Ok, so it's hardly stranded in space stuff, but my heart did sink a tad* when I got this message from Yi on our Butterfly Lovers WhatsApp group last week: "HI SIMON we have a long practice time today. And we have lot of problem. Can we have a zoom meeting Tomorrow". Uh oh, what had happened? And more importantly, what could we do about it?
Earlier in the week, Yi, Chaoran, and Yeongji had got together on campus to rehearse our arrangement of "Who is he Actually?" which I've discussed previously. I knew that they were apprehensive about making my strings & synth backing work with live piano and voice, so assumed that our upcoming Zoom meeting was going to be all about that, and perhaps involve a little pushing back against the arrangement. In the event, I was really quite wrong.
Not that my arrangement isn't causing some issues, and we did cover that in Friday's zoom. I think the widdly-diddly early 80s sequencer is a bit tricky to play and sing along with, and I may have to re-think that at least in part. But there were wider concerns to cover. As it turned out, in my absence the group had worked not just on "Who is he", but also played back my "overture", and discussed some of the other songs they'd already shortlisted. And the chief concern was around coherence. The group are worried that the pieces we're considering don't really hang together that well. The key word was "messy", which Chaoran checked was the right word using some translation technology. I've no doubt it was.
So I tried my best to be reassuring, not my set point, as my wife will tell you (I'm generally the one needing reassurance... ) The gist of what I had to say was: yeah, I get that, but I think at this stage "messy" is fine. Actually, my take is that "messy" is fine as an outcome full-stop, but I realise that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for creative chaos (an odd tendency given my fanatical tidiness generally, but there you go).
I think I did manage to be reassuring in end. At least it felt that way: bear in mind, this was a Zoom "meeting" with a lot of the conversation going on in Chinese and mediated via the aforementioned translation tech. In any case, I left the conversation mostly thinking "Christ, I need a drink" (oh come on, it was late on a Friday afternoon) and happy that we've got plenty of time to figure things out. And then things got both interesting and seriously impressive.
By 7pm the same day, this came through from Jeongyi:
So... not just an outline of the little show we're planning, but a work plan too! Oh, and for good measure, the message included links to YouTube clips of the new suggested songs and scores too. Let me be blunt (and probably lose some more friends): I have rarely experienced such responsiveness, clarity and, well, professionalism from the many, many musicians with whom I've worked over the years (you know who are). I'm genuinely blown away, and not a little humbled.
Now, a couple of caveats. Firstly, we're not out of the woods yet: there are clearly going to be sticking points ahead. Secondly, I don't want us to get too "set" on things just yet. Indeed, to the first point, I'm rather relishing some of the sticking points. But still, this is a great start, and I'm really grateful to my collaborators for their conscientiousness. As I said: impressive.
* It reminded me of those moments, when, back in my days of being a boss, a team member would ask, out of the blue, "Simon, could we grab a coffee and have a quick chat?" At which I could only sigh, if inwardly...
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