|
Post by Bob Porter on Aug 19, 2018 4:07:28 GMT
Players and player unions being what they are, I suspect that the trombone player was playing something else for the rest of the piece.
But sure, orchestration is an art form. But the writing has to be good also, not just the orchestration.
On the other hand, try being a trumpet player in an orchestra playing a multi-movement Baroque or very early classical piece. Trumpets where pitched in D. Some in C. Players had to sit out entire movements because of key changes. At least horn players had a brace of crooks to change keys.
|
|
|
Post by fuguestate on Aug 20, 2018 0:24:49 GMT
Players and player unions being what they are, I suspect that the trombone player was playing something else for the rest of the piece. Possibly, yes. Though that might be hard if the last note is part of a tutti chord where every instrument is called for. But I'm not sure about that. Couldn't the trumpet player have brought different trumpets along and switch between them? Presumably the differently pitched trumpets wouldn't all be playing simultaneously precisely because they're meant for different keys and polytonality isn't a thing yet back then.
|
|
|
Post by Bob Porter on Aug 20, 2018 4:05:21 GMT
So, trumpet players were members of exclusive guilds.There were players who specialized in the low range, some in the mid range, and others only in the high range. They didn't make them in very many keys, because that's just the way it was. And they could only play the overtone series. Horns could use different crooks to pitch in most keys because of the much longer tubing involved (4.5 ft as opposed to 14 or so).
|
|
|
Post by Dave Dexter on Aug 20, 2018 9:14:04 GMT
In a large orchestral work, I can sympathize if some players aren't really engaged when their parts are just some scattered notes here and there. Ideally, of course, they should be "in" the music even when they aren't playing, but not every player has that kind of attitude. Conversely, it's hard when composing for an ensemble to give the players interesting parts to play all the time. Understandably, it's not desirable to write a continuous tutti from start to end, even if that might engage the players more, but even given the occasional pause in a part, it's still challenging to write in such a way that in every piece each player has at least one interesting passage to play. I became a much better composer after I stopped trying to ensure every player would have something interesting to do! Inserting such passages for the sake of it, serving the players not the music, was too distracting from whatever purpose I had for the piece. If I was writing for a specific orchestra who were doing me a favour, I would relax this stricture, but when writing for session or theoretical session . . . lads, you got to play this. Even if the tuba and basses are playing root notes again.I think that's pretty usual - individually, musicians are relatively low paid and there to do a job. If it was established repertoire or score, odds are they've played the piece before either together or with different orchestras and just want to get it right. You can sternly focus on an artistic profession and still love it, it's not like I do a lot of smiling when I'm composing!
|
|