From: "Oscar Wehmanen"
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:09:11 GMT
Subject: [CB] Alexander Nevsky
Hearing Jake Dominate the Chicago orchestra, a real spine
tingler!
Oscar
(713) 729-1972
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From: "Harry Searing"
Subject: [CB] greatest contrabass moments
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 08:18:04 +0800
Although not spectacular like the Planets, one of my favorites
has always been the opening of Ravel's Concerto for Left Hand, with the
contrabass arpeggios, underneath a contrabassoon solo! Sets up the
whole piece brilliantly.
There are a lot of smaller moments in Mahler where the
contrabasses are playing a low note (usually pedal C) and there might
be just one or two treble instruments, many octaves above playing the
same note. If done correctly (in tune and balanced), the effect can be
chilling. Throw in a harp gliss and/or a hammer blow and you're all
set! (Sixth Symphony)
Don't know if this thread is strictly about contrabass or
contrabass instrument moments, but if it's the later, my vote goes for
the contrabassoon solo in Salome! I'm in Hong Kong right now, playing
Heckelphone on it with the HK Philharmonic Orchestra and Edo DeWaart
conducting. What a piece!
Harry Searing
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:21:24 -0800
From: "Chuck Guzis"
Subject: Re: [CB] Wagner Tubas
Wagner tuben (or tubas) are more of the horn family than the
tuba family. Played by horn players with horn mouthpieces, not
tuba mouthpieces. More intended to produce a lot of sound in the
bass range rather than great rumbling contrabass sounds. By all
reports from my horn-playing friends, not the easiest instrument to
play in tune.
Alexander Musik and Hans Hoyer (a member of Gerhard Meinl's
JA-Musik consortium still makes them):
Rather looks like a european oval tenor horn that's been
assembled backwards and fitted with a horn leadpipe.
As for contrabass themes, how about the "Dies Irae' theme from
the "March to the Scaffold" from Symphonie Fantastique?
Cheers,
Chuck
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:38:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Andrew Phillips
Subject: Re: [CB] greatest contrabass moments
There are a bunch of moments in Mahler, like in the first
movement of the 5th symphony when the contrabasses all decend to that
low C#, not to mention the tuba solo. In the 9th, too, ending the
second movement with a contrabassoon solo, and all of the bassoons
playing split parts, and the contrabassoon doubling the piccolo down 5
or so octaves.
While we're mentioning The Planets, who can forget the contra
solo in Uranus? As well as the low fortissimo E in that movement.
Let's not forget the first note of Also Sprach
Zarathustra! Organ pedals are fine-sounding contrabasses as well.
I think the best, though, is in Prokofiev's Montagues and
Capulets, with the tuba, bass trombone, contrabassoon and basses.
The bass parts even have
double-stops on the E's and B's! He and Mahler are
definitely guys who gave the contrabasses a lot of love. As well
as Shostakovich, with the 5th symphony and 4th ballet suites featuring
bassoon-contrabassoon duets.
Band music has been very inclusive of contrabasses also. I
had the pleasure of playing the extensive contra-alto clarinet solo on
James Barnes' Fantasy
Variations (on the same Paganini theme Rachmaninoff used)
Percy Grainger wrote extensive bass sax parts, and a good deal of
contrabassoon, and even bass oboe in one edition of Childrens' March
and an optional sarrusophone part for Colonial Song, no doubt coming
from his military band experience. Many Grainger tunes have
prominent contrabass moments.
Sorry about turning a moment into a whole article, but it's hard
to choose sometimes!
--Andrew Phillips
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:48:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Andrew Phillips
Subject: Re: [CB] . . .and how can I forget. . .
Haydn's Creation! I got to play that last summer with a
community group and all of the woodwinds gave me a big thumbs-up and
the conductor got a huge grin when I belted out that low Bb at the
concert. I insisted that instructing me to play the lowest note
on contrabassoon as loud as possible is undoing years of lecturing, but
I think that's one of the few places you can get away with it.
The Lincolnshire Poacher from Gordon Jacob's 'More Old Wine in New
Bottles' also ends on that note on a ff, which is prominently heard
when there are only a dozen other people playing.
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:10:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Steve Marcus
Subject: Re: [CB] greatest contrabass moments
There are plenty of pedal notes written in brass band
compositions. The lowest written (not interpolated) note that I
know of in one of these pieces is a concert GGG (below the lowest note
on the piano) in Philip Wilby's "Revelation."
