Three candidates presented themselves beneath the Old Willow on Wednesday afternoon for the audition announced here on the ninth instant. This gazette’s music desk has covered the spring recital, the May Day observance, and all the correspondence since without, this critic believes, losing its composure. It is that desk’s solemn duty to report that the co-honker vacancy remains, at the close of proceedings, unfilled.
The Clerk of the Cultural Subcommittee conducted the auditions. Present also: two members of the Subcommittee, neither of whom spoke, and Hettie’s mother, in an observational capacity, seated at a distance that permitted hearing and discouraged conversation. This critic attended too, admitted on the understanding that his remarks would be “confined to the factual.” He accepted the condition. He has tried, below, to keep it.
Candidate the first was a young drake of the east shore. His letter had been filed on Monday, his qualifications given as “a willingness to learn and a reliable attendance record.” His piece was a sequence of four honks at ascending pitch, at moderate volume, delivered with evident concentration. The panel received it in a silence this critic reads as attentive. The Clerk noted for the record that the register was “pleasant but narrow,” and that whether narrow could be made sufficient through rehearsal was “a matter for the senior performer’s judgment.” Hettie’s mother’s expression did not change.
Candidate the second was the coot of the Channel Sprint, whose letter, part of it printed here Saturday, had been the first received. He came with the small pebble of sentimental value and set it beside him. Asked about it, he called it “a gesture of continuity.” His audition was a sustained call of some six breaths, at a volume this critic will call considerable. A second call followed, at a slightly different pitch, which he said was meant to show range. This critic confines himself to one observation. The coot’s instrument is powerful, lateral, and remarkably consistent. Whether consistency is the same thing as harmony is a question this critic leaves, with deference, to the senior performer. The Clerk recorded the audition as “noted” and asked that the pebble be removed from the performance area before the next candidate.
Candidate the third was a goose, a young goose of the north bank, not previously known to this gazette. Her letter had been filed on Tuesday. Her audition was a single honk of moderate duration, after which she seemed to be composing a second and then did not produce one. Asked by the Clerk whether a second was coming, she said the first honk “contained what was necessary.” A second, she added, would follow in due course, if required. This critic notes, with what restraint the observation allows, that the single honk was closer to Hettie’s register, in pitch and tone and the quality of its sustain, than either candidate before her had managed.
Hettie herself was not present. It is understood, through her mother and the Clerk and the general consensus of the reeds, that the senior performer comes in at the rehearsal stage and not before. This critic offered a honk of his own at the close, sotto voce, and was asked by the Clerk to refrain.
The Subcommittee will deliberate. A decision is expected within the week (ish).