Vol. 2, No. 48

13 June 1997

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Things online have been a bit slow this week, as my office (where most of this list is administered) has been cut off from the internet (bad hardware) all week. But we're back, and Scott advises that his new server has arrived, and is being set up to take us back to automatic digests. (Hurah!)

In the meantime, this digest looks a bit odd because the messages have been retrieved at home, and forwarded to my office (where the email has just come back online). As a result, the headers are a bit munged.

Robert Howe replies (6/9/97):

>"By the way,what happened to the Wagnertuba in modern music??
>Mats Oljare(with an umlaut over the"o")"

• Stravinsky calls for two, doubled by French hornists, in the Rite of Spring and in the full ballet of the Firebird. Hardly modern anymore, though.
• Hanslick, in an essay on use of the orchestra, decries the then-fashionable use of the Wagner tuba as contributing to poorly balanced and performed orchestrations. The essay, which I cannot now locate in my book of his criticisms, implies that many, many late 19th century German & Austrian composers were (over)-using these instruments. The phrase "dancing tuben" sticks in my memory.

If I find the reference I'll let you know.

Robert Howe

Syd Polk (6/10/97) replies:

Grant Green wrote:

>In all actuality, the reeds are probably not all that bad. There is a
>proper way to break in reeds for single reed instruments, and most people
>don't know. The breaking in process is ten times more important for lower
>instruments than for upper woodwinds as well; this is why you seem to find
>more 'bad' bass cl. or bari reeds than you do for Bb clar. or sop. sax.
>The larger a reed is, the easier it is for the reed to warp in storage.
>It is completely unavoidable before the break in process. Here's how to
>fix it:

I usually don't bother with the reeds that are warped out of the box, as I don't have a lot of time to mess with them. Also, if they warp between sessions, rubbing them on paper usually fixes the problem.

>...

> Also...playing Jazz on a 2 strength??? On bass clarinet and bari
>sax, I use a 3 1/2 for jazz, 2 1/2 for everything else. I couldn't
>imagine trying to get a good jazz sound from Vandoren V16 (which is, IMO
>and our jazz profs, the best jazz reed out there) at only 2 or 2 1/2.
> Hopefully, this should save you some reeds...and a few bucks.

I have never had a tight embouchure at all. I play 3 on Eb and Bb clarinet, 2 on alto, bass and contra, 2.5 on my jazz bari, soprano, alto and tenor mouthpieces, and VanDoren 4 on my Selmer D on my bari for classical. To each his own.

Syd Polk

jazzman@rahul.net http://www.rahul.net/jazzman
"Let the music be your light." -- Dave Edwards, KUHF-FM, 1982

Auth: jcalhoun@richmond.infi.net (John Gardner)
Date: 6/10/97

I'd like to subscribe, and I'd particularly like to get information about buying a contrabass clarinet. Where, how much, when.

Thanks,
J. Calhoun Gardner

Auth: contrabassoon@geocities.com
Date: 6/13/97
Subj: contrabassoon

Grant,

Hi! I wanted to let you know of a new Contrabassoon web page I've created. It's at:

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2395

Sounds will be up soon, and it has lots of info and pictures.

Please add me to your mailing list and add a link to my site from yours. I will do the same.

Thanks,
David DeJarnett

While the digest has been down, I've managed to find a few more interesting CDs.

• "American Tribute" by Summit Brass (1991 Summit Records, DCD127) includes "Moondance" by John Stevens, played by Roger Bobo, Daniel Perantoni, Harvey Phillips, and Eugene Pokorny. Yes! This is a tuba quartet. The rest of the disc is nice brass music, including:
  • Castle Creek Fanfare (Dan Welcher);
  • Keystone Celebration (John Cheetham);
  • Reflections on a Dance (David Sampson);
  • Moondance (John Stevens);
  • Fanfare for D.H. (Joseph Schwantner);
  • Sonneries (Donald Erb); and
  • Symphony for Brass and Percussion, Op. 16 (Gunther Schuller).

  
  

• "Tuba Libera" by Roger Bobo (1994 Crystal Records CD690) is all Roger and piano, and has
  • "The Liberation of Sisyphus" (with the European Tuba Octet);
  • "Variations in Olden Style" (Thomas Stevens);
  • "Adagio from the Limpid Stream" (Dimitri Shostakovich);
  • "Three Miniatures for Tuba and Piano" (Anthony Plog);
  • "Capriccio for Solo Tuba" (Krzysztof Penderecki);
  • "Sonata for Tuba and Piano" (Trygve Madsen);
  • "Romanien Dance No. 2" (Ionel Dumitru); and
  • "Carnival of Venice" (Jean Baptiste Arban). <== truly incredible!!
• "Tuba Tracks" by Gene Pokorny (1991 Summit Records, DCD129) is all solo tuba playing transcriptions:
  • "Sonata in G Major" by G.F. Handel;
  • "Partita in A Minor for Flute" by J.S. Bach;
  • "General Levine - Eccentric" by C. Debussy;
  • "Three Songs" by S. Rachmaninoff;
  • "Serenade" from Sonatine for Bass Saxhorn and Piano by J. Casterede;
  • "Pavane pour une infante defunte" by M. Ravel;
  • "Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune" by C. Debussy;
  • "Six studies in English Folk Song" by R. Vaugh Williams;
  • "Theme and Variations on The Blue Bells of Scotland" by A. Pryor; and
  • "Memories of You" by Eubie Blake.

  Loads of great tuba stuff.

• "Andy Kirk and the 12 Clouds of Joy" (eponymous) (1993 ASV, CD AJA5108 mono) is old-fashioned big-band swing, recorded originally 1929-1940. Andy Kirk played tuba and bass sax, as well as leading the band. I won't list the 25 tracks here, but there's a lot of good swing on this disc. I didn't notice any bass sax on the first round, but the tuba is prominent.
• "Jubilee Performances 1946" by Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra (1995 HEP Records, HEP CD1 mono) is more jazz, with a big band led by bass sax player Boyd Raeburn. I've only heard this one through once, and it sounds like the bass sax must be way down in the mix, but its good music.
• "Boyd Meets Stravinsky" Boyd Raeburn and his Orchestra (1992 Nippon Columbia Co., SV-0185) is more of the same, with BR also playing soprano. The "Stravinsky" aspect of the music is incorporation of "Rite of Spring" type harmonies in what was then (1940s) fairly harmonious swing. More good stuff!
• Finally, here's one that is quite different, and not really contrabass-oriented. With that disclaimer, the disc "Dancing on A'A" by Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is progressive rock, and includes Ken Field on soprano, alto, and King Cleavland slide saxoprano. Trivia for today!

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