Failing

In "Failing", I am required to read a long text while playing music written above the text

The text must be read out loud at a more or less normal pace and I must not allow the music to slow me down

The task is fairly easy for a while

Because there is not much music, and most of it comes at the end of clauses and sentences, almost like normal punctuation

Later on, there is more music and the task becomes more difficult

So difficult, in fact, that I will probably not be ablе to do it without either slowing down my reading speed or еlse making mistakes in the music

At least the composer feels confident that I will eventually begin to run into trouble, which is why he called the piece "Failing"

This task is already rather challenging, but I have practiced the piece quite a bit, and that is a fact as well as simply a line in the text

So unless I am having a particularly bad night, I can still handle the music quite adequately without slowing down my delivery of the text

I should be able to keep everything well in tune, and play the dynamic markings accurately

If I am concentrating well, I should even be able to maintain a good balance between the speaking and the playing, and remember to make the text easy to understand even though the mood of the music sometimes changes radically

But soon the music becomes more difficult yet, and I will probably start failing in one way or another

I should point out, however, that I am not obliged to fail. After all, the audience cannot see the score I am reading and no - [distorted] - if I was simply to leave out whatever passages I am unable to play

People might be very impressed by my playing, and think that i had succeeded in playing a piece which the composer thought could not be played successfully by any bass player

And of course, by leaving out the hard - [distorted] - be cheating, and the performance would not really be a success at all, since the piece is about - [distorted]

By now, "Failing" is extremely difficult

That is, the piece called "Failing" is extremely difficult