At 8:32 PM -0500 1/20/09, Christopher Smith wrote:
Yes, yes, that was my point. (Humour!) Of course I know all the
usual repertoire for trombones before the 5th, but the symphony was
considered the "large canvas" for composers since the Baroque.
(Catching up with some messages, having just finished the first week
of classes heckticity!)
Since the Baroque? Sorry, but there were no "symphonies" in the
baroque. There were ensemble concerti grossi, with no concertino
soloists, but I doubt that's what you mean. And there were a number
of "sinfonie" that were either lifted out of Italian opera overtures
or composed in the same style, but while those were included in the
time period we conventionally call the "baroque," stylistically they
were in the early Pre-Classical. Folks like Sammartini, for example,
writing "sinfonie" or "symphonies" about 12-15 minutes long and
experimenting with the new ideas of the large-scale sonata form and
the single-movement sonata-allegro form.
The "large canvas" was the more mature Classical period, not the
Baroque and not the Pre-Classical, and generally identified with at
least a minimum of wind parts and not just strings.
Incidentally, our Community Orchestra conductor has decided that
we're going to do Beethoven's 5th on our Spring Concert, so I'm going
to be in the middle of these trombone questions, but we have
transposed and modern clef parts from Luck's, which are rearranged to
gentle up the alto trombone parts, and it's a good thing because we
don't have virtuoso players!
The first trombone part in this symphony (as in most others
through the end of the 19th century) was an *alto* trombone, for
which the high C is no big deal at all, and the top F was the
conventional and long-standing top note.
I just looked through the original part, and the highest notes I can
see are several Ds and 2 Es. Where's the F supposed to be?
John
Whoah. Conventional for who? While the C is considered to be in the
usual range for ALTO trombone (though near the top end) it is
definitely a risky cold entrance. And there are so few alto trombone
specialists these days that the piece is often played on a tenor,
where it is twice as tough. The F wasn't even matched in standard
rep until almost 2 centuries later, and even the Rhenish Eb is
considered pretty tough going, too, and regularly features on
trombone auditions for that reason. We go into training weeks before
when anything over a D shows up for a concert, like for a
weight-lifting competition.
I can play it, but probably not with the consistency expected of a
major symphony orchestra first trombonist (or even a secondary
orchestra!) I suppose it is a tribute to the general level of pros
these days that nobody hears anything going wrong with those
extremes in concerts more often. It is all too easy, let me tell you.
Although in the 9th, the voice of God is represented by the men in
the chorus, plus the bass trombone. We trombonists see that as
typical typecasting. 8-)
Yes it is. Trombones had a regular presence in operas, oratorios
and the like for some 200 years before Beethoven, and there they
were almost always used to represent the underworld and the
infernal.
I guess you missed the smiley. I meant that we consider ourselves to
be god-like. 8-) <----(there it is again!)
It was funnier in my head before I typed it.
Christopher
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John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
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http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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