Lee's
Excellent Brazilian Adventure - Pt 2
by
Lee Monroe
|
Finale
Master Classes |
I taught a masters class of about 20 people, most
of which were college age students. They
all were quite bright and were anxious to get to the very difficult Finale
questions. It took me a few
moments to get up and running. The
computer that they had set up for me was in Portuguese, of course
(including the Finale program). Once
I got acclimated though I could get around pretty easily. My initial interpreter for my first session was Neves, who
has a very good command of English. He
is also the administrator of the Festival and the chief administrator of
the conservatory in Tatui, so it’s safe to say that his cell phone bills
can be quite impressive. After
a while, one of the students in the class took over the interpreting
because there were many issues that Neves had to deal with related to the
festival. The result was
fewer interruptions but the language barrier increased two-fold.
Luckily they had provided me with an overhead projector that
allowed more demonstrating than actual talking (some who know me might
consider this a blessing). |
|
I decided to just cover the basics the first day.
It was then decided to break up the classes the following day into
a beginner and advanced class in the morning and then a general class for
all in the afternoon. As difficult as the communication was, I was very impressed
with the level of knowledge and desire to learn from the participants. |
In one of our discussions about notation, I was
given some examples of some of the more bizarre music notation examples
that one might find published. It
gave me an opportunity to do my speech about standardizing music notation.
Just because a composer makes up a new notation and someone
publishes it, this doesn’t constitute correct notation.
It is my opinion, that unless a new notation is something that can
be musically detectable by the listener, then it has no place in music
notation. I said “I don’t
speak Portuguese and most of you don’t speak English, but we all speak
the same language when it comes to music.”
I work with musicians from Eastern Europe to Japan and the
importance of us all interpreting the musical information alike is vital
to all of our success. |
|
|
I came away from my Finale sessions with mixed
emotions. On the one hand I
know that many of the students received some much-needed guidance.
On the other hand, had I known more about the venue and the
environment that I would be teaching in I could have been much more
effective. I already have
many ideas should I get the opportunity to return. |
Great
Food |
|
Another pleasant surprise in Brazil was the food.
Having a major appreciation for meat, I was able to overcome my
inadequacies with Portuguese to have many wonderful meals.
Our first night in Tatui we were treated to Doca’s, a nice little
family restaurant in downtown. Marvin
had been there before with many pleasing memories (I figured that out when
he stuck his head out the window and yelled to the owner as we drove in
from the airport in Sao Paulo). |
The food was fabulous. I had steak smothered in gravy with local vegetables on the
side (the names of which I don’t remember).
Bill Mays seemed to take delight in all the nuances of each
vegetable’s unique texture and flavor.
Whenever I travel I make a point to try almost anything a culture
has to offer (related to food & drink that is); some of my most
delicious experiences have come from something I would never get near my
face in the states. |
(Doca’s Restaurant in Tatui) |
|
In that
vein I had to try the original Brazilian drink “Caipirinha” made with
1 lime, 2 ounces of cachaça (Brazilian sugarcane liquor), sugar & ice
cubes. I had ample warning of its potency so I only had one and it
was quite delectable.
The
service was excellent and set the tone for our expectations for the
remainder of the visit. |
|
Wednesday we ate at a local Bar-B-Que where the
shish-kabobs were more like two-handed swords. The waiter would bring you one and cut a full steak off
for your plate. Everything
was dripping with flavor and there was always too much to eat.
I never left any restaurant in Brazil hungry. |
|
(Dale Underwood
[obscured],
Neves, Marvin Stamm, several local trumpet players, Tatui Conservatory
Trumpet Professor, Rich Viano, [I’m taking the picture of course]) |
Next - On
to the Mountains
click here to
continue on with article
click to
return to 1st page |
|
|
|
|
Lee
Monroe is the owner of Express Music Services. He has been a
fulltime copyist for 19 years and was strictly a hand copyist for the
first 15. You can check out his hand music font by following this
link - LeeMusic.
|
©
Express Music Services, Inc.
Not to be reproduced without written
permission from Express Music Services. |