New Score in Hand
On Monday morning, after the weekend of the Chunichi Contest—
(Sensei greets the band in the music room.)
Sensei Good morning, everyone. Great work for the Chunichi Contest on Saturday.
Sensei Were you able to rest well yesterday? Let’s do our best to prepare for the prefectural preliminaries with renewed feelings, starting from today.
Everyone Got it!
Atsukage Let’s get straight to things, but may we have all the section leaders come forward to collect the scores.
Sensei Hanabusa-kun and Ushio-sensei have worked with me to select our set piece for the prefectural preliminaries of the Nationals.
Sensei As for our choice piece, we’ll continue using ‘Breeze of Youth’, which was our choice piece for the Chunichi Contest.i
Kojiro Ehh!? You’re the flute section leader, Soshu-kun?
Osei Well, I kind of heard that lots of trouble had happened.
Kuri Wha-!? B-Being the section leader as a first-year…
Aoto Soshu’s impressive. He’s mature, huh.
Yasuhito Even if Kaneko is mature, the point is that’s bad. If it were me, I’d turn the position down no matter what they’ll offer me in exchange.
Atsukage I believe each of you have reflected on your performance for the Chunichi Contest, and gotten an idea on what you need to work on. Please practice ‘Breeze of Youth’, led by your section leaders, while simultaneously—
Atsukage Proceeding with the score-reading and parts assignment of our set piece, ‘March ‘Wonder World’’.
Section Leaders Got it!
(The trombone section is in the music room.)
Akane There ya go.
Osei Thanks!! Woahh~~! It’s a new score!!!
Toki Wh-What’s with you Osei… You’re crazy excited for this.
Osei I mean, this is our set piece for the Nationals y’know!? Don’t you think it kinda makes your blood get all pumped up with a whoosh!?
Toki A whoosh? Well, this does fire one up indeed!
Akane All right, if yer all fired up fer this, then us ‘bones’re gonna practice reading the score on our own fer today.
Akane We’ll check with one another about the stuff we don’t get during tomorrow’s morning practice, and we’ll begin with sectional practice after class after that. How’s that?
Osei・Toki Right!/Yeah!
Daisuke Well then, let’s work on our basics and read the score together starting from today.
Daisuke We’ve all also picked out what we need to work on after reflecting on the Chunichi Contest, after all. Let us focus on those things as we practice our basics, shall we!
Kojiro Score-reading huhh…it’s full of symbols and tadpoles…I’m bad at it…it really isn’t fun, is it.
Daisuke Haha! Perhaps you may be a little disinclined towards it, Kojiro. If that’s the case, then how about you think of it as a ‘Nice to Meet You’ greeting?
Ijeong・Kojiro Nice to meet you?
Daisuke When you meet someone for the first time and try to befriend them, you’d want to get to know a lot of important things about them such as their favourite food, right?
Kojiro Yup…the foods they like and the foods they dislike! And I’d want to know a lot of other stuff, such as whether they like candy~!
Daisuke Writing down the notes and noting down the meanings of the symbols after you look them up are the same in that you’re getting to know your partner for the first time, little by little.
Daisuke Getting to know the music, getting to know the flow… It’s important to know the world of and story behind the music that the composer is depicting.
Daisuke That’s what score-reading is, it’s when you’re saying “nice to meet you” to a new piece.
Kojiro …It’s kind of starting to sound tougher and tougher to do.
Daisuke Hahaha! You’ll be fine, the world of music is fun after all, and ultimately, you’re not alone as you embark on your journey to understand the piece.
Daisuke You’ve got me, and Ijeong-kun, and also…everyone else with you! Reassuring, don’t you think?
Kojiro Nii-chan…
Ijeong As I would expect from the oldest of the three horn brothers! Kojiro, I am also bad at score-reading, but let us work our hardest together!
Ijeong For score-reading, and practice too…the higher the hurdle, the more it is worth a challenge after all!
Kojiro Mhmm…!
(Reito is practicing.)
♪~♪~~~♪~~~
Yasuhito ……
(He watches Reito practice.)
♪~~~♪~~~~
Yasuhito Even though he said this is his first time reading ‘Wonder World’. To think that he’s already able to play like that.
Izuru Y-Yup…he’s amazing, right…
Ryotaro At any rate, all members of our sax section are experienced, so let’s each work on reading our own scores, and begin practicing right away tomorrow.
Izuru・Yasuhito G-Got it…!/Understood.
Ryotaro (But even so, this piece… Well, the difference in abilities between every section in our band is obvious right now…)
Minato Kuri, I wanna play 1st!
Kuri Minato…you. …Wait, Minoike-senpai, please say something man.
Kuri You’re the section leader for the trumpets you know!
Junta What a burden…
Kuri I’m asking you! What on earth is that burden. You’re the section leader, so pull us first-years together please!
Junta ……Sigh.
Junta Minato, leave it to Kuri. ……You and I’ve both still got a long way to go.
Kuri …!
Minato How come! I’ve been reading the scores, properly…or trying my best to.
Minato I’ll play the new piece properly too!
Junta …… Hey, has nothing crossed your mind at all after participating in the Chunichi Contest?
Minato ?
Junta You can’t have not had any thoughts after listening to the other schools perform, right?
Minato The other…schools…
Kuri …Minoike-senpai.
Atsukage (On top of participating in the larger division, we’ve got a disadvantage in numbers. We’ll lack a depth in our sound with fewer members, but that’s not all…)
Atsukage (Each and every one of our mistakes will be harder to cover, the fewer the members we have.)
Atsukage (Furthermore, the difference in abilities between each section in our band is extreme right now.)
Atsukage (We’d selected our set piece with that in mind, but…)
Atsukage (Nonetheless, there’re still many elements of concern.)
(Mikio approaches him.)
Mikio Hanabusa-senpai.
Atsukage A-Ahh. What’s the matter?
Mikio Why don’t the clarinetists have a run-through of the piece during morning practice tomorrow?
Atsukage Kannoto…
Mikio Hibiku and Aoto…and I will do it too. Let’s do it, Hanabusa-senpai.
Atsukage …Yeah, indeed.
Atsukage (So I’m not the only one who’s panicking, huh…)
To be continued…
Musician’s Notes
i Set and Choice Pieces: I’ve previously spoken about this, but I’ll repeat it now that it’s more relevant – The typical format for most concert band competitions requires participating bands to play two pieces, a set piece and a choice piece.
The set piece must be picked from a list of 4-5 designated pieces that are specially composed for that competition in that year. For example, in the world of Wind Boys!, ‘March ‘New Voyage” was one of the set pieces designated by the organisers of the Chunichi Contest, and ‘March ‘Wonder World” will be one of the set pieces designated by the organisers of the National Band Competition. (Not all set pieces are marches, but there will often be one or two, in every designated list.)
The choice piece can be any piece of the band’s choice, as long as it hits the minimum time and does not exceed the maximum. This piece can be reused by bands to their liking, so they can be familiar with it across multiple different competitions. In Ibuki’s case, this would be ‘Breeze of Youth’, that was used for the Chunichi Contest and will be used for the National Band Competition.
~ Next: Chapter 6, Page 13 ~
PACKED LUNCHES・SCHOOL CANTEEN・LIKES AND DISLIKES.
PREVIEW
Minato: It’s lunch time!
Soshu: Are you a kid…let’s be off right away.
Stamff's Wind Boys! Translations! 