is held underneath a violin cadenza, and sometimes the Concertmaster takes quite a bit of time to finish!

Right now I'm listening to an old recording of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Daniel Barenboim conducting) and it's simply marvelous.  The sun is out, Sam is grooming in the sunlight on the window sill and the solo just started (269k MP3).  I got to play it often in rehearsal (early on the conductor had to admonish me to approach it more confidently), but in the end didn't get to do it in a concert--there was one performance when it looked like our excellent First Chair was going to necessarily miss it and I would've had the solo as our senior Second would take the other part.

What especially stands out in my memory from that time, besides the wonderful acoustics of the Catholic churches where we played (does that count as ironic in the context of Catholic/Orthodox division?), was the fact that the shows were running around Easter, so crosses and other things were shrouded in cloth.  I vividly recall one Saturday in particular, walking around the grounds during intermission and seeing an amazing splash of purple--brilliant, stunning color like that from your most intense childhood dream--illuminated by the bright sun, draped over a cross, slowly dancing in a light breeze.

For most people Spring is green, but for me it will always be purple.

ntodd