"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Monday, April 1, 2024
Classical corner
Crown Imperial, a coronation march by William Walton.
Interesting. Advancements in instrument design are generally intended to expand the musical possibilities. For example, the piano keyboard was gradually expanded from 5 octaves to over 7. Adding valves to brass instruments gave them the ability to play the chromatic scale. So I'm surprised that modern trombones would be more limited in range than those available to Bartok in the first half of the 20th century.
But there is also a serious movement favoring the use of period instruments that have different sound characteristics. Gut strings on Baroque violins, the much smaller sound of a pianoforte used in Mozart's time versus the modern concert grand, valveless trumpets, and sackbuts -- precursors to the trombone. Such instruments are most often reconstructed rather than preserved because physical objects tend to break down over the years.
So why is the trombone used by Bartok not available? His music is quite recent, relatively, and apparently the older sackbuts won't do the job. Of course, there were quite a few experimental advances in instrument technology that turned out to be dead-ends, and perhaps Bartok's trombone falls into that category.
Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is a great piece. As the name suggests, it features all of the orchestral instruments in prominent roles. (You would not want to eliminate the glissando, the trombone's moment to shine.) It is also a rather difficult work not well suited to student or amateur orchestras. But it is frequently performed and professional orchestras obviously have solutions for the glissando. I will have to ask my trombone playing friends about this.
Yes there are the gut strings on period violins plus the bows used to have a different shape, with different tension, so a different sound.
I was obsessed with collecting classical music recordings from the late 1980s - right through the beginnings of the period instrument fad 30 years ago - I had to get all of Christopher Hogwood's records, then John Elliot Gardner. I hit a brick wall with Gardner's complete Mozart piano concertos - the early pianofortes just sounded like crap to me, no matter how much I tried to be enthusiastic about their 'authenticity'.
And then came conductor Roger Norrington, who got orchestras to play with 'authentic' zero vibrato (it's debatable). And made listening torture. I agree with a lot of what Dave Hurwitz says: https://youtu.be/hMcob5CtJWI
It is weird that Bartok's trombone is so hard to find. He wrote the piece during WW2, followed by the Soviet era. As the Concerto satirises Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony at one point, maybe it was left unplayed for a long time.
Interesting. Advancements in instrument design are generally intended to expand the musical possibilities. For example, the piano keyboard was gradually expanded from 5 octaves to over 7. Adding valves to brass instruments gave them the ability to play the chromatic scale. So I'm surprised that modern trombones would be more limited in range than those available to Bartok in the first half of the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteBut there is also a serious movement favoring the use of period instruments that have different sound characteristics. Gut strings on Baroque violins, the much smaller sound of a pianoforte used in Mozart's time versus the modern concert grand, valveless trumpets, and sackbuts -- precursors to the trombone. Such instruments are most often reconstructed rather than preserved because physical objects tend to break down over the years.
So why is the trombone used by Bartok not available? His music is quite recent, relatively, and apparently the older sackbuts won't do the job. Of course, there were quite a few experimental advances in instrument technology that turned out to be dead-ends, and perhaps Bartok's trombone falls into that category.
Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is a great piece. As the name suggests, it features all of the orchestral instruments in prominent roles. (You would not want to eliminate the glissando, the trombone's moment to shine.) It is also a rather difficult work not well suited to student or amateur orchestras. But it is frequently performed and professional orchestras obviously have solutions for the glissando. I will have to ask my trombone playing friends about this.
But there is also a serious movement favoring the use of period instruments that have different sound characteristics.
ReplyDeleteA movement I find intriguing. I enjoy listening to the period instruments compared to the modern.
I was going to suggest replacing the trombone with the kazoo for that glissando, but I guess that would be considered a tad outré.
My two bits is that the glissando sounds like a fart through an amplifier.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I am something of a barbarian.
JeffS: That could work, but it's not always easy to time those things.
ReplyDeleteYes there are the gut strings on period violins plus the bows used to have a different shape, with different tension, so a different sound.
ReplyDeleteI was obsessed with collecting classical music recordings from the late 1980s - right through the beginnings of the period instrument fad 30 years ago - I had to get all of Christopher Hogwood's records, then John Elliot Gardner. I hit a brick wall with Gardner's complete Mozart piano concertos - the early pianofortes just sounded like crap to me, no matter how much I tried to be enthusiastic about their 'authenticity'.
And then came conductor Roger Norrington, who got orchestras to play with 'authentic' zero vibrato (it's debatable). And made listening torture. I agree with a lot of what Dave Hurwitz says:
https://youtu.be/hMcob5CtJWI
It is weird that Bartok's trombone is so hard to find. He wrote the piece during WW2, followed by the Soviet era. As the Concerto satirises Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony at one point, maybe it was left unplayed for a long time.
That could work, but it's not always easy to time those things.
ReplyDeleteWith practice and training, I expect some could manage it.
Diet would be important as well.