Contrabass Digest |
| To subscribe or unsubscribe, email gdgreen@contrabass.com |
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 15:37:33 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: Contrabassaholics Anonymous...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comMichael Grogg wrote:
>I would be careful of gig bags that look too much like sleeping bags. A
>year or so ago on the tuba list, one of the members recounted how he had
>his tuba stuffed in a sleeping bag in the back of his car. He came back
>to the car to find the window smashed out, his tuba laying on the seat,
>and his sleeping bag gone!Fortunately, mine only looks like a sleeping bag on the inside. The
outside of the the case would probably be mistaken for a keyboard.
Needless to say, though, I don't ever leave it in the trunk unattended.>Test problem: Load a Volkswagon Rabbit with two tubas, one string bass,
>Manhasset music stand, music bag. Space must remain for driver to sit in
>vehicle and reach the pedals and steering wheel.I can relate! A *long* time ago, when I played contrabassoon in the KC
Youth Symphony, I used to catch a ride to rehersals with a string bass
player. We managed to fit bassoon, contrabassoon, bass, stool, music
stands and us into a VW bug. Fortunately, it was a convertible.
Fortunately, we never had to do this in the rain. Unfortunately, we *did*
have to push-start it a few times.Enjoy!
Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------From: Robert Groover <groover@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Re organs
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 18:09:33 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com> - Organs can be difficult to access for practice, since they tend to be in
> churches and concert halls.But WHY can't one buy a MIDI pedalboard for practice?
They wouldn't be particularly expensive to manufacture, and might start
to sneak into pop music too if available.Robert Groover groover@netcom.com (PGP key on request)
Member ECS, AVS, ACM, OSA, Sen.Mem.IEEE, Reg'd Patent Atty
"All men by nature desire knowledge."---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 23:03:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: timjt@awod.com (Timothy J. Tikker)
Subject: Re: [Contra digest]
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>From: "Bret Newton" <jbnbsn99@hotmail.com>
>Subject: organs
>Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:01:57 PDT
>Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com
>If I'm not mistaken, the Lay Family Organ in Dallas goes all the way
>down to the E in the 64 foot register. I've heard it on two
>occasions and it is so low that it shakes the entire hall when it is
>played. The funny thing is that there is enough room in the hall to
>easily put a 64 foot pipe but there is not one.
>Bret NewtonI played this organ in 1992, heard it in two concerts in 1994, and have
spoken with its buidlers at some length. It has no 64' stop, but has three
32's, each full-length and going to low C. One is a metal (high-tin alloy)
Principal in the facade, another is a large-scaled open wood Untersatz, and
the third a heavy-pressure (18" water column) wooden Tuba Profunda reed.
The facade Principal may or may not have all of its pipes in the facade --
does it start at low E? I can check.I was told that the 32' open wood, which the builders contracted out, was
somehow made a half-step too long! So they cut the low C (which was
sounding 64' B!) to C pitch so that there were two C pipes, transposed the
others to their correct sounding pitches, and added a new top pipe. They
figured the doubled low C would help that pitch sound more evenly in the
hall, I think.- Timothy Tikker
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Aaron Rabushka" <arabushk@cowtown.net>
Subject: Re: organs
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 22:34:28 -0500
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comI got to hear the Lay Family Organ as part of the Dallas Wind Symphony's
rendition of the Saint Saens 3rd Symphony. Quite an impression in both the
loud and quiet sections. Mary Preston's registrations didn't spare the low
end.Aaron J. Rabushka
arabushk@cowtown.net
http://www.cowtown.net/users/arabushk/ (featuring a sample of an organ work
not to be missed)
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Lownotes" <hraven@casema.net>
Subject: Re: Bass Sax FS du jour...
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 09:34:09 +0200
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comThis Bass sax has a double low C hole. This must be intended to open up
register D and Eb which are hard to play on a Bass sax.
I always open the low C# key to get this open sound.>Here's today's bass sax up for auction:
>http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=93398896---------------------------------------------------------
From: LeliaLoban@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 09:09:43 EDT
Subject: organs
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comBret Newton writes,
>>If i'm not mistaken, the Lay Family Organ in Dallas goes all the way
down to the E in the 64 foot register. I've heard it on two
occasions and it is so low that it shakes the entire hall when it is
played. The funny thing is that there is enough room in the hall to
easily put a 64 foot pipe but there is not one.>>There may not have been the megabucks available to construct a rank that
huge. It's probably an acoustic bass (aka a resultant) produced by pairing a
32' open flue rank such as a double diapason with a 21-1/3 sub-quint rank.
You can get the idea of this on any organ (even if it's not set up with the
sub-quint) by playing your lowest bass pipes(open flues work best) along with
notes a fifth above. In other words, play your lowest C and the G directly
above it simultaneously. You will hear a definite throbbing "beat" and a
pitch an octave below the ostensible pitch of the lower note. The acoustic
bass always "beats" like that, even if you produce it with much
higher-pitched pipes, although for practical purposes you'll hear the beat
well only with bass pipes. Also, the quality of any resultant bass depends
heavily on the acoustical properties of the building, and is sometimes very
loud in one part of the building while almost inaudible elsewhere.The trick will work to a limited extent on an electronic keyboard. I mess
with it on my Yamaha Clavinova 811, which only goes down to 16' pitch. If I
set it up with the basic "Organ" stop paired with the "Old Organ" combination
stop, then use the middle pedal to hold a bass combination of, say, CC and GG
for several seconds, so that the amplitude of the resonance has plenty of
time to increase, the instrument produces a weak acoustic 32' pitch along
with a throbbing vibration so violent that it will "walk" small objects
smartly off the top of the console. Anything not nailed down in that room
will react, particularly my 18" bodhran drum, which gives out a very
audible, whining sympathetic vibrration from where it hangs on the wall a
few feet from the console.You can get an even more disturbing beat (though not a good acoustic bass) by
using the dissonant "devil's chord" of, say, C and G#, or any combination
that's exactly half an octave. It's called the "devil's chord" because it's
an interval of six semitones. Stick three of those together, using your
lowest bass stops, or do the equivalent with any bass wind instruments, and
see what 666 sounds like: not heavenly, I assure you. This chord was
literally illegal, banned by the Roman Catholic Church and later also by the
Reformation, in most of Renaissance and Baroque Europe.Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle science fiction."
