Posted by Brian on January 29, 2002 at 21:30:24:
In Reply to: Copland's "Emblems" posted by Matthew Smith on January 29, 2002 at 19:08:17:
Copland took the time to write that the part should be muted. This may be just a guess but I think Copland may be a better judge of how to perform his music than you are.
I played it last spring here in my wind ensemble and we most deffinatly used the mutes. The purpose of a mute is not to mute the sound but rather to give the instrument a different timbre. The bright sound is what Copland wanted to hear in his music and that is how it should be performed.