Re: Re: Die Meistersinger Prelude


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Posted by Klaus on August 21, 2002 at 20:28:14:

In Reply to: Re: Die Meistersinger Prelude posted by Rick Denney on August 21, 2002 at 17:34:52:

In my tuba banding days I have met some section-mate types, that were considered dead-on reliable because they "stuck to the ink" (I am the type who starts improvising at the second reading: octave displacements, skipping the boring stuff that all the rest of the section happily exhaust themselves on, putting in passing notes, making 2 beat stuff walking bass lines, and all the other funny stuff, that drives conductors nuts, insofar they are not nuts right out from the beginning. Never accepted that when I conducted myself, but then I wrote in the funny stuff in my arrangements for those "privileged" guys and galls).

But these "stuck to the ink"-guys often sounded like they were "stuck by the ink". Not even the slightest idea of what they were doing in the musical context.

One rule, that goes for all sorts of tonal music, is: never break a harmonic cadenza unless the conductor specifically orders a caesura.

Those of you schooled in jazz might grasp it better by this wording: get some air before the II-V-I's. If the situation allows for it, the occasional VII-III-VI-II-V-I's (with all of it optional substitutions) should be taken in one breath. With the redux being: better drop dead, than breathing between V and I unless ordered to do so.

There are wealths of other harmonic cadenzas that should not be broken either.

I am fairly sure, that one of these section mates was able to do these harmonic analyses. Because he always and invariably took his breaths at the worst possible points.

Another older guy, with whom I was in a close friendship, had a better approach: "I can not make any sense out of this!", he often said, especially when the basses carried the harmonic transitions between melody phrases. And he was very grateful, when I wrote in the breath marks for him.

There certainly will be pros among us, that could write down the complete score after the first reading of a potentially new addition to the ensemble repertory. I can NOT do that, but I always strive for mentally to write down the chord symbols while playing tonal music.

I am sure I make a lot of "mental" misses. But I am equally sure, that my harmonic awareness generally improves my performances as a band member.

Klaus

PS: There is one more productive trick in making fast breaths (at least). Consider the muscles involved in the inhalation process as made out of the bungy-jump stuff. The elasticity will catapult you out into the next phrase.


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