It's the 1919 (or 1918?!) suite I'm thinking of, yes. I've never seen anything other than much-abused rental copies of the parts...
I've discussed with a number of people about the apparent difficulty of getting back in tune afterwards. Many say 'oh no, impossible', without even considering the details. Some go with me, that tuning the string correctly followed by keeping track of how much you turn the adjuster to lower by a tone means you can silently return to something pretty damn close (and it's not as if string players never adjust their tuning while performing, anyway). I've yet to find a situation where I can persuade a conductor to try this out, though. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ray Horton > Sent: 22 February 2008 23:48 > To: finale@shsu.edu > Subject: Re: [Finale] what does a copyist do? now scordatura > > > Owain, is it in all the versions of the _Firebird_? > Especially, is it > in the 1918 suite that is the most often played? The old > Kalmus set of > parts to the 1918 suite was full of errors. There is a new, > Kalmus set, > edited by Clark McAlister that is much better. > > > I agree that this could be an astonishing affect, but if the first > violinists do not get their E strings tuned well for the rest of the > work, the effect could be equally astonishing. > > > On the other topic - Many composers do not exceed fff. Tchaik is, of > course infamous for abusing fs and ps the most. > > RBH > > > Owain Sutton wrote: > >> [1} I suspect that violinists do not detune for the > >> _Firebird_ passage ... > >> > > > > > > No, it's routinely ignored: it's an instruction to tune the > E string > > down to D for the harmonic glissandos in the introduction, and is > > instead generally played an octave lower, matching the > second violins. > > Which is a shame, because we're missing out on an > astonishing effect > > Stravinsky created. Many players have never even wondered > what those > > funny French words mean - I asked a player with the > orchestra of the > > Royal Opera House (i.e. the Royal Ballet!), and she'd never thought > > about it. This problem is compounded, if I recall correctly, by a > > discrepancy between score and parts as to whether things are to be > > transposed up one or two octaves. Note also that it's the > first thing > > the 1st violins play, so the tuning down could be done while tuning > > the orchestra, with only the tuning back up again to be done during > > the performance. > > > > > > (Incidentally, was it on this mailing list some time ago > that somebody > > said Stravinsky never went above fff in dynamic markings? > I noticed > > not long ago that the end of the Firebird has four Fs in the 1st > > violin > > part.) > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
