Oracle Errata Explained

Since my concert band piece Oracle was written and premiered in late 2010, it has come to my attention that there are several errata present between the Score and the Parts.

The short story is that the score has never been in question, has always appeared to be correct and free from errata. This should help the situation as there shouldn’t be any concern about the score a judge is given having incorrect parts.

The long(er) story is that Oracle was written for two premieres: one at Midwest in 2010 and the other for TMEA 2011 a few months later. The piece was commissioned by Andy Sealy and the Hebron High School Wind Symphony (Carrolton, TX).

There was a rehearsal in Chicago the night before the first premiere. While waiting to get into the rehearsal room, I had a conversation about the piece with Andy and guest conductor, Tom Bennett. They felt that the piece worked well and that the percussion was appropriately difficult for the occasion. The suggestion was made, however, that the percussion parts, while being performed flawlessly by the Hebron Percussion section, were probably “overly” difficult for what you would expect to accompany the level of difficulty of the wind parts. This caused me to do some “watering down” of those parts for the TMEA performance and for the official published edition.

There was also another spot in particular where the balance of the writing didn’t quite work and it seemed that that spot was “overwritten.” Where an ascending octatonic scale is clearly the focus of the piece, the brass were scored in too high of a tessitura to allow the balance to work in the woodwind’s favor. (It’s in measures 55-60, then similarly at 180).

After the performance at Midwest, I made some tweaks to change the orchestration to help the balance. This proved to be a marked improvement over the original edition. The percussion part’s difficulty were also reduced and this made for a little less jumbled score.

The catch was that the publisher, TRN Music, had worked diligently to ensure that the piece would be available at their booth at Midwest. Then I made a number of changes after they had printed the piece and made it available. Somewhere along the way, when I sent the corrected parts not all were included. This is how there have been some errata along the way. (Again, all of the scores I’ve seen have been correct and provide the definitive version of the piece.)

Lately, TRN and I have been working to make sure that what is printed in the next run of Oracle will be 100% accurate.

In the meantime, please feel free to email me at ericrathmusic (at) gmail (dot) com for updated parts or for any questions you may have.

www.ericrathmusic.com

Link directly to Oracle (JW Pepper)

When did you know?

When did you know?

With the new year comes time for pause, reflection and evaluation. What have I accomplished and what would I like to accomplish? It has motivated me to be a better father and husband. A better teacher. It has motivated me to spend more time reading and in reflection and prayer.

And, it has made me think about the time I knew that music would be my "it" thing.

Recently, I asked this question on my Facebook page. I loved some of the responses:

"After I taught my first private lesson."

"When I asked myself if I could live without playing my instrument."

"When I student taught."

One response even cited the importance of one pivotal teacher in that person's life. That's powerful affirmation to those of us who teach music!

For me (and for many others who responded), it was when I was in middle school and we had a speaker come discuss career choices with us. The experience is pretty well burned into my mind: it was in our science classroom at Nimitz JH in Tulsa, OK. The speaker was a local professional who was tasked with speaking objectively about what possible careers we could endeavor in.

At the end, we were allowed to ask questions. One of my classmates asked "What's the best job? Doctor or lawyer?" Yes, we all had wanted to know the answer to that question! In fact, it had been our lunchtime debate when we knew that that day was "career day."

His response literally changed my life: "The best job is the one that doesn't seem like work. If you can find that one thing that you love to do more than anything else and figure out how to get paid for it, you'll never feel like you're even working."

I know for a fact that his answer disappointed several of my friends. They really wanted him to settle that bet between doctors and lawyers! But for me, it was that watershed moment when I knew that music would always be a part of my DNA.

What I spoke in my mind is still vividly planted there: "I love Band. I love hanging out in the Band Hall. I should probably just find a way to do Band for the rest of my life because I love it so much." From that point on, I knew that I would go to school for a Music Ed degree, become a Band Director, teach and yes, hang out a LOT in the Band Hall.

Of course, my life's trajectory has included performing, composing & arranging, conducting and involvement in music well beyond just Band. But the essence of my career existence still can be traced back to that moment in middle school, when that socially-awkward 7th grader realized that everything I'd ever want to do with my life would be based around Music.

In fact it sounds so good, I think I'll go hang out at the Band Hall today.