In which is a sort of Montage...

ell, it's time to get this year the hell out of the way, in the (probably delusional) hope that next year cannot be worse. Now where were we? 

When last we saw our hero, he was playing an E flat tenor horn (or alto. It's a bit complicated, really.) He had bought the thing in October, and was rapidly discovering its abilities, and limitations, not to mention his own.

One thing the Cornet Player has been jonesing for since he hit The Eastern Province (besides the chance to play more cornet) is the chance to do some small-group singing. Early this year, he saw a tiny opportunity (excuse?) to assemble a small ensemble, and led them in performing a choral evensong. (First one in The Wee Town in a generation.) 

There was a Mag and Nunc by a guy named John Smith (yeah, sure!) which had the virtues of being homophonic, and tonal, fairly easy to learn, and... well, that about exhausts its catalogue of virtues. We did that, and introduced four of the six singers to the concept of Anglican  Chant. (Stick with me, kid, you see a lot of things you never imagined.) It... worked. And we're going to do another two or three next year, see if we don't.

 In June, the Cornet Player found out that there was a Brass Band School operating in The Eastern Province, and thought, "I bet that would be a cool thing to do next year. I could find out how good real players are, I could see some of the actual repertoire that this horn is meant to play, I would do a whole lot of playing in a short time, and Get Better!" 

And then he thought, "Actually, I want to do all of those things Right Now!" and enrolled this year, at the last minute. What could possibly go wrong?

Um, yeah. About that... 

The highest note that the Cornet Player had so far played in public was a (written) F sharp. Remember that bit. It comes into the story later. 

It turns out that the "Brass Band Summer School" does three rehearsals and eight performances over the course of two weeks, in a Very Large Military Show. That's besides the rehearsals and concerts that the band does on its own. "...a whole lot of playing in a short time." Yup. Got that base covered. 

Downloaded the music... It printed in landscape format. Almost as if we were going to play it from marching band lyres. (The lyre is a device that promises to hold the music where the player can see it. At least I think it's spelled that way.) How strange. I've seen brass bands on Youtube, and they play sitting down, off real music stands....  

Put the music on the stand... Turn to the first number... first note... Remember that F sharp? (I told you to remember it!) Yeah, that's where it starts. That couldn't be a sign, could it? 

So, the Cornet Player gets a ride to the Little Smoke from the Local Anglican Cleric, gets registered, and has a great time, gets a whole lot better, it's an absolutely perfect two weeks. Okay, there was a moment or two when he was inclined to bounce the horn off a concrete wall, and quit music forever...  But the Local Anglican Cleric never got a call from TCP saying, "Get me out of here, it's driving me crazy!" (or, worse, from the director of the school, saying, "Get HIM out of here, he's driving me crazy!" so we're chalking that up as a win. 

The summer continued with many travels and adventures, and a couple of gigs in different churches, but more about that later...