OMG today SUCKED for us. We're the Yukon High Wind Ensemble (which is a nice way of saying "the top band in the school" or "the gluttons for punishment in the form of hard music" ); we're comprised of about 60-odd people of all different kinds. To recap:
-7:00 am CST: Last rehearsal. On the agenda - a quick practice sightreading and some spot-checking on our two songs ("Nimrod" from Enigma Variations by Elgar and Symphony No. 5 Finale by Shostakovich).
-7:50 am: Rehearsal is over. Pack up instruments and load on equipment truck. Mr. Bartrug (our band director) decides to leave the tympanis at the high school since the contest school (Putnam City North) will let us use theirs.
-8:15 am: We are informed that instead of the two buses we requested, we only get one to fit all of us on. Several people sit three to a seat.
-8:30 am: Finally on our way.
-8:45 am: Arrive in Putnam City. No speeding laws were broken.
-8:50 am: Everyone realizes that the incrdible crowding on the bus makes it all but impossible to change into uniform. Much swearing ensues.
-9:00 am: We enter the unpacking area, in full uniform and bemoaning the 80-degree weather. Wool coats don't breathe very well. We put together our instruments and wait to be called in to our warmup room at 9:15.
-9:15 am: Still waiting to be called.
-9:20 am: We are informed that the contest is 15 minutes behind schedule because our rival school Mustang took forever on stage. More swearing.
-9:25 am: We enter warmup room and begin our warmup, attempting to get done before our alloted playtime (9:40). Many comments are made regarding heat in room.
-9:40 am: Band before us is still playing. We continue our warmup, minus coats because our band director finally took pity on us.
-9:50 am: Called onto stage. Everyone throws coats back on because, quite apart from wanting to look professional, the temperature on stage is 20 degrees lower on stage than in the warmup room.
-9:55 am: Tympani player is done tuning the tympanis (look them up if you don't know what I'm talking about). Begin playing Nimrod.
-10:00 am: Tympani player for Shostakovich piece finishes tuning. We begin playing. Tympani is so far out of tune suddenly as to be a whole different pitch - this is surprising because Shostakovich tympanist is very good and has never mistuned that badly before. He recovers quickly and we continue playing.
-10:13 am (yes, you read that right - the Shostakovich piece is approximately 11 minutes in length, more when we play it because we're not professionals): Stage part of contest is over. Whole band walks off feeling like failures. It wasn't a good run. We learn the the tympanis that PC North lent us to use were broken. We also learn that our first-chair clarinetist stopped playing because her reed broke. Everyone starts quoting Murphy's Law.
-10:20 am: Begin sightreading part of contest. Piece is relatively easy compared to piece we sightread in practice this morning.
-10:35 am: Leave sightreading room in dejection. We screwed up sightreading so bad.
-10:45: Return to lone bus to change out of uniforms and put instruments back on truck. Many members opt to change outside bus, since we are all wearing our regular clothes under our uniforms.
-11:10: Mr. Bartrug returns from waiting for our scores. He tells us to get on bus. We cram onto bus like obedient sardines.
-11:15: We are informed of our ratings. We made a I on stage (highest score possible - the scale, for those of you who don't know, is I-V with V as the worst) and a II in sightreading (better than we expected). Bus is silent, then erupts in cheering. Mr. Bartrug proceeds to inform us that the other band directors thought we were awesome and that he is proud of us. No higher praise will ever be given by him.
After that, we went and ate lunch, engineered things so we took up as much time as possible (we didn't want to go back to class), and came home happy (but still crammed on one bus).
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