Did I do the right thing?

[bloke]

During my Easter rehearsal this morning (brass quintet and timpani with an okay-but-not-amazing choir), the anthem the organist/choirmaster chose this year is a pretty challenging one (probably a challenging anthem for quite a few choirs, and - with most church choirs - actually not everyone can read music, and a surprising percentage learn their music by rote).
There's no conductor other than the organist moving his mouth and bobbing his head (with his own organ part being a pretty challenging part), the choir has to negotiate some 3/8 measures whereby they have to sing four over three, in addition to some measures where they have to sing two over three (a little bit easier, but they actually tend to rush the two over three measures, whereby the beat should stay very steady and rhythmic in this entire anthem), there's a place where the anthem sort of starts over with an organ trill - which defines fairly nebulous time, YET the timpanist and I have to come in together (with an offset hemiola, no less...you know, liking Symphonie Fantastique) and - to make things even more challenging, pulse-wise - the brass quintet is separated - with the three low brass on one side of the organ and the two trumpets and the timpanist on the far side, so we (the timpanist and me, in particular) can barely hear each other...

... so I spoke up for the quintet (even though I didn't ask anyone's permission) and I made it clear that we were willing to spend as much time as needed on the anthem (outside of the time that we needed to spend on all the other things we were playing) to tighten up a whole bunch of issues that needed to be addressed in the anthem. so that both performances in tomorrow's services would be really good, and worth the money he is paying for us to be there (which is a lot).

I could tell that the organist/choirmaster was really feeling like he had to keep moving, and make sure that he covered everything before our scheduled rehearsal was over, but it just seemed to me that it was more important to get everything right, rather than finish the rehearsal on time (after all, he picked that piece for this year's big anthem, and obviously he was really looking forward to performing it)... We took the time needed to write in some cues, to go over some really difficult passages several times until we "felt" them properly, and in order to take note of when the choir's execution of some rhythmic figures wasn't quite right (so we could shift how we are tapping our feet )..and - guess what? - we finished the rehearsal on time anyway, and the anthem is going to sound pretty good.

[catgrowlB]

Similar here. Try doing that with a quartet (2 trumpets, trombone, tuba), with 2 trumpets on one side, and the trombone and tuba on the other side up on the stage of the sanctuary. No conductor; just the organist sort of starting everything and we have to do our best and 'feel' for any time she comes in and we play on the hymnals. No cues or gestures or conductor to help...

We are doing one piece with the organ -- 'O filii et filiae' by David Giardiniere as one of the preludes, even though it was written for quintet or sextet, timpani and organ. We are doing that piece with just a quartet and organ. The other preludes and postludes we do as a quartet. And the first trumpet usually counts it off, but doesn't always make it clear. He always take up the parts too, so they don't get 'lost'. We never get to take any of the quartet parts back home to polish anything. This time I took screenshots of them at the one rehearsal we usually have, so I'll feel a little better about it. And I'm usually playing the trombone 2 part on tuba, with a lot of it down an octave.

Going to run thru the pieces tomorrow morning before the service.
To be honest, it always just sort of feels thrown together and not polished enough for me. So I'm just wanting to get it done, grab my check and head home afterwards and take the rest of the day easy. A lot of Easter and Christmas service gigs feel like that

[bloke]

I just found a recording of the particular anthem to which I'm referring.

If the time is nice and steady, if there's a conductor, if everyone can hear everyone else, and if the choir is really good, it surely fits together like a jigsaw puzzle
The brass entrances are (though yes: strongly rhythmic) somewhat pointalistic, and we are separated by quite a few feet, there's no conductor, the organist's sense of time is a little bit affected by his requirement to do some conducting, and the choir is probably barely up to being able to pull off this piece (even though there are only a couple of minor time signature anomalies in the entire piece and only a couple of key changes).

... The brass are all out for sixty-something bars; right before we come back in, the organist breaks time (because the figure that they have to play is slightly beyond their technical speed capabilities), and there's nothing but an organ trill (and no established pulse) when the timpanist and I (separated by around forty feet of space - though we do have a line of sight, thankfully) enter after that trill with (again) an offset hemiola.

Since my name is printed in the program, I just want it to be pretty good. That's a lot more important to me then possibly playing 13.2207 minutes of extra rehearsal time for "free" (which we ended up not having to do)... and I made the assumption that the other brass players and the timpanist felt the same.

[Schlitzz]

Gentle reminder, the violas are hit and miss on the Holidays.......

[catgrowlB]

I may have come off as a little bratty in my post above. But it was just because I'm all about the music and us musicians doing the best job we can. And that sometimes it just feels thrown together and not as polished as I'd like at times.

But the gig/service went well and was very enjoyable. Lots of people came up to us afterwards and thanked us. There was a little kid that came up to us during our postludes and pointed to my tuba and said it was his favorite instrument He was enamored with the tuba

Doing well musically for ourselves is good. But what makes it really count and make it special for me is when the audience enjoys it and gets something out of it