Recording, Day Two

Day Two of the recording was much better than Day One. As I mentioned before, playing by ourselves is a lot less stressful.

We started the morning with a Korean Folksong medley. It didn't go the best because of some instrument malfunctions on the oboe, but we made do, and did a couple of takes with a trumpet using a straight mute instead of the oboe as a contingency. After the medley was done, we moved on to Inchon, a piece commemorating the Korean war and the services of the composer's father in both the Korean and Vietnam wars. Yes, I said "wars" instead of "conflicts." I don't care about the politically correct definition of things, especially since the definition is "a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air."

After Inchon we had lunch before coming back to record a Korean song about longing for a mountain in North Korea... kind of like if the USA was split in half, and one half had a song about wishing they could see Niagra Falls just one more time. By that time, the oboe was in a better condition, so we redid the medley a few more times with the oboe. By that time we had a long break while some people did solo sections and/or a small amount of dubbing due to either mistakes or lack of personel, and I started a game of Phase 10. (We had already played Apples to Apples earlier in the day.) Midway through the game, though, I got called back into the recording room because while my short solo had been fine in the recording, the section it leads into needed to be redone, and as there was no break between mine and the solo after, I was still needed. It went fine, though I am glad it is over as it was the type of solo that looks like it wouldn't be that hard, but is one of the more challenging parts I've ever played. It is deceptively hard because of the intervals needed, the rhythm (or lack of it with the implied tempo change), and exposure at a point in which the player has no spot to breathe. Needless to say, while I am glad I had the part, I don't long to play it again-- three times is enough. (Music in May-- High School honor band, Army concert, and now an Army CD).

Tomorrow we get back into the thick of things, but the hardest part for me is now over as I get to enjoy the rest of the week of recording.