Barnes and Back Again

One of the most haunting scenes from a movie in the last few years was one of the final scenes in "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King." The ring had been destroyed and the hobbits were back in the shire. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin were sitting in the local pub. Around them was the usual merriment that you'd expect in a pub. But the four of them just sat there in silence, looking at each other. You could see in their faces that they were different. They had just endured a life-altering ordeal and they can't really look at their former lives the same again.

Right now the Grand Street Band is playing Symphony No. 3 by James Barnes. It is, without a doubt, the most difficult piece I'd ever played in a band. Yes, I've played a MAJOR amount of symphonies, but in a band setting you're not going to find pieces of this magnitude.

The band isn't making short work of it as we usually do. This one takes care and work. And it's paying off, which is even better. But, like the hobbits, we're enduring something serious and lasting. Though our situation is no where near what it was like in Middle Earth, once we're done with it everything else will seem frivolous and trite.

I don't think I've ever been effected by a piece like I have been by working on this one. There's just something about it that's making real musicians out of us. Maybe it's because it's the first MAJOR work I've played in so many years.

Mid-March we'll move on. But we won't be the same. I know I won't be the same.