# Off to hear another premiere



## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Last year I wrote a piece for band. I scored it in such a way that it could played by ensembles with less than complete instrumentation via doublings, cues and the alike. Well, I'm off to Texas on Tuesday to hear it played. I have no idea whether the band will be fully manned or not, but it doesn't matter thanks to my scoring. So long as they play it well, I'll be happy.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Well, they played quite well. But I'd have to rate their performance a "B+" as there were a number of places where the balance was not right. And that is all on the conductor.

For example, the piece starts off with the clarinets in their real low register with a dynamic of "piano" and they played "mezzo-forte". Then later there's a spot where the trombones in mid-range play "piano" while the flutes in harmony (also in their mid-range) play a melody at the "mezzo-forte" level. Well the flutes were hard to hear thanks to the trombones. And in the performance notes *included in the score* I specifically mentioned that if the trombones were not able to be soft enough then they should play the section muted which they did not.

But the overall result was good. I now know the entire piece is scored well and is playable by many an average band. The conductor mentioned to the audience that he found the use of colors to be highly effective. So mark one down as a decent premiere.


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