At 1:23 AM -0400 6/7/07, Raymond Horton wrote:
The Janacek Sinfonietta bass trumpet part (2 in unison) is unusually low. Hard to get a good sound that loud on any bass trumpet I've ever played. Fun to try, though! I would like to know what instruments the composer had available.
And that question is the most important one in this discussion. I can't imagine any composer (lacking suicidal tendencies) writing for an instrument that he does not know exists and does not know could possibly be made available. I recall reading that R. Strauss and some others (Mahler?) wrote for flutes with a low Bb. Ergo, someone in Vienna must have been making such flutes (and even piccolos?). What Stravinsky did to bassoonists has caused several generations to have extra keys added to their instruments, but the bassoonist who played the premier must have been able to do so with his existing instrument.
What makes things interesting is that instruments have evolved since a century ago, let alone a century and a half. Verdi wrote for a bass brass instrument, knowing that his orchestras would use an Ophicleide. Today those parts would be played on a tuba, but I seem to remember reading that Verdi himself expressed a preference for the Cimbasso.
John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
