West Highland Sojourne

It is so difficult to choose my favorite song or just one song at that for a matter of fact. I have been a band kid since the beginning of 6th grade and I love just about every genre of music and thousands of songs in between. I love listening, playing, performing, dancing to and singing to music. It is a major part of my life (besides the beach, family and friends) and I'm not sure what I would do or how I would live without it.

I chose the peice West Highland Sojorne, mainly because I love the sound of it and because of its significance in my life. My 8th grade band played this peice for a concert in the spring and because I was sitting and acheived first chair clarinet I happened to have the one major solo in the middle of the second movement. Not only was it nervewracking and terrifying, I had no one else in the entire band playing a single note. When it came time for Ms. Weaver to cue my entrance the band died away behind me and I was the only voice of the whole theatre. I found out years later that my best friend who played the second part in the clarinet section also had a solo at the same time as I but she was a soft player and even more nervous and terrified than I was.

That was the only solo I've ever had in my entire band career. I've been a part of small group ensembles and had a few solo parts that way, but as a whole band there hasn't arose the opportunity to play a solo again. Well, after I got into highschool I met Laura. She is the same year as me but as a freshman she sat as second chair to the drum major, the only reason she wasn't first chair. While I sat in the third row playing third part in the clarinet section. In high school it was different and starting out everyone was older and better than me. I didn't like it but I had lots of room for improvement and I came to realize that Laura was just simply amazing and some sort of clarinet prodigy and no one after that first year was ever going to be better than her at Ashley High School.
West Highland Sojorne is a very spirited peice of music and my favorite peice I've ever played. It was just a fun peice! We performed it in competition that spring and I remember it being the scariest thing in the entire world but I belted it out and actually did really well. I do have one other particular memory about this peice and that was at competition as well. O'Malley, our chimes player in the percussion section had a major solo as well at the end of the third movement. When it came to his solo, the whole band was supposed to be quieter and let the chimes come through over the whole band. Well, right in the middle of his major part, he is clanging away at the chimes and the whole thing falls to the ground in a broken heap of wire and metal chimes! It was crazy and something I will never forget!!