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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000063.txt from 2006/12

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [DR-L] BASSOON: question about Nutcracker Bsn 1 part
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:31:14 -0500

<<<I've got a question about our favorite piece, The Nutcracker. One
annoying passage (of many), is at near the end of Waltz of the
Snowflakes (the end of Act I). At the final Presto section, in 2/4
there is a difficult slur from high G down to Middle C (the actual
passage is: eighth rest, G-sixteenth down to C-sixteenth, back up to
eighth-G, then another G sixteenth down to C-sixteenth and finally back
up to G-eighth). The C is difficult to sound cleanly with the tempo.
Nothing seems to work 100%, even after practicing this a few hundred
times over the years.>>>

I flick the high D key in order to make the C speak clearly. On my
instrument (Fox 601 w/pre-war Heckel CC1), I don't need the whisper key
on the high G. On a sustained G, where pitch and stability are
critical, I usually add the whisper, but the difference is barely
noticeable to anyone but me.

I actually think that the suggestion to flick the high D came from Gerry
Corey a few years ago.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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