pops concert debriefing and related thoughts
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2024 8:58 am
I've always enjoyed playing Broadway-themed pops concerts, and particularly when there are several arrangements that have nice things to play for the low brass. By "nice", I don't even necessarily mean fast, loud, nor particularly noticeable to the patrons. I just mean nice. One of my favorite things is to lay down some beautiful chords that are perfectly balanced, perfectly in tune (which ring with resonance, and even prompt the entire orchestra's resonance to ring), follow the phrasing (not just the tiny little bit of musical direction marked in the sheet music) and support whatever instrument(s) or vocalist(s) is/are putting out the melodic material. After everyone driving through the rain to get there and running two rehearsals - which included the various vocal soloists and a group of ballet dancers on two numbers, the entire orchestra was "on" last night, and the three vocal soloists they brought in were amazing. The very best of American Broadway musicals represents some of the very best of the larger genre of opera ever written worldwide.
I think we're playing Mahler 2 next year in November. That will be a lot of fun, but I suspect that I had more fun last night then I'll have playing Mahler.
Oh yeah, two more things:
> Particularly now that I'm dialing in just the right mouthpiece for this gigantic B-flat unicorn (whereby not even fully removing it from the case, playing a couple of short bump test notes, and having the principal trombone player say "That's the kind of sound I like to hear out of a tuba") I just don't see myself ever going back to playing C tubas, and I just don't think there are any C tubas that play better than the last one I owned.
> Sadly, most cimbassos suck. Curiously (and tracing the "typical F tuba" pattern), the bore is too big with most of them, and the tuning isn't good. Orchestral tuba players who don't own a fantastic cimbasso with really easy tuning and response, with a really appropriate mouthpiece, and who don't use them when orchestral pops arrangements are obviously written for four trombones (and yes those de facto 4th 'bone orchestral pops arrangement parts are always labeled "tuba") don't know what they're missing...If you're playing something like "Luck Be A Lady", the singer is going through the sort of recitatif-style verse at the beginning, and the music director is holding up his fist and slamming down his elbow for the bump chords, you can actually completely give him what he wants, rather than only sort of...Not only is he grinning, but the other trombone players are grinning as well. (I used the cimbasso on at least six numbers, last night. The Phantom of the Opera medley was the same one that is scored for wind band. As there is a BASS section in the orchestra (so no need for a tuba to "cover" the "basses' part), I played cimbasso - in order to make the scary parts scarier. On that particular piece, I would have liked to have switched back-and-forth to tuba - for the ballads, but the transitions were too brief to do so safely.) There were seventeen numbers, total. I believe I was tacet on - perhaps - three numbers, so what I'm saying is that I personally interpreted close to half of the selections I played as featuring "better-sounding-as-4th-trombone parts labeled as tuba parts". If there are (primarily) tuba players who have also truly mastered playing slide contrabass F trombones, all power to them.
I think we're playing Mahler 2 next year in November. That will be a lot of fun, but I suspect that I had more fun last night then I'll have playing Mahler.
Oh yeah, two more things:
> Particularly now that I'm dialing in just the right mouthpiece for this gigantic B-flat unicorn (whereby not even fully removing it from the case, playing a couple of short bump test notes, and having the principal trombone player say "That's the kind of sound I like to hear out of a tuba") I just don't see myself ever going back to playing C tubas, and I just don't think there are any C tubas that play better than the last one I owned.
> Sadly, most cimbassos suck. Curiously (and tracing the "typical F tuba" pattern), the bore is too big with most of them, and the tuning isn't good. Orchestral tuba players who don't own a fantastic cimbasso with really easy tuning and response, with a really appropriate mouthpiece, and who don't use them when orchestral pops arrangements are obviously written for four trombones (and yes those de facto 4th 'bone orchestral pops arrangement parts are always labeled "tuba") don't know what they're missing...If you're playing something like "Luck Be A Lady", the singer is going through the sort of recitatif-style verse at the beginning, and the music director is holding up his fist and slamming down his elbow for the bump chords, you can actually completely give him what he wants, rather than only sort of...Not only is he grinning, but the other trombone players are grinning as well. (I used the cimbasso on at least six numbers, last night. The Phantom of the Opera medley was the same one that is scored for wind band. As there is a BASS section in the orchestra (so no need for a tuba to "cover" the "basses' part), I played cimbasso - in order to make the scary parts scarier. On that particular piece, I would have liked to have switched back-and-forth to tuba - for the ballads, but the transitions were too brief to do so safely.) There were seventeen numbers, total. I believe I was tacet on - perhaps - three numbers, so what I'm saying is that I personally interpreted close to half of the selections I played as featuring "better-sounding-as-4th-trombone parts labeled as tuba parts". If there are (primarily) tuba players who have also truly mastered playing slide contrabass F trombones, all power to them.
