Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: how loud should you go on 1812


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Posted by Rick Denney on December 18, 2000 at 14:34:41:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: how loud should you go on 1812 posted by Dr. Johnson on December 17, 2000 at 12:00:38:

Amen. My sense of Tchaikowsky is that he was a little excitable himself and may well have written his dynamic markings a little exuberantly. I have the part for the orchestral version of 1812, and the dynamics range from pppp to ffff (or maybe even fffff). Now, not even the Marine Band (er... the Army Band... sorry, Sean) could make all those distinctions on an absolute scale.

Sean hits the mark with the word *intensity*. Intensity comes from the sound of the general tutti as well as the loudness of individual players.

The best way I can sort this out is this: The markings are what Tchaikowsky wants it to *sound* like, not so much what he wants you to *play* like. The pppp must be a hair above complete quiet, compared to what's around it, and the ffff must be that little bit more intense than the fff that goes before it, but not necessarily louder than the fff at the beginning of the music.

Of course, most amateur groups have much more difficulty playing ppp than fff. When they start at mp, then they leave no room for interpretation into the ffff extremes.

Rick "who loves this band part" Denney


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