Posted by One more trick on September 20, 2002 at 19:57:24:
In Reply to: An aspect of development of musicianship posted by Klaus on September 20, 2002 at 18:28:05:
As an offspring of my exchanges of thought with Kenneth Sloan I wanted to know, what really happened in a bit of music, that I love very much, but which not very often is performed to the delight of my ears:
The opening wind ensemble of the overture to Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.
So I wrote these clarinet, bassoon, and horn parts into a score and added a staff, where I wrote in the harmonic rhythm (which neither equals the melody rhythm nor the pulse) and wrote in the chord symbols. The modern chord symbol system is not totally satisfactory for that. I had to write, what I would call suspended sixths as minor chords. Yet the picture is not distorted too much by that.
My purpose was to learn exactly, which type of chords, that classical musicians often have great problems with tuningwise. It appeared, that it was chords with the third or the seventh in the bottom part.
Which surprised me quite a bit, as exactly these two chord functions are the ones that the great arranger Thad Jones constantly lets the baritone sax play in his 5 part sax lines. And I know from more than one big band, that these functions can be played very well in tune. One of my best friends is a baritone sax player, who for years sat in front of my bassbone.
The link below here points towards a .pdf file, where the Tannhäuser opening first is notated for the transposing instruments, and then it comes in concert pitch version.
What has this to do with tubas and euphs? Musical wisdom! And actually all parts in the concert pitch version are best notated in bass clef. I have not written in the dynamics, which all are very quiet, but this piece would sound wonderful performed by a tuba-euph ensemble, that can play in tune in the most awkward keys.
Klaus
PS: For once the file size is small: 85 KB.