In concert band/wind ensemble literature, the lowest written
note I've encountered on tuba is the last note of Percy Grainger's
Children's March. It's BBBb--the lowest Bb on the piano.
Then, of course, there's the CCCC in William Kraft's "Encounters
II" for solo tuba...
Steve Marcus
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From: "Mats Öljare"
Subject: Re: [CB] Wagner Tubas
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 01:12:14 +0000
>Sorry, not quite contrabass but it comes close. I have read
a great deal
>about the Wagner Tubas about how and why they were made,
what music they
>have parts in but I know almost nothing about where they are
today. Does
>any body know if they are still made? How common are they?
How much do
>they cost? How likely is it the parts written for them are
actually
>going to be performed on them? If anybody has actually
played them, I am
>also curious as to how they feel and play compared to
the French Horn.
There are several makers, but as i have understood, hornists
disliked and still dislike them because they can not use the hand in
the bell to adjust pitch. Also they tend to get very limited experience
with the Wagnertuba, only borrowing them for the rehearsal of the few
works they are used in, which has lead to often less than great
results, further reinforcing their impopularity.
Very little has been written for them after Bruckner and
Stravinsky. There are no solo works or chamber music from known
composers. Apparently some film composers have been making regular use
of them in orchestras, so there are still some possibility of a
comeback. Also i have came across some mention of wind quintet hornists
doubling on Wagnertuba, but not what works specify that. Anyway, they
are thought of as not being that distinctive as they are too similar in
tone to the baritone horn(not euphoniuim).
Now don't take this as sounding degrading to the instrument, as
i myself have written no less than 3 works that feature Wagnertuba in
orchestras or wind ensembles, but i admit to not really knowing what
they would sound like anyway :P
/Ö
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Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 18:56:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Dean McMakin
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Miraphone manufactures Wagner tubas. French horn players do not
like playing them. It is claimed that they do not play well in tune. I
suspect it is because the use of a French horn mouthpiece plus the very
narrow bore of the mouthpipe are in too great a contrast to the overall
bore of the rest of the instrument.
Dean
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From: Louis Rugani
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 22:46:11 -0600
Subject: [CB] Great Contra Moments.
Well, hey, how about Gyorgi Ligeti's "Atmospheres", with its
slow climb to a high scream and then =A1POW! ?
Also, that 128'-bass (or so it would seem) final note of the
Bach "Toccata and Fugue Minor".
Regards....
Lou
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **-=3D\/=3D-** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.
=96 Robert Anthony
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Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 06:20:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Dean McMakin
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
I would have like to attended Susan Nigro's presentations at
Augustana today and report to contrabassers everywhere about the event,
but now I wonder if it will be held at all. The Midwest had a big
snowstorm overnight, and I just finished removing a foot of new snow
off my back porch. Later today the winds will pick up to 30 mph and
blow all of the white stuff into huge drifts. These are no conditions
to drive anywhere for any great distances. I hope that Ms. Nigro can be
coaxed to give her presentations at another time when the weather is
more favorable.
Dean
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From: "Nathaniel Hefferman"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest] contrabass content
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 14:13:50 -0500
----- Original Message ----- >
> Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:30:57 -0700
> From: "Leif Anderson"
> Subject: Re: [CB] Wagner Tubas
>
> On a completely unrelated matter, I'm going to pose another
question in
> the interest of creating some chatter. In our experiences
in listening
> to and playing music with contrabass content, we get those
moments that
> are spectacular and just wow us. So my question is: What in
your
> opinions are some of the greatest contrabass moments in
music?
Some of my favorites from the concert band repertoire:
The first movement of "La Fiesta Mexicana" by H. Owen Reed -
after the opening fanfare, the melody is in the contra clarinet doubled
at the octave by bass clarinet. My college wind ensemble didn't
have a contra clarinet, so I covered this part on contrabassoon; truly
a floor-shaking, filling-rattling sound.
"Molly on the Shore" by Percy Grainger - bassoons and
contrabassoon take over the melody from the clarinets; blisteringly
fast, and difficult to play cleanly, but if done well, has a real growl
to it.
---Nat Hefferman
***End of Contrabass Digest***