--bumper sticker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---------------------------------------------------------
From: LeliaLoban@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 09:23:14 EDT
Subject: organs
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comJust caught a dumb typo in my previous message, after I'd already hit "send".
I gave C plus G# as an example of the "devil's chord." Bzzzzzt! Wrong!
The interval of six semitones would be C plus F#.Lelia
"It warn't me; it was my evil twin."---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 09:20:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Famulare <flams1600@yahoo.com>
Subject: Bass Clarinet Mouthpieces
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comHello Everybody, I need help in my search for a good bass clarinet
mouthpiece. My old entry-level Selmer fell from a stand to its demise,
so I'm looking for a quality replacement. Tell me what you use, item
numbers if possible, how its sounds, and specifications like chamber
size and facing.Feel free to reply off list if we don't want to start a discussion.
Thanks,
Mike Famulare
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 10:16:24 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: Bass Sax FS du jour...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>This Bass sax has a double low C hole. This must be intended to open up
>register D and Eb which are hard to play on a Bass sax.
>I always open the low C# key to get this open sound.Interestingly (to me at least), some sarrusophones have this feature also.
The Buffet and Conn contrabasses I've seen have double pads for the low C
(my Gautrot does not).Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 10:21:00 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
Subject: Re: organs
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>The trick will work to a limited extent on an electronic keyboard. I mess
>with it on my Yamaha Clavinova 811, which only goes down to 16' pitch. If I
>set it up with the basic "Organ" stop paired with the "Old Organ" combinationI'll venture a guess here: I'd think that most electronic keyboards are
tuned to equal temperment, while organs are tuned differently (perhaps not
meantone, but a less-tempered scale than equal temperment). The difference
tones probably work well on a pipe organ because the fifths are tuned
closer to actual perfect fifths, while pianos and most electronic keyboards
will be tuned to equal temperment (which has no *perfect* fifths). Does
the "Old Organ" stop on the Clavinova play in a non-equal tempered scale?Grant
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@contrabass.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------From: Michael Cogswell <Michael_Cogswell@gtsi.com>
Subject: RE: Bass Clarinet Mouthpieces
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 13:19:08 -0400
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comI'm a raw beginner with a soprano clarinet, but my daughter has been playing
bass for six years. She started with a Vandoren (old, facing unknown), used
a selmer C* for a while and settled on a Bay (m+om, I believe); all on an
older intermediate Noblet Paris bass. She also had a Bay neck. She bought
a second Bay mouthpiece to use on a Bundy (marching and touring) and older
Selmer school instrument. There wasn't enough disinfectant in the world to
induce her to put the old, grungy Bundy mouthpiece in her mouth and she
wasn't happy with the Selmer's (another C*). She recently sold the Noblet
and bought a new Selmer 37 to low C. After playing it a while, she started
using the Bay on it as well.She played an assortment of reeds over the years, settling for a long time
on Vandoren Java 3 1/2's (sax reeds). However, she has recently been using
Bay reeds, either 2 1/2 or 3.MikeC
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Erjemawa@aol.com
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 15:49:19 EDT
Subject: Re: Bass Sax FS du jour...
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.comI played an unusual Vito Baritone sax that was the double low C. It was a
piece of trash regaurding tone and punch. Thin walled as I remember. I'll
check it out>
---------------------------------------------------------From: "Bret Newton" <jbnbsn99@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Contra digest]
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 15:18:50 PDT
Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com>>From: "Bret Newton" <jbnbsn99@hotmail.com>
>>Subject: organs
>>Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:01:57 PDT
>>Reply-To: contrabass@contrabass.com
>>If I'm not mistaken, the Lay Family Organ in Dallas goes all the way
>>down to the E in the 64 foot register. I've heard it on two
>>occasions and it is so low that it shakes the entire hall when it is
>>played. The funny thing is that there is enough room in the hall to
>>easily put a 64 foot pipe but there is not one.
>>Bret Newton
>
>I played this organ in 1992, heard it in two concerts in 1994, and have
>spoken with its buidlers at some length. It has no 64' stop, but has three
>32's, each full-length and going to low C. One is a metal (high-tin alloy)
>Principal in the facade, another is a large-scaled open wood Untersatz, and
>the third a heavy-pressure (18" water column) wooden Tuba Profunda reed.
>The facade Principal may or may not have all of its pipes in the facade --
>does it start at low E? I can check.
>
>I was told that the 32' open wood, which the builders contracted out, was
>somehow made a half-step too long! So they cut the low C (which was
>sounding 64' B!) to C pitch so that there were two C pipes, transposed the
>others to their correct sounding pitches, and added a new top pipe. They
>figured the doubled low C would help that pitch sound more evenly in the
>hall, I think.
>
>- Timothy TikkerI've just been told that an E is the lowest note by my cousin who
sits next to the organ weeekly while singing in the chorus so i realy
don't know.
Bret Newton_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com
Next Digest ->
Previous Digest <-
Index
Top