 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: EbClarinet
Date: 2023-01-06 23:33
When I was in college many years ago, my direcor told us that we were producing 13 scoops of vanilla. I knew what he meant that it was the same boring sounds. How ever, he also said that we were producing that "brown sound." Have any of u heard this with your bands? What's the remedy to this. I'm a composer and I don't want my band pieces to ever sound like this.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/mbtldsongministry/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kdk
Date: 2023-01-06 23:48
EbClarinet wrote:
> he also said
> that we were producing that "brown sound." Have any of u heard
> this with your bands? What's the remedy to this. I'm a
> composer and I don't want my band pieces to ever sound like
> this.
>
OK, I'll bite. What *is* it?
Karl
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-01-07 03:10
I would respectfully submit that this has more to do with HOW a band plays. It is up to the conductor to assess the sound coming from the ensemble and CHANGE the way a section or individual is playing if the sound is not what she/he wants.
The composer writes what she/he hears in her/his head without regard to what anyone else thinks........unless you answer to a producer for a musical or a movie and your response to his/her suggestions has a direct effect on the number printed on your check.
..............Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: kdk
Date: 2023-01-07 03:42
I would only suggest that, without strings as a source of contrast, band composers should try to avoid the monochromatic blandness that *can* come from relying too much on blended wind tone. Bad band music is, among other things, often colorless. Good band music can have as much contrast as good orchestral music, but the composer has to be resourceful.
Karl
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-01-07 04:01
Just to support my tack, I’d been in many bands of many different levels. The best ones had great conductors and even poor arrangements can be rendered quite lovely.
So, I thought I should share an example. Take one of those omni present final notes of a big concert piece where everyone has the instruction to play a sforzando; crescendo; and a final downbeat accent. Instead of everyone doing just that, the high voices don't crescendo at all (flutes, oboes, clarinets, trumpets). The crescendo is executed by the lower voices (tuba; trombone; bari-sax, bass clarinet; bassoon). And the percussion delay their crescendo to the last beat for that final "swoosh" or "icing on the cake." Now this is performance technique and needs to be clearly asked for and executed by the conductor.
There is a similar "unfolding" of a sforzando downbeat opening (or transitional moment) in slower music that you can hear throughout Herbert von Karajan's recordings. An example that comes to mind is the opening of Schumann's Fourth Symphony. You can see it over and over at the opening of that work's rehearsal video (still on YouTube).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shc-4AZVaNk
It's a far more dramatic effect than everyone just hitting the opening note at once like a sack of potatoes falling off a truck.
………….Paul Aviles
Post Edited (2023-01-07 17:02)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
