The Chat Thread

[mn dave]

There's no chat room here (or not one that I've been told about--dammit!) so here's a thread to chat in. No topic, no sweat.



[I hope I don't get in trouble for this somehow.]

[bhodges]

[I hope I don't get in trouble for this somehow.]

"That's the one, officer--with the Minnesota plates!  Grab him!"

   

--Bruce

[mn dave]

"That's the one, officer--with the Minnesota plates!  Grab him!"

   

--Bruce

Eee! Where's my blonde wig and lipstick?

[greg]

Elgar

[Lethevich]

Nowhere else to put this really:

At 22:35pm (in 30 mins) UK time there will be a documentary on BBC1 about the Berliner Philharmoniker doing a tour in Asia. I assume UK (or proxied people) who miss it can catch it on iPlayer.

[PaulR]

Even though I can't wait to get back to college, I have a lot of practicing to do before then.  Oh seating auditions   (and I hope my new roommate will be a good person )

[greg]

Even though I can't wait to get back to college, I have a lot of practicing to do before then.  Oh seating auditions   (and I hope my new roommate will be a good person )

what are you practicing?

[PaulR]

what are you practicing?

mainly for Seating auditions.  Saint-saens 3rd symphony.  Last year I was 2nd bass both semesters, and the principal is student teaching this semester, so maybe I'll improve.  hehe

[PSmith08]

I really like those old Enron commercials.

[mn dave]

Why do we use so many CD images when we could just type the information?

[PaulR]

Why do we use so many CD images when we could just type the information?

because pictures are more interesting

[greg]

mainly for Seating auditions.  Saint-saens 3rd symphony.  Last year I was 2nd bass both semesters, and the principal is student teaching this semester, so maybe I'll improve.  hehe

cool..... if that's 2nd out of 8, not bad. 

[PaulR]

cool..... if that's 2nd out of 8, not bad. 

well, 2nd out of 10.......(And growing)

[greg]

well, 2nd out of 10.......(And growing)

lol, i was actually expecting you to say something like- no, actually 6!
i'm assuming all 10 don't play at the same time? Usually an orchestra has 8 basses, at least that's what i've read in orchestration books but i've never counted.

[M forever]

mainly for Seating auditions.  Saint-saens 3rd symphony.  Last year I was 2nd bass both semesters, and the principal is student teaching this semester, so maybe I'll improve.  hehe

There isn't much in there for the bass - naturally, since it was written from a French orchestral point of view (although written for and premiered in London) and since they didn't really have an orchestral bass playing school at the time, there are only a few runs and some very moderatley difficult passages. What is tricky though are the divisi chords at the beginning of the slow movement they have to be well in tune and I can tell you now that will be difficult because half your section will not press the strings down properly with the left hand on the long notes and not play with a slow bow but well defined tone - they will play on the fingerboard producing a wobbly, timid, badly defined sound which will be very hard to tune. Unless somebody really addresses that, best in a sectional. The repeated pizz entries are also a little tricky musically because people always play them as if they were upbeats - but the first of each two notes is on the beat.

Where do you play, BTW?

lol, i was actually expecting you to say something like- no, actually 6!
i'm assuming all 10 don't play at the same time? Usually an orchestra has 8 basses, at least that's what i've read in orchestration books but i've never counted.

Orchestras can have anything from a handful to 10 or sometimes even 12 basses, depending on the type of orchestra, the availability and the occasion, as well as the literature of course. Standard "romantic" literature is typically played with 8 basses if the string section is 16-12-14-10-8 (in the US big orchestras often have 9), in Germany the standard is 14-12-10-8-7 and 16-... for "bigger" pieces, rarely 18-16-14-12-10, or other numbers if explicitly defined by the composer (e.g. Strauss often asks explicitly for the "Bayreuth" string section size: 16-16-12-12-8).

[mn dave]

Hey, which Naxos CD should I download?

[mn dave]

Never mind. 

[PaulR]

There isn't much in there for the bass - naturally, since it was written from a French orchestral point of view (although written for and premiered in London) and since they didn't really have an orchestral bass playing school at the time, there are only a few runs and some very moderatley difficult passages. What is tricky though are the divisi chords at the beginning of the slow movement they have to be well in tune and I can tell you now that will be difficult because half your section will not press the strings down properly with the left hand on the long notes and not play with a slow bow but well defined tone - they will play on the fingerboard producing a wobbly, timid, badly defined sound which will be very hard to tune. Unless somebody really addresses that, best in a sectional. The repeated pizz entries are also a little tricky musically because people always play them as if they were upbeats - but the first of each two notes is on the beat.

Where do you play, BTW?

I play in the college orchestra of where I go to school, SUNY Fredonia.  We played this past year Mahler 4, Some of the Dvorak Slavonic dances, the opera was Hansel and gretel.  This past semester, we played Rimsky-korsakov's Sheherazade, Tchaik's Swan lake, Piston's Incredible Flutist and the Egmont overture and Weber's Overture to Der Freischutz. 

and this year, there will be another orchestra.  Since we're getting a lot of more strings, there's going to be a smaller orchestra that probably will consist of mostly freshman and people who aren't in the opera this year

[Brian]

Never mind. 

Dang, I was going to recommend this one:

[M forever]

I play in the college orchestra of where I go to school, SUNY Fredonia.  We played this past year Mahler 4, Some of the Dvorak Slavonic dances, the opera was Hansel and gretel.  This past semester, we played Rimsky-korsakov's Sheherazade, Tchaik's Swan lake, Piston's Incredible Flutist and the Egmont overture and Weber's Overture to Der Freischutz. 

and this year, there will be another orchestra.  Since we're getting a lot of more strings, there's going to be a smaller orchestra that probably will consist of mostly freshman and people who aren't in the opera this year

Sounds like a lot of challenging stuff there. Especially the Freischütz overture is really difficult to play on the bass (and for the rest of the strings, too) - that is, to play well, fumbling through it is not that much more difficult than through a lot of other stuff. I hope you play German bow so that you could really hammer out all those 8th runs and arpeggios, especially the passage where you have all the offbeat accents, that really separates the boys from the men (and also the French bow from the German bow players  ). That has to be played every single note martellato.
Hänsel und Gretel always brings back great memories. There must be a law in Germany that every kid has to see it at least three times before the age of 12 because schools take the kids to see it all the time, or more precisely, around Christmas when it is played everywhere. That is a little bit of a cliché, but it's a nice one. When I was a music student in Weimar and substitute in the Staatskapelle, I played it at least a dozen or so times every year - and right there, in the Deutsches Nationaltheater, was where the opera was premiered, by no less a conductor than Richard Strauss. That happened mostly around Christmas, of course, although it is typically also found in the repertoire sporadically throughout the year. There were some days when we actually played it twice on one day, in the morning and then in the late afternoon. Great memories!