To my brother Jeff who played double bass behind me but never poked me in the back with his bow
One I love Tchaikovsky I know that’s a bit dorky Okay it’s supremely dorky that my favorite tunes were written by a Russian guy in the 1800s I know I should say that my favorite music is by Katy Perry Or Lady Gaga Or One Direction Believe it or not we play their music too But let’s face it Teenage Dream and Born This Way don’t sound all that exciting when they’re played by a youth orchestra And the cello parts are usually lame Sometimes I wish I played one of the cool instru ments Trumpet Saxophone Even violins get to play the lead parts But nobody writes pop songs for the cello But Tchaikovsky He knew how to write a line of cello music The best one is Marche Slave 1
DIANE DAKERS The cellos open it Ba-da-da-dum Ba-da-da-dum Ba-da-da-dum-dum-dum-dum-ba-da-da-dum dum-dum Then the violins come in all whiny and eerie We switch to pizzicato That means we pluck the strings with our fingers instead of sliding the bow across the strings The music builds and we the cellos and basses play in syncopation off the beat Gives me chills every time I know right Dorky When we finish playing Marche Slave in rehearsal this afternoon I will everyone to stay quiet and still I want to savor the final notes as they float through the auditorium Great job everyone Mr Holmes the orchestra conductor wrecks the moment Let’s take fifteen I lay my cello on its side and loosen the horse hair on my bow I stand up and stretch I place the bow on the music stand I share with Tawni She’s my bff and she should be here by now She said she was going to be late because of a big gymnas tics meet But the competition must have ended an hour ago It doesn’t take that long to get to the rehearsal hall from the gym 2
STRINGS ATTACHED Tawni plays principal cello She’s the best of the six of us in the cello section I play second cello so I sit to Tawni’s right That’s the way it’s been since we started playing cello together in fourth grade First we played in our elementary-school strings program Then we played in the middle school orchestra Now we’re in our high-school orchestra We also play in this orchestra the intermediate City Youth Orchestra Musicians from all over town audition for this group Tawni and I auditioned together when we were twelve Three cellists moved up to senior orchestra that year leaving three openings Tawni and I got two of them Not only that but we immediately became the youngest first and second cellists ever to play in the cyo The fourteen and fifteen-year-olds were choked They figured they would automatically be promoted within the cello section when the others left They didn’t count on us little kids as they called us coming along They had to admit pretty quickly though that we deserved the top jobs Ever since then it’s been Tawni and me always first and second This year we have a new third cellist Colby just moved here He’s fifteen 3
