on 6/13/03 12:47 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 13/06/2003 20:43:29 GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > writes: > >> In the last mvt. of Tchaikovsky's 6th there is a passage where the >> melody is composed of notes alternating between the firsts and >> seconds, an effect expressive of restlessness and anxiety--and >> completely effaced if the violin sections are not separated. > > I love this passage in Tchaikovsky - it's something he does fairly often > where the ear hears a melody (or motif) which no-one in the orchestra actually > plays. I don't think it's an accident.
This can be traced back to the days of plainchant, in which a device called "hocket" (French for "hiccup") was essentially a melody passed around between lines. I personally have used this a lot, sometimes to the annoyance of performers. Once I had a flute, clarinet, and alto saxophone perform a fairly quick descending chromatic scale in which they each traded off, one note at a time. However, because *I* played the clarinet part in the first performance and was making myself do it too, they didn't have much to complain about. ------------- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
