So I’m
a trumpet player in my free time. I have
been since I was eight. Pretty much all
of my closest friends, with a few exceptions, were made through playing in
different bands for years. So when I
found out that I was going to a small town in Spain I decided I’d take my
trumpet with me and find a band to join.
And
find a band I did. I went to a concert
in a park the second weekend I was here.
It was a glorious sunny Sunday and the band were playing a whole mix of
pasadobles and other Spanish style music, I later found out that they just
about only play music by Spanish composers and a lot of their stuff was written
by the director, Martin and his brother.
The band welcomed me with a
little apprehension, mainly because at the beginning I didn’t understand their
accents, and made them point at the notes or from where they were telling me to
play, but Martin and the kids that are in my classes at the school made me feel
at home and the music (whilst it is different in harmonies/rhythms etc. than
what I’m used to playing) is mostly within my ability and of course the music
doesn’t need to be translated!
I have played four concerts with
them so far. The time the lights went
out, the mass in the Cathedral, Constitution day and the make-up Santa Cecilia
concert. They all went well, even if for
the Constitution day concert I A) hadn’t seen ANY of the music before we had to
play it, B) I didn’t have a lyre (the thing marching bands have that holds the
small music for moving) so I had to look onto someone else’s (not easy since
the music was tiny to fit the small stand and the kid was smaller than me and
kept bending down so I had to re-find the place!) and C) I was in the middle of
the really bad flu (the part where I’d been ill for two weeks, then had four days
of wellness and this was the day before I basically had a proper high fever,
and was essentially dying of the “Spanish” flu).
The band had a break over
Christmas, but no-one thought to tell me that they had started rehearsing again…one
of my kids told me that she’d tell me when they started back, and never did, so
I finally asked them and they were like “uhh Tuesday”…so back I went.
Martin (the conductor) welcomed me back as the lost daughter of the band
and then pulled up the kids as to why they didn’t tell me that they had
rehearsals. So I missed one concert
(which I wouldn’t have been in Baeza for anyway).
We have now started our
rehearsals for Semana Santa. It’s all
processional marches and funeral marches and I’m loving it, even if they are
big blowers. One of the pieces is called
Semana Santa in Baeza…and it is exactly what you’d expect it to be. Just a ton of NOISE. Baeza is truly the loudest place I’ve ever
been. Every day all the bells in all the
churches ring out in a cacophony, every day the Guardia Civil practice marching
to big beating drums, there is always music from one of the many bands and
music groups here and people are always setting of firecrackers….
I was worried that I wasn’t going
to be around for any of the Semana Santa concerts, or that I might have had to
change my travelling plans. But it turns
out that I will be here for the Easter Sunday one and depending on the time the
one on Good Friday as well. I am so
excited. How many foreign people can say
that they’ve played in a Semana Santa procession? And another good thing is that my mammy, who
is always in my audience, will be able to see me playing in Baeza, with all my
band mates. Fingers crossed everything
goes smoothly!
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| I don't have any new ones yet, so I'll just refresh the memory of my uniform |
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