With the last of our globetrotting stragglers back from Tasmania, we can legitimately say we've got the band back together. And with the National Championships and ANZAC Day done, it's time to start looking at the remainder of the performances we've got scribbled in our diaries for 2017. Which means the most exciting thing of all. So exciting in fact, a drum roll doesn't seem excessive (thank you percussion). Yes, that's right. New music!
While we have enjoyed working hard for the championships and did end up loving some of the competition pieces (once we could actually play them) you can have too much of a good thing (I know. I was shocked to discover that cliche was true too). So it's time to wave goodbye to some pieces and hello to some new ones. Of course on any music sorting night, there's always a bit of a mixed bag. There are always some completely new pieces, which might become a new favourite or a new mortal enemy to be vanquished. Who knows? (Though you can generally have a good guess by looking at the density of the notes splashed across the page). There are always a couple of old favourites, that your brain might have forgotten but your fingers certainly haven't. And because there is that universal need for balance, there are those few pieces that you dreaded the first time around and once they disappeared from the rehearsal folder you hoped never to see them again. Yet here they are. Back. In your folder. Waiting to be played.
As you can imagine with all this new music, we got a little giddy. It's hard not to. New music for musicians is like a child left alone in a candy store and told 'here's a giant basket. Take your pick'. Each new piece has to be examined, its difficulty estimated. New music that we've played before inevitably brings back memories which have to be shared. Safe to say we got a little loud. Which then carried over to our playing. Which lead to Maestro II proclaiming in despair while clutching her head 'play musically. Don't blast it. Or I will have to say the f-word'. Which lead to one bright spark innocently asking 'forte?' High spirits indeed.
So we are armed to the teeth, ready for the rest of the year (musically at any rate). Something we are full of joy about. So much so we are probably overjoyed.