Hi David, I conduct a wind ensemble, and arrange for it.
1. I’ve seen both, but the modern preference is for bassoons to go below the low clarinets. 2. Again, I’ve seen both, but trumpets, horns, trombones is the way I see it most often. This is even more universal than the bassoon placement. 3. The string bass is as you said. It only makes sense to put it at the very bottom if there is an actual string section. In this case, it’s a pairing with tuba. I’m glad you have separate cornet and trumpet parts. I prefer that, especially with someone who can write for it and players with the correct instruments. The doubled parts are for weight, so as to allow say Clarinet 1 to be heard as easily as Trumpet 1. I might be happy with one to a part in the trumpet section, but bands that work the way you outlined let the trumpets play warmly, so one player doesn’t HAVE to carry the weight by himself. Trumpets play much more often in concert band than in orchestra, so they can use the endurance help of playing more softly. The clarinets are the workhorses in a concert band, so the numbers you say are by no means outrageous. It’s nice to allow them to balance the sax section, or the trumpet section, by themselves, the same way that strings are massed in an orchestra. Massed flutes are quite common, too. I’m surprised that a band of that size doesn’t have at least six flutes. But they are very often the high octave of some other part, so the way you said is not entirely out of line. Band or “wind ensemble” doesn’t change the score order, but with “wind ensemble” it may be more common to have suggested weights of sections, as you mentioned. Bands generally mass a lot of parts. This goes back to Sousa, who more-or-less came up with the woodwind-heavy doubling we see commonly today. You can specify “one only” whenever you want. But I suggest that loud passages use everyone available. I don’t remove empty staves at all, unless it will save me score pages (say, for long passages where entire sections rest), so I agree with Gould. As a conductor, the placement on the page is an important indicator to me where I am pointing my cues, and my expectations. This isn’t Beethoven’s 5th, that everyone and his brother can conduct from memory, and is published in masses that need to save paper. Your piece is a new and presumably more complex piece that needs all the help you can muster, and not that much paper. Hope this helps. Christopher > On Mon Aug 6, at MondayAug 6 1:01 PM, David Froom <dfr...@smcm.edu> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I’m really hoping to enlist someone who regularly writes for band to give me > some advice. > > I’m writing this for a top notch, professional group. Some questions: > > For score order, there seem to be some variations from orchestral standard. > But different sources say different things. Here are my questions: > > 1) Some say bassoons go between Ob/Eng Horn and Clarinets. Others say they go > below clarinets. Which is more standard these days for professional bands? > > 2) Some say the trumpets above the horns, others say this is changing these > days to standard orchestral (horns above trumpets because they often mingle > with the saxophones). Which is more standard these days for professional > bands? > > 3) Double bass, I’m told, goes below the tuba, but above piano — then timp > plus percussion on the bottom. Is this standard these days for professional > bands? My orchestral instincts want it at the very bottom. > > The group I’m writing for could be full band or wind ensemble (my choice), so > as many as Eb clarinet, 12 Bb clarinets (4 to each of three parts), 2-3 low > clarinets (bass, contra, alto), 6 cornets (2 to each of three parts) plus 2 > trumpets — though any of the cornet players could play trumpet, picc trumpet, > or flugelhorn. Then 2 euphoniums, 3 tubas. > > I’m leaning towards asking for one to a part (clarinets as Eb, 2 Bb, alto cl, > bass cl); 3-6 trumpets, 1 euphonium, 1 tuba. Can anyone advise as to why I > should go with all the doubled parts? Thinking as someone coming from the > orchestra world, all those extra clarinets, trumpets, euphoniums/tubas seem > to be a strange and troublesome counterbalance to the rest of the group (pic, > 3 fl, 2 ob, eh, 2 bn, cbn, sax quartet, 4 horns, 3 trb, btrb). > > And does band vs wind ensemble change any of the score order? > > Final question: According to Gould in "Behind Bars,” people do NOT remove > empty staves! She grants that timp/percussion can be removed from the page if > they aren’t playing, but everyone else stays, doesn’t have empty staves > removed from any of the pages. Is this really true!!!??? > > Thanks very much in advance! > > David Froom > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: > finale-unsubscr...@shsu.edu _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: finale-unsubscr...@shsu.edu
