On Jan 20, 2009, at 4:31 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
Christopher Smith:
Yup, we see it as making us wait 300 years to play with the big
boys, THEN we STILL have to wait until the last freakin' movement
when our chops are nice and stiff from lack of use, THEN he makes
the first trombone enter (first entrance in HISTORY, not just this
symphony!) cold on a high C (almost guaranteed to chip it and
embarrass the entire brotherhood as a result) AND later in the
movement he makes him play a high F (this is test!) just to see if
he was paying attention. To my knowledge, there is no higher note
written in the standard repertoire until late in the 20th century.
Talk about your opening night nerves!
OK, where to start? Trombones had been "playing with the big boys"
since at least the sixteenth century. Just not in a *symphony.*
Yes, yes, that was my point. (Humour!) Of course I know all the usual
repertoire for trombones before the 5th, but the symphony was
considered the "large canvas" for composers since the Baroque.
The first trombone part in this symphony (as in most others
through the end of the 19th century) was an *alto* trombone, for
which the high C is no big deal at all, and the top F was the
conventional and long-standing top note.
Whoah. Conventional for who? While the C is considered to be in the
usual range for ALTO trombone (though near the top end) it is
definitely a risky cold entrance. And there are so few alto trombone
specialists these days that the piece is often played on a tenor,
where it is twice as tough. The F wasn't even matched in standard rep
until almost 2 centuries later, and even the Rhenish Eb is considered
pretty tough going, too, and regularly features on trombone auditions
for that reason. We go into training weeks before when anything over
a D shows up for a concert, like for a weight-lifting competition.
I can play it, but probably not with the consistency expected of a
major symphony orchestra first trombonist (or even a secondary
orchestra!) I suppose it is a tribute to the general level of pros
these days that nobody hears anything going wrong with those extremes
in concerts more often. It is all too easy, let me tell you.
Although in the 9th, the voice of God is represented by the men in
the chorus, plus the bass trombone. We trombonists see that as
typical typecasting. 8-)
Yes it is. Trombones had a regular presence in operas, oratorios
and the like for some 200 years before Beethoven, and there they
were almost always used to represent the underworld and the infernal.
I guess you missed the smiley. I meant that we consider ourselves to
be god-like. 8-) <----(there it is again!)
It was funnier in my head before I typed it.
Christopher
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