Our first trombonist growns whenever this shows up. I'm sure she would
love to play one of the lower editions.
Michael Cook wrote:
In the Eulenburg score the 1st trombone has some high Cs (measures
147-9) but I didn't see a high D. In the Dover edition (where all
three parts are written on one staff, in bass clef) the 1st trombone
never goes that high: at a quick glance the highest note is an E just
above middle C.
What is sure is that the trombone parts were not added to this piece:
they were there already but were removed (or simply not used) for the
first performance of "Barbiere". The story, if I remember rightly,
goes something like this: Rossini had written an overture for
"Barbiere" composed of Spanish themes, but at the last minute decided
that it wasn't good enough. He didn't have time to compose a new one,
so he used an overture that he was presumably proud of, having used it
in two previous operas. He probably had a look at the scoring, quickly
saw that the piece would work without trombones, and gave the parts to
the musicians. He didn't make a new version of the score: there was no
time and this wasn't necessary anyway: he, or any other conductor,
could conduct from the old score with the trombone parts in it. What
later happened when the piece became a success and was edited, I do
not know: the piece has gone through so many editions that it would be
a huge work of research to find out.
In fact: Johannes, why do you need to know the scoring? Has all this
discussion given you the reply you wanted?
Michael
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
Finale@shsu.edu
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
