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Re: Kind of dumb Mahler question

Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2009-11-27 02:20

We had a guest conductor for the 7th Symphony one year who was a spectacular Mahler interpreter. During the course of the 1st rehearsal, the conductor asked that all passages marked bells up be played with the bells as high as possible - for us in the soprano part of the section, bells over the top of the stand - heads bent back - bells up like a trumpet.

Someone in the ww section said under their breath "What difference is that going to make?" and the conductor overheard them. We were playing some of the ww fanfares so prominent in the 1st mvmt.

The conductor asked that the passage of a few measures be played by the ww section alone - first bells down and then repeated once again with bells fully in the air.

The difference in character and volume was so startlingly obvious that after only 2 or 3 measures with bells up, the entire ww section had to stop because we were laughing out loud and couldn't continue. What a brilliant idea to get their point across.

Whether that sound (compared to ignoring the marking or just slightly lifting the bells upward) was what Mahler actually intended is perhaps debatable. The result of that particular demonstration on that day with the CSO was not.

Gregory Smith
http://www.gregory-smith.com

Post Edited (2009-11-27 02:21)

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Kind of dumb Mahler question new

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2009-11-06 19:11

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2009-11-09 14:53

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