Leap info

I know why leap year is in the calendar but was wondering what the "leap" part means. I found this explanation online.

Leap year (Middle English) - so called from its causing fixed festival days to "leap" ahead one day in the week.

From the Online Etymology Dictionary

Pulling in the laundry

So last night at orchestra Maestro gave the directive for those of us with quarter notes in Rimsky-Korsakov's "Procession of the Nobles" to “pull” the notes rather than push the tempo. He likened it to pulling in the laundry on a clothesline. What? … Do you mean to tell me that 25-year-old Maestro knows what a pulley-style clothesline is? That alone was amusing, not to mention the comments coming from the violin section. (“Is that dirty laundry or clean laundry?” “I think it’s clean laundry.” “Did he say underwear?”)

Well, just another chapter in “Maestro’s Entertaining Analogies.”

Come to think of it, my 23-year-old niece has a pulley clothesline at her off-campus apartment. They’re definitely old-fashioned, but I guess they’re not obsolete. And they’re certainly very efficient.

Rehearsal woes

As usual, I anxiously anticipated resuming rehearsals after our long winter break, but our first two orchestra rehearsals were disappointing.

• The “powers that be” can’t seem to agree on a repertoire.
• We haven’t gotten our music folders yet.
• Maestro wants to sight read for the next few weeks to decide what we should play for our spring concert.
• We have no money in our budget, so we all have to ante up.
• And next week’s rehearsal is cancelled because the high school is having their musical.

Actually, I’m not really all that upset; I just hope everything will work out.

So ... last week we sight read Stravinsky’s Petrushka. There weren’t enough cello parts, so the following took place:
Maestro: [to me] Just play the string bass part an octave lower than written.
Me: [muttering to self] It doesn’t matter, I won’t be able to sight read it anyway.
Maestro: Yes you will.
Me: Oooops, did I say that out loud?

Another highlight:
Maestro: [In the midst of sight reading “Oklahoma”] Stop … STOPPP…. I got lost.

Someone pronounced “Oklahoma's,” antiquity and denounced “Judd is Dead.” The exact words escape me, but it was indeed laughable. There’s still much disagreement in the air regarding the fate of poor Judd and Oklahoma.

Other contenders: An Andrew Lloyd Webber Medley, A Muppet Medley, Selections from Aladdin, Chariots of Fire, The Midnight Fire Alarm March, and two generically-titled classical medleys.

Everything is on hold for another 2 weeks. But on a happier note, having no orchestra music to practice will now allow me to concentrate all my efforts on the Bach Minuet No. 1 from the Suite in G Major which I just started at my lesson this week.

… and so to Bach.