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If they performed the service in Latin you would need to report them to the FBI.



PBS reran an American Spiritual Ensemble performance.

Actually, the funniest part was the (older) lady who was working the videography had her phone set up in plain sight, watching the NCAA championship hockey game.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 4:22 pm Actually, the funniest part was the (older) lady who was working the videography had her phone set up in plain sight, watching the NCAA championship hockey game.

Hey, the local team won that one. Go Quinnipiac!

No Easter gigs here; had a nice time hanging with the fam, relaxing and discovering that I am bad at reading music with an E-flat tuba.

comment:
Not bringing any big guns and not launching any gigantic salvos seems like taking money for services not rendered...but that's what the OTHER brass do on every damn gig.

9 o'clock



11 o'clock







> choir-supplied generous breakfast buffet between services.
> met a tubaforum person afterward and picked up two of their instruments for repair.
> after that: off to a birthday/Easter lunch - friend's party (omg...the food)

bloke "I have more hair than those guys."

Haven't run across Richard Webster's arrangements before- but I found a clip of his Easter Hymn:



and his Lasst uns Erfreuen:



@bloke , if there are recordings from your performances, we'd love to hear them.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 1:53 pm Went to a different church last night for Easter vigil (or as people back home in Baltimore called it, "Easter visual")...

It was way different than expected... Sorta like southern revival Catholic church, with a "best of" playlist of New Orleans favorites. Never taken communion to "A closer walk with thee" or baptism to "oh happy day" or seen the priest exit to "when the saints go marching in." Like a 5-piece band (drums, guitar, keyboard etc...) The trombone player was quite good. But all was very unusual to me.

By far the best part was the baptism of the adults who were just confirmed. The priest totally drenched their heads. One poor young lady had her hair done up so nicely before that, too... But had a bigger smile after being baptized.

It was a good time. I wouldn't go there regularly, but even for an Easter service, which is usually more jovial and kind of jokey ... This one was pretty fun.

Actually, that's "Easter Visual, Hon". You've been away too long.......

The first church you linked is supposed to be a pretty big deal, but that performance (well...) sounded sorta lame (inaccurate and rushed).
Obviously (with any gig) "who's available" varies from year-to-year.

The brass players in the second one you linked sound better, but not enough organ...and too boomy (recorded from too far away, maybe...?)

Our principal trumpet lady is a doesn't-miss player...The young man playing second is as well, and is headed off to IU, next fall.

I would critique my playing as "fine" at 9 A.M...but I wasn't totally awake.
I would critique my playing as "exceptionally good" at 11 A.M...I'm NOT an early morning person...and even 9 A.M. is still slightly fuzzy for me.
(CALL me at 9:00, but please don't show up - at blokeplace - until 10:00 or later.)
I fell like (when more awake) the tuning is better, and the resonance (euphonium) on my really low range (E-flat down to C) is better...At least, it FEELS better.

Those Richard Webster arrangements (there are quite a few of them) are Anglican-oriented, were actually written for a larger ensemble than a quintet (but bass trombone on the bottom - no tuba), but are frequently adapted for five players. A Memphis suburban BAPTIST church (quite a few years ago, shortly after building their sanctuary, and moving their services out of their gym) brought Dick Webster down to conduct a bunch of his brass/organ/choir arrangements. I was actually doubling on bass trombone (back then) practicing a lot, and sounded quite good playing it (a dependent-system Yamaha that I restored). DIck kept telling me that I wasn't loud enough. ...I later found out who (bass tbn) had just recorded many of them - under his direction...someone I sort-of consider to be a "pig", so...
...In the distant past, I played those arrangements on F tuba, but I eventually decided that the resonance was just too "rich".

He may have not thought much my bass trombone playing (all those years ago), but - well - I don't think using the brass to add a bunch of "ta-daaa's !!", "uh-ka-tuh-paaaaa's !!!", nor "what-the-hell-is-this-going-to-end-up-being...!?!? intro's" are particularly creative nor musicals way to use the brass, so I guess Dick and I are even. (John Rutter is a true talent, as far as hymn settings, orchestration, and composition are concerned.)

