Rehearsal w/ sax and clarinet students @ C & L Music, Fremont

Jason B. is a saxophone & clarinet teacher. He got my number from the musicians directory in the CSUEB music department. Both of us attended college there. He enrolled toward the end of my tenure. Flash back to ten years ago and perhaps I would be able to place him. It's been awhile, and when he called a few weeks ago I couldn't put a name to a face. But he remembers me, and he asked me to accompany his students for their recital next Sunday.

The teaching studios at C & L are in a sad state. The one I rehearsed in today contains a dilapidated, stained sink and has a big window which looks out on a deck festooned with a tall, abandoned lamp and a bunch of 2 X 4's on top of a tarp that's covering... something. It is not an ideal learning venue, in my opinion.

We rehearsed from 11am - 2pm. I stayed a half-hour later because the last student of the day arrived quite late. I am kind, so I stayed longer than I had planned so that he wouldn't be cut from the recital. When he arrived he seemed stoned, or at the least blasé, so I'm not sure how much my charity was appreciated. 

Most of the music placed in front of me today was at an intermediate level. No real problems. Each of the five students had an allotted half-hour for rehearsal time. We ran the pieces through twice in most instances and then one of the parents would record me playing the piano accompaniment alone for the student to rehearse to this week.

Jason said several times, "Yeah, these aren't too difficult, but David my last student is playing a Heiden Sonata that is quite challenging." Every time he said it I thought to myself two things:

1) Okay, so he's playing a Haydn Sonata. What's the big deal? The reading shouldn't be too difficult.

2) Did Haydn really compose a Sonata for saxophone & piano??

I was in the dark. It wasn't the famous classical-era composer Franz Joseph Haydn that Jason was referring to. There's a 20th century composer named Bernhard Heiden (1910 - 2000) who wrote this particular saxophone Sonata. And it is quite difficult: atonal and pretty wild for a high school student to be performing.

What a misfortune that that kid showed up so late this afternoon. This resulted in minimal time to rehearse what is by far the most difficult piece of the bunch. Upon parting I assured the student, "Listen, I'll practice my part this week. If you get your part in order we should be fine next Sunday." We'll see how that goes. Thing is, it's the kind of music that even if you play it right it kinda sounds like a mess, so we may just fool everybody with it, including ourselves.

Jesse