Cymbal Catastrophe

On the night of January 18th, I performed in the Senior District Concert Band at Mechanics Hall in Worcester. It's taken three years for me to get in, and I am so happy that I have finally accomplished this. Also, I got a recommendation to audition for All-States! I will be up against the best people in the state, not just the district. The audition is this Saturday, the 25th. I'm nervous, but excited to be given this wonderful chance. Performing at Mechanics Hall was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was so amazing to play with such talented musicians. The conductor, Mr. Glen Adsit, was a joy to work with and overall a very cheerful guy. Each one of our rehearsals just flew by, they were so much fun. Every single group -- the orchestra, the jazz band, and the choir -- did a beautiful job and the majority of it went off without a hitch!

I say "majority" because of what happened during the band's performance. Specifically in the percussion section. It may have been me. Okay, it was me. But it wasn't my fault, I swear. 

In total, we played three pieces. The first was Give Us This Day by David Maslanka, a man who composes music by first meditating for hours. Afterwards, he sits down to to notate everything he heard and visualized while he was meditating. Then he walks away; the piece is completed. And man, this piece was truly incredible. I got to roll the gong to fortissimo! How often does sheet music call for that? It took me a couple tries just to get the gong loud enough so the audience would be able to hear me. And let me tell you, it's a lot of fun being told you can let loose and just whack something with all your strength. Maybe that's why I was so drawn to being a percussionist. Our next piece was Rest by Frank Ticheli, who is apparently good friends with Mr. Adsit. This piece was all about the transition into death. It was very beautiful, putting the audience in a relaxed state of mind, and even me, since I didn't have a part to play and I could just sit back and listen. Our final song was Galop by Dmitri Shastokovic. To help ready the audience for the rest of the concert, this piece was fast and upbeat. As you can imagine, it was about the tempo of a horse galloping. The conductor didn't want to have a long wait to start the song, so his plan was to step off his podium to take a bow for the applause after Rest, and then he would walk back to his spot and immediately begin the piece. Knowing this, I picked up the crash cymbals that I would be playing and got into place. Unfortunately, as I did so, the left cymbal suddenly decided it was done having a handle and wanted to be an individual. Or maybe the cymbal and the handle had a spat. Because, for whatever reason, the knot holding the cymbal in place came undone, and the cymbal crashed to the floor. 

It was just about the loudest thing that could have happened. Of all the instruments, the loudest one just had to fall after the beautiful peaceful melody. It did get some laughter from the audience, and they were now definitely awake and ready for the next piece. I'm sure some people in the balcony could see what had happened, and that I did not actually drop the cymbal. It dropped itself; there was nothing I could do. I do apologize for my disruption, and perhaps I would even be embarrassed if it had been my fault. Actually, I find the whole thing really hilarious, and I've been enjoying telling people. It was a pretty perfect moment for it to fall. It wasn't in the middle of a piece and it gave me enough time to improvise and use the suspended cymbal with a drum stick instead. I'm sure that the director understood what had happened as soon as he collected the cymbals and saw a disconnected handle lying next to them. I certainly hope they let me back in next year. I really did have a lot of fun with everyone.