...but I'll damn well play Dick's arrangements (again) to the best of my ability, and do my very best to sell them to the congregation.

bloke "I was really hoping that I could have put Fat Bastard through its paces, this Easter Sunday, but it wasn't to be."

bloke wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 6:02 pm The first church you linked is supposed to be a pretty big deal, but that performance (well...) sounded sorta lame (inaccurate and rushed).
Obviously (with any gig) "who's available" varies from year-to-year.

The brass players in the second one you linked sound better, but not enough organ...and too boomy (recorded from too far away, maybe...?)

Which, of course, is why I'd like to hear yours

Heavy_Metal wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 6:41 pm

bloke wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 6:02 pm The first church you linked is supposed to be a pretty big deal, but that performance (well...) sounded sorta lame (inaccurate and rushed).
Obviously (with any gig) "who's available" varies from year-to-year.

The brass players in the second one you linked sound better, but not enough organ...and too boomy (recorded from too far away, maybe...?)

Which, of course, is why I'd like to hear yours

I was told there was a 9:00 A.M. CDT live stream (broadcast while I was still waking up...)

Can you post a link?

Played the annual Easter vigil last night and morning service today. Had to use the Hagen. Thankfully, it is a huge sanctuary that is tuba friendly. All strong professional players (except me) and an historic pipe organ. In other words, I could play without having to hold back and play uncomfortably. Good gig.

My gig went well. Compared to last year, the HB has less presence than my previous MRP… Not a bad sounding horn at all and I’d probably pick it again for gigs like this. Probably less also than my soon-to-be new horn that I will announce later next week when the HB is picked up.

I have a recording that I’ll try to post later.

No Easter Vigil this year, but I did play two services on Sunday with the quintet as general musical support. I played the 184, and it was perfect. No sense in trying to compete with an organ.

The first service was in English, the second in Spanish with (much) different music, different accompaniment, different choirs, and different other instruments. Those guitarrón parts are interesting on tuba.

Both services required lots of flexibility. The organists called lots of audibles changing the programming instructions as we went.

Rick “loves being handed a check at the gig” Denney

Not this year; but in years past playing in tune with an old organ in an even older church has been a challenge.

Heavy_Metal wrote: ↑Sun Apr 09, 2023 7:47 pm Can you post a link?

I have no idea if it was recorded or if it was just broadcast.

OK...I took a look...
This was the sleepy 9 o'clock service.
The music audio is muddy, and the timpani - when playing - pretty much blurs everything.
You're not going to hear any tuba, because I weren't-a-playin' one...
11:00 was much better...Everyone (including bloke) was awake.
I'm sure the choir sang much better at 11:00 as well.
The two trumpets were on the other side of the organ console, but - as they were playing towards us - it worked out OK.



On the church's website, there's a like to the pdf of the Easter booklet/program/bulletin/whatever-they-call-it.
Here's the link to the Easter Sunday booklet/program/bulletin/whatever-Anglicans-call-it:

https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2852 ... _final.pdf

@bloke , it sounded fine- even though I'm listening on laptop speakers. Well done!

I would have liked to have had about 50% (even 30%) tuba stuff, but everything was up in or above the staff.

...I don't know if anyone has noticed , but I've got this new-to-me tuba that I would like to be taking places and playing...

About ALL I've been playing (the last three-or-more months) is (yes, really) cimbasso and euphonium...and my next gig involves the E-flat tuba, along with a bit of valve trombone.


TubaGodduh

Just pop a recording bell on ol' FB and let 'er rip on a couple choruses.

arpthark wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 1:12 pm Just pop a recording bell on ol' FB and let 'er rip on a couple choruses.

It might be interesting to have two bells for this tuba, but we all know (well...at least I know) that a compensating E-flat is just a bit more nimble, and - if I'm going to play at least two sounds in every single measure, sometimes as many as eight, and do that for two hours straight - I'm probably going to want to be playing a particularly nimble instrument.