Pictures, Part 1

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Welcome to the music that’s going to keep me awake for the next couple months — Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” written for piano solo in 1874 and famously arranged for large orchestra in 1922 by Maurice Ravel. The Rhode Island Wind Ensemble library contains a version that’s not-quite-as-famously-arranged for large symphonic band in 1959 by Mark Hindsley; this arrangement hasn’t been played by RIWE in a very long time, but it’s back in our folders for our May 21st concert at St. Ann Arts & Cultural center.

Though I’ve listened to Pictures many times as a music student and classical music fan, I never really opened the score to study it — until NOW! What was I thinking? Sure, I thought, we could perform Pictures. The band will love it. It will sound great in St. Ann, surrounded by resonant carrara marble and countless frescoes on the walls and ceiling. What a good bit of programming, I thought to myself. So I pulled the music from the files, ordered a missing part from the publisher (first trumpet, of all parts!), and began getting it ready for the players to rehearse.

Then I listened to it again, this time with a bit more serious intention, and I freaked out. IT’S HARD! It has challenges galore for the players, but even more for the conductor. Damn. I’m going to have to do real score study, real quickly, and I know that’s not the best way to do it.

So in the spirit of full disclosure and transparency, and for a bit of fun, I’ll keep this blog post going from now until the concert, sharing the ups and downs of the process once in a while, when I need a study break. Welcome to my anxiety. Welcome to this amazing piece of instrumental music.