On Wednesday, December 3, 2003, at 01:32 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
the last note my first trumpet is playing is very long one. about 50 seconds long, for which he will need the circular breathing >> technique.
What I would do is this:
after the first fermata: "circular breathing!"
I was under the impression that circular breathing was something that every wind player dreamed they could do, but very few actually can (I know I can't; neither could any of my fellow students in college). Does it seem weird to anyone else that a composition is actually *requiring* this technique?
I'm by no means a professional performer, though... is this something that players can now be expected to do?
------------- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED]
No question but that it's a tough technique to acquire, but composers *always* push the envelope on performance techniques, and works requiring (or at least expressing a preference for) circular breathing have been written by many composers over the past 30 years.
Every time a composer does something like this it's a gamble that today's near-impossible feat of virtuosity will become tomorrow's routine. Hundreds of years of history suggest that it's a pretty good gamble to take.
The Ligeti horn trio, wh. has practically become standard rep. for the instrument, would have been beyond the skills of more than one or two players in the world back when I was in grad school. The first recording of _Density 21.5_ used tape-speed transposition for the high Ds because few flutists at the time (early '50s) could hit the note.
-- Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press
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