rehearsal good news
Posted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 8:12 am
Rehearsing the Mendelssohn Shakespearean incidental music - which only involves the overture (fun, great piece) and wedding march (very busy, less-great, less-fun) for the tuba (covering the ophicleide part)…
This evening is the dress rehearsal, and - so far - the only specific mentions of “tuba“ have been asking me to move over from the back corner of the stage to a vacant-for-this-suite French horn chair, in order to place me closer to those with whom my part aligns (something that I was hoping to be able to do anyway). … so I don’t believe that particular mention of “tuba“ counts against my “score“. oh yeah: I was also asked to drive the bus on a grandioso-ish measure (a last minute addition of interpretation) just before the last statement of the main theme of the wedding march:
I almost did a couple of phone recordings last night but,
- I hate doing that.
- The trumpets were right behind me, and would’ve seen me do it.
(Maybe, I’ll push the button and set the phone on the floor - offering a nice video of the bottom of my molded chair, to go along with the audio track of the dress rehearsal run-throughs of those two selections…??)
I've played this suite (or overture-only) several times, over the years (the first time ever, several decades ago: at a Floyd Cramer pops concert
- serving as one of the "light classics" first-half pieces). I've been the go-to/auto-called sub for this particular orchestra, coming up on five decades...so (particularly not with a music director who has only been seated for two or three years), I would NEVER walk in chatting up this-or-any such music director with my so-called (yeah...right... 
) "brilliant ideas"...
...but the NEXT TIME I play this suite (or overture), I would LIKE to give it a shot (at least, in a rehearsal) with a large-bore (NOT the Yamaha 321, that I used, recently, to play "Mars") euphonium with a large (such as my Elliott contrabass trombone) mouthpiece. It just seems to me that would offer a resonance (unlike F tuba) more resembling the original ophicleide resonance, YET with the additional decibel output, required (as the pieces were composed about 180 years ago) to balance with metal-strings violins/violas/cellos/basses as well as larger/louder 21st-century wind instruments.
bloke “who views not hearing the word, ‘tuba’ from the podium, as the definition of a successful orchestra rehearsal.”
This evening is the dress rehearsal, and - so far - the only specific mentions of “tuba“ have been asking me to move over from the back corner of the stage to a vacant-for-this-suite French horn chair, in order to place me closer to those with whom my part aligns (something that I was hoping to be able to do anyway). … so I don’t believe that particular mention of “tuba“ counts against my “score“. oh yeah: I was also asked to drive the bus on a grandioso-ish measure (a last minute addition of interpretation) just before the last statement of the main theme of the wedding march:
- mend ex.png (15.39 KiB) Viewed 793 times
- I hate doing that.
- The trumpets were right behind me, and would’ve seen me do it.
(Maybe, I’ll push the button and set the phone on the floor - offering a nice video of the bottom of my molded chair, to go along with the audio track of the dress rehearsal run-throughs of those two selections…??)
I've played this suite (or overture-only) several times, over the years (the first time ever, several decades ago: at a Floyd Cramer pops concert
- serving as one of the "light classics" first-half pieces). I've been the go-to/auto-called sub for this particular orchestra, coming up on five decades...so (particularly not with a music director who has only been seated for two or three years), I would NEVER walk in chatting up this-or-any such music director with my so-called (yeah...right... ) "brilliant ideas"......but the NEXT TIME I play this suite (or overture), I would LIKE to give it a shot (at least, in a rehearsal) with a large-bore (NOT the Yamaha 321, that I used, recently, to play "Mars") euphonium with a large (such as my Elliott contrabass trombone) mouthpiece. It just seems to me that would offer a resonance (unlike F tuba) more resembling the original ophicleide resonance, YET with the additional decibel output, required (as the pieces were composed about 180 years ago) to balance with metal-strings violins/violas/cellos/basses as well as larger/louder 21st-century wind instruments.
bloke “who views not hearing the word, ‘tuba’ from the podium, as the definition of a successful orchestra rehearsal.”
I assumed correctly based on past commentary. The large bore euphonium is a great idea if you can pass it off with the stick waver.
