John Howell wrote:
The marches and "smears" I downloaded have a few more problems. ALWAYS
Db piccolo, and sometimes no C flute parts. Sometimes oboe, sometimes
not, and bassoons likewise. Sometimes no saxes, but other times saxes
including soprano (and never 1st and 2nd alto). And the brass parts
often seem to reflect a saxhorn band plus trombones, or perhaps the
English/European brass band background: cornets rather than trumpets,
including Eb cornet in many cases; Eb altos; Bb tenors, PLUS Bb
baritones, PLUS 2 trombones sometimes in treble clef and sometimes in
bass. And never, EVER anything like a full score. Not even a
condensed score. Just a Solo Cornet part with a few cues in it.
Don't get me wrong; transcribing is possible and I plan to work on
some, but I'm working from PDFs of scans of the original quickstep
sized parts, and sometimes the scans are ambiguous about things like
ledger lines. The first thing I'll have to do is to reconstruct a
full score of the original version, just to make sure I can see
everything that's happening and how the doublings are balanced.
Of course I'm at a bit of a disadvantage because I hate the concept of
just borrowing lines from existing parts and pasting them into the
parts I'm adding, but sometimes that's the only thing you can do and
remain true to the original. When I add String Paks to holliday band
arrangements, on the other hand, I always try to add some new
sweetening that is NOT in the original.
Fun, though!
John
I see, yes, you do have more problems, as you are working with earlier
instrumentations which are more like brass band plus treble reeds. No
flute parts - interesting! And I always thought the convention of Db
picc with C flute was odd. [When I played rodeos, in my late teens
(ca. 1972), which included the fastest "gallops" (marches played one
beat to a bar) I've ever had to play, the picc player would keep both a
C and Db picc on his lap.]
One thing - it seems to me that in _all_ the old American band music I
have ever seen the parts for "Bb tenors 1&2" are identical to "trombones
1&2" except for clef. Is the music you are working with any
exception? This is certainly not true in the British brass band
tradition, of course (where the equivalent Bb instruments are called
baritones, anyway).
Missing the Eb soprano cornet is a problem for modern band with these
older works, but with more woodwinds in the modern band this can often
suffice. I've been working a lot with British-style brass bands,
lately, and the Eb soprano cornets are certainly the woodwinds of those
groups.
Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist,
Louisville Orchestra
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