Smile and Say You Love It

Sometimes being a musician means you have to play the occasional piece of music that isn't in your Top 10,000 Greatest Hits iTunes playlist. Ok, I get that....but Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony takes my disdain for horrible music to a new level. May I suggest the following, instead?



I vote for option #2.

Now Playing: The Monstrosity of Organic Romanticism

Now playing, the Monstrosity of Organic Romanticism, or Bruckner's E-flat Symphony. This work is nothing less than a study in utter boredom for the timpanist. No offense intended to the Maestro, but I could play some of the roll studies from Technique for the Virtuoso Timpanist and get just about as much fulfillment as I can from playing this symphony.

Let me try and be positive for a moment and come up with three positive goals that I have to work towards during rehearsals and performance.

• Goal #1 - Maintain accurate intonation when executing passages at high volumes. Dynamic changes from pianissimo to fortissimo occur "subito" in a few locations throughout the work causing pitch to get sloppy without proper attention.
  
• Goal #2 - Create the sound of a bass pizzicato at the end of the second movement. Since this is the only real "shining" moment for my instrument throughout this masterwork, I believe every attention should be paid to final bars of this movement.
  
• Goal #3 - Smoothly execute each fortissimo roll and cleanly release each roll without accent (unless requested).

Ok, perhaps the entire work isn't so bad; the hunting theme in the Scherzo is fun, and I like the duplet/triplet motive that anchors that movement. But seriously, can we change the title to the "Dramatic" symphony? With no less than seven "authentic" versions of the score in existence, the symphony has surely caused enough drama to warrant a change in title.

Shostakovich #11

Tomorrow night, we will be performing Shostakovich's 11th Symphony as a continuation of the Russian revolution theme that was presented last year when we performed Battleship Potemkin with the Eisenstein film. Shostakovich's 11th symphony was the first symphony by Shostakovich that I purchased many years ago (the Jaarvi version), and it is still one of my favorites. There are several things to note regarding the percussion parts: the piece calls for one snare drum, but I have found that most recordings (I have approximately 7 at this point) double the snare drum part...a wise idea when competing against the orchestra in the middle of the second movement. We are using chimes that are one octave below the normal rack chimes. The work calls for a G, Bb, B, C and D. I managed to find some heavier chime mallets at Lone Star Percussion that should allow my colleague Jim Holland to obtain more volume and cut through the orchestra in the final measures of the symphony.

There are mistakes in the snare drum and timpani parts that are delivered in the rental set. These are rhythmic errors that are not properly noted during repeated measures. The chime part delivered is also very incorrect, but a "corrected" version has been printed and should come with the rental set delivered. I will post these corrections here when I have a chance to look through the parts.

One note of humor: it seems that the woodwind parts have been well marked during the loud percussion sections. I was looking at a clarinet part and saw "earplugs in!" penciled in various places. That may be the most useful marking I've ever seen in any part.