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.
【紅霞譯文】
2015年樂隊生涯正式開始，從今往後與之相關的演藝表現將全部納入考核成績單當中，讓樂隊指導老師迪瓦倫蒂諾先生臧否人物找到了理由。是啊，每次演出完畢他滿腹牢騷，尤其面對初中二年級常規樂隊的表現更要大發雷霆。相形之下，校級管樂隊技藝水平非同一般，但無論什麼時候，只要有人膽敢把演出當兒戲，哪位老師都銘記在心。
這回在初中二年級冬季音樂會上，我們演得很差，不，應該說糟糕透頂。開場前樂隊利用四十五分鐘的寶貴時間進行排演，結果不盡人意。小號手自始至終拿捏不准旋律，動不動就跑調，有些隊友不按節拍吹奏，提早跳到下一個小節，頓時樂隊老師面紅耳赤，宛如癲癇發作。瞧他臉頰通紅，嘴角下撇，我敢說已氣得火冒三丈，隨時能把衝冠的怒發燒成灰燼，而殘留的軀幹又好似惡魔張口便可將小號吞噬乾淨，其訓斥聲充滿亡靈般的憤怒與沮喪。
就這樣，臨陣磨槍了大半個光景，小號手還是未能把握曲子裡極其簡單的音符，不停上一個小節根本換不過氣來。我可以斷定，下次樂器分組測驗時，他們當中的幾位肯定要遇上麻煩，不過當務之急就是首先要過今晚這道關才行。坦率地說，要是沒有小號，整個樂隊演奏得還算不錯。
考驗我們的時刻終於到了，大家已沒精力顧及小號手吹得對不對，他們一旦在獨奏的地方出醜，只能靠我們其他樂手補台，觀眾將就着聽，老師也不得不指望下次上課時再來糾正。好端端的四首曲目全被小號手攪和得亂七八糟，每當小號獨奏旋律時，你總能聽到別彆扭扭的和旋。第一首曲子吹過，小號手雖沒出什麼大錯，但吹奏得太輕，恐怕僅有前排觀眾才能聽見。事後當代課老師要大夥給自己打分時，我們聽了現場錄音，而我真替小號手的演技感到慚愧。這麼做並非有意刁難他們，但代課老師又播放了一遍， “一粒老鼠屎壞了一鍋粥”，我心裡非常明白問題的嚴重性。
每年公演出點問題在所難免，這回燈光就不給力，但小號手舞台表現實在欠佳。晚會結束時，樂隊老師讓全體隊員拿自己與管樂隊進行比較，而我也屬於這支來自七、八、九年級經過挑選組合的校隊成員之一，大家一致認為校管樂隊要比初中二年級樂隊技高一籌，但願下次演出別叫小號手登台。
