2015-12-15
【Aiden in English】
The 2015 band year has officially begun. It begins now because points start being handed out from here on, and the band teacher, Mr. DiValentino, has excuses to yell at certain instruments. Yeah, that’s what happens after performances, especially with the regular 7th-grade band. The wind ensemble is a lot different, but whenever someone messes upon performance, the teachers tend to remember.
This performance was bad at our 2015 Winter Concert. No, like, extremely terribly bad. The precious 45 minutes we had for rehearsal before the show wasn’t also good. The trumpets wouldn’t play correctly for their life. I mean, problems were just appearing out of nowhere. Some kids even got itchy and jumped in measures early. And the band teacher’s face reflected on how seriously the trumpets played. The man looked as if he was having a seizure. Face red, mouth set at a frown, I swear, any moment, his hair would catch on fire and burn to ashes. The remaining skeleton would swallow the trumpets like the devil. His voice even was laced with the anger and frustration one would think only the undead would have.
So after a half of our warm up, the trumpets couldn’t even get a super easy part right in the song, where they had to wait a measure then play. The music test next lesson would be a nightmare for a particularly few musicians in that group, which I can tell you. But first, they would have to survive tonight. To be honest, the band sounded better if the trumpets did not play.
Finally, the moment of truth came. Whether the trumpets did good or bad, no one even cared anymore. We just winced when they messed up their solo, and so did the audience and the teacher next lesson. Throughout the four songs, the overall theme was called “wrong notes” for the trumpets because every time when the trumpets had the melody, you could detect a squeak or a weird chord. After the first song, they didn’t make that many mistakes though. All they did was to play super softly that only those who sat directly in front of them could hear them. So when a substitute asked us to grade ourselves afterwards, we listened to the replay, and I winced as we passed the trumpets’ solo. Not to be mean or anything, but the sub doubled over, and I was pretty sure not in laughter.
Every year, performances bring problems. This time the lights were one of them, but the trumpets really stunk. At the end of the evening, our band teacher asked us to compare to the wind ensemble which was a select band of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders that I was in, and everyone said how good our wind ensemble were compared with them. I agree, not to be mean, but just accepting how my skill was more advanced than this 7th grade band, hoping that next performance we would somehow ditch the trumpet section.
【红霞译文】
2015年乐队生涯正式开始，从今往后与之相关的演艺表现将全部纳入考核成绩单当中，让乐队指导老师迪瓦伦蒂诺先生臧否人物找到了理由。是啊，每次演出完毕他满腹牢骚，尤其面对初中二年级常规乐队的表现更要大发雷霆。相形之下，校级管乐队技艺水平非同一般，但无论什么时候，只要有人胆敢把演出当儿戏，哪位老师都铭记在心。
这回在初中二年级冬季音乐会上，我们演得很差，不，应该说糟糕透顶。开场前乐队利用四十五分钟的宝贵时间进行排演，结果不尽人意。小号手自始至终拿捏不准旋律，动不动就跑调，有些队友不按节拍吹奏，提早跳到下一个小节，顿时乐队老师面红耳赤，宛如癫痫发作。瞧他脸颊通红，嘴角下撇，我敢说已气得火冒三丈，随时能把冲冠的怒发烧成灰烬，而残留的躯干又好似恶魔张口便可将小号吞噬干净，其训斥声充满亡灵般的愤怒与沮丧。
就这样，临阵磨枪了大半个光景，小号手还是未能把握曲子里极其简单的音符，不停上一个小节根本换不过气来。我可以断定，下次乐器分组测验时，他们当中的几位肯定要遇上麻烦，不过当务之急就是首先要过今晚这道关才行。坦率地说，要是没有小号，整个乐队演奏得还算不错。
考验我们的时刻终于到了，大家已没精力顾及小号手吹得对不对，他们一旦在独奏的地方出丑，只能靠我们其他乐手补台，观众将就着听，老师也不得不指望下次上课时再来纠正。好端端的四首曲目全被小号手搅和得乱七八糟，每当小号独奏旋律时，你总能听到别别扭扭的和旋。第一首曲子吹过，小号手虽没出什么大错，但吹奏得太轻，恐怕仅有前排观众才能听见。事后当代课老师要大伙给自己打分时，我们听了现场录音，而我真替小号手的演技感到惭愧。这么做并非有意刁难他们，但代课老师又播放了一遍， “一粒老鼠屎坏了一锅粥”，我心里非常明白问题的严重性。
每年公演出点问题在所难免，这回灯光就不给力，但小号手舞台表现实在欠佳。晚会结束时，乐队老师让全体队员拿自己与管乐队进行比较，而我也属于这支来自七、八、九年级经过挑选组合的校队成员之一，大家一致认为校管乐队要比初中二年级乐队技高一筹，但愿下次演出别叫小号手登台。
