 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
96.36.85.71
4th Movement, begun by the Horns, repeated by Woodwinds and concluded with trombones? Fugue?So lovely!
LIBERTY ONCE LOST,
IS LOST FOREVER
-JOHN ADAMS
Edits: 07/25/12Follow Ups:
Since you reminded me, I listened to it again last night.
Initiated at m. 52? If that's it, I'd describe it as a canonic passage, but it's not a full fugue.
. . . there's some counterpoint involved, but it's not a fugue - just a little contrapuntal texture in there.
I tried to find a score and got this from Wiki, "the Piu andante section, the horns and timpani introduce a tune that Brahms heard from an Alpine shepherd with the words, "High on the hill, deep in the dale, I send you a thousand greetings!"
I'll listen to it again today, which must be close to the day of the 50th anniversary of me standing in the space between the two rehearsal halls at Interlochen with a gang of other players during the morning break. We're listening to the principal Tuba tell us about the brand-new German Horn he's toting and the news of his acceptance to Julliard in the fall.
I'm schlepping around a silver-plated Bach 50B double trigger that belongs to the Camp as I'm the third or fourth ranked player of the lesser, second orchestra and lead the third (bass) trombones.
The first chair, first orchestra trombone comes up to me and asks if I'm familiar with the bass part of this phrase in the 1st Symphony and I say no. He hums, then plays the bass part for me and invites me to play along with him and the second chair which we do. Several times. Everybody, which means about 100 teen-age musicians stops talking and listens.
I'll never forget the moment of being 15 years old, "playing with the big kids", and the glorious music on a Summer morning. Thank you Mr. Brahms.
LIBERTY ONCE LOST,
IS LOST FOREVER
-JOHN ADAMS
Dont' know why I just now saw this thread - yes, the melody is a famous Alphorn call. One of my teachers, Dave Krehbiel, the former principal horn of the San Francisco Symphony, always tried to talk conductors into letting him play the horn solo on a real alphorn, which would be fantastic. Unfortunately, no one ever let him do it.
. . . the "Piu Andante" (Letter "B", measure 30) starts with that horn theme you mention, followed by the little contrapuntal section, and then the trombone section you were talking about (which returns as a kind of apotheosis near the end of the symphony) is Letter "C", measure 47 - BTW, that's an interesting part in itself. We studied it in an orchestration class I took when I was a student. The scoring is for trombones and bassoons, but the listener usually doesn't hear the bassoons here as a separate tone color - he hears only the trombones. Brahms knew this, and thereby economized on his orchestration (saving himself from having to include a fourth trombone just to keep the tone color there while still being able to fill out the harmony).
I liked your anecdote BTW - the thrill of playing with the big dogs!
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
