I once played the version of the Shostakovich Festive Overture that 
employed all the extra brass that are in the score but are usually left 
out (probably because it is pretty hard to convince an orchestra's 
management of the wisdom of hiring 8 or 10 people to play for about 55  
seconds) and we all stood when the full forces came in at the end. 
Frankly, the 4 horns and I don't recall how many other brass didn't add 
much to the already considerable audible din, but I think it might have 
been in Shostakovich's mind that a long row of around twenty trumpets, 
horns, trombones  and tubas would have a noticeable visual impact. It is 
too long ago for me to remember if there really was any direction in the 
score or it the maestro just thought we'd look cool looming and blaring 
over everyone in front of us,.

Maybe he'd just seen Stars and Stripes done this way by ye olde 
community  band in the park too many times; I don't know.

This is no help, I know, but I just had to share.

Peter Hirsch



On 10/17/2010 1:00 PM, [email protected] wrote:
> Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:59:12 -0400
> From: Joel Lazar<[email protected]>
> Subject: [Hornlist] Mahler 1
> To:[email protected]
> Message-ID:<[email protected]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Dear Colleagues:
>
> On behalf of a friend researching the various versions of Mahler 1:
>
> Can you cite ANY other instance[s] of a composer asking the horn section
> to stand?
>
> I have a faint memory of somebody once mentioning an early 20th-century
> Russian work, whether Soviet-era or later I don't recall.
>
> Many thanks--
>
> Joel Lazar
> Bethesda MD

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