Ooops! I thought that my "grin" icon gave it away. I was being ironic. When I was young, the Franck was played so often that it quickly became a cliché. When Pierre Monteux was conductor of the San Francisco Symphony in the late 1940s and 1950s, it seemed to me they performed it almost every year. It was also the theme music for one of the radio programs of the day, the Bell Telephone Hour or some such. I got sick and tired of it.
After all these years, I dreaded playing it again, but actually I am finding new pleasures in it, such as the "muss es sein?" motto from the Beethoven string quartet. Surprise! Richard in Seattle On 4/3/2010 1:28 AM, Ralph Hall wrote: > Hi Richard, > > Are we still in the April 1st spoof season or do you really mean > "obscure and unknown"? > > I wish I'd had a $ for every time I'd played it rather than each time > I've seen it called the above. > > Before I left the UK it was considered, alongside Dvorak 8, a youth > orchestra piece and I have about 8 recordings, > none by "obscure" artists and orchestras. > > Nor is it new parts and copies which give turn-over difficulties. I > remember taking scissors into rehearsals to > cut pages in half so that I could turn at a more convenient time than > was given by the publisher. > > Easter Greetings to all, > > Ralph R. Hall > > > On 3 Apr 2010, at 08:28, Richard V. West wrote: > > >> My apologies for double posting, but I can't recall which list had a >> recent discussion of Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice and attendant >> problems. >> >> Our orchestra has just begun rehearsals on that obscure and unknown >> work, the Franck D minor Symphony :-). The music is "courtesy of >> Kalmus" >> and I noticed that it was a copy of the original French edition, >> notated >> just like the Sorcerer's Apprentice (1st and 2nd on the same page). I >> also noticed that it has the same lousy, badly placed page turns as >> the >> Dukas, which was recently discussed on one of the lists. >> >> Looking at it during the first rehearsal and muttering to myself, I >> had >> an epiphany: it was not the original publisher's fault. My guess is >> that >> in order to use less paper, or out of sheer carelessness, Kalmus >> simply >> copied the original parts from the outside rather than inside. >> Confused? >> What I mean is that if you left the first page blank (probably had the >> title on it), and started on the inside left page, with the next >> page on >> the right facing it when propped on the music stand, the rests would >> come in the right place. I recopied the Franck that way and it works >> beautifully except for one page turn. Did it on the Dukas, and it >> isn't >> absolutely perfect (sometimes there's only one bar rest) but it is >> certainly more feasible then the Kalmus version. >> >> By the way, I agree about that passage in the Dukas between 49 and 50. >> It is truly tough. It took me a lot of work to get it accurately up to >> speed. Well...at least up to speed! The second horn was about to >> give up >> and take up the kazoo. >> >> Apropos echo horn in the Dukas, I'm curious to know how you all do it. >> It's relatively rare in the literature, so there aren't a lot of >> opportunities to do it. I played it by hand stopping the horn about >> 3/4 >> or so to lower the tone a 1/2 step and fingering the passage a 1/2 >> step >> higher to play the written pitch. Are there other ways? >> >> Richard in Seattle >> _______________________________________________ >> post: [email protected] >> unsubscribe or set options at >> https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/ralph%40brasshausmusic.com >> > Ralph R. Hall > [email protected] > Ralph R. Hall > http://www.brasshausmusic.com > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hornfella%40comcast.net > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 9.0.800 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2787 - Release Date: 04/02/10 > 23:32:00 > > _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
