L'Arlésienne and the bass trom top 'A'

[samopn]

Hi
I'm an amateur tenor/bass player and I've been booked to play bass trom in a local orchestra next month.

One of the pieces is Bizet's L'Arlésienne suite and I'm finding the solo bit in Farandole a bit challenging... it's the top A which, with the bass mouthpiece, is difficult to play with any sort of strength or quality and I've no idea what it's going to be like when it's played at ffff (I've nowhere to practice at this volume!)

I could use my tenor mouthpiece but I'm hesitant to do that as it'll loose the richness and "punch", particulay in the low sections of the piece.

I've got 5 weeks to sort this. Other than "practice practice practice", any advice or suggestions?

[ithinknot]

Longer term, that A shouldn't be a problem on bass - either for the player, or the equipment, if you see what I mean.

But in this particular case, that's all irrelevant.

It's a tenor trombone part, written for (small) tenor. Play it on tenor. There's nothing lower than A in the staff in the entire suite, and the "1st" part is lower than you throughout that solo.

[BGuttman]

This is a very interesting excerpt. If you look at the score, it is actually placed on the 1st trombone part with the bass trombone assigned to the D ostinato.

If your range is a little squirrely up there, you can see if you can exchange with the 1st Trombone and let him deal with the high A.

Otherwise, I used the Remington "Security in the Upper Register" exercise to expand my range; although you don't have enough time for it to really work.

This is one of the reasons I tell bass trombonists not to neglect the upper register. I had a great time playing it when I had to.

[GabrielRice]

As Bruce says, it's a copyist error in the 3-trombone version. Fairly often when it comes up on gigs for me the parts have already been adjusted to put it in the 1st.

But more often it's there. I like playing it, actually, but I am a professional player with a strong high register. There are other professional players who see no point in taking a chance and pass it to the right. It's really a matter of personal preference. My advice to you would be to swap the part with the principal player, as it appears in the score.

If you do play it, know that it's not a solo; it's functioning at the bottom of the trumpet harmony. Therefore, you do not want to play it at a solo ff dynamic, but with a trumpet-like quality, bright but not overly loud so as not to overbalance. Maintaining tempo here is MUCH more important than dynamic - it's moving right along at this point!

[CalgaryTbone]

We usually play that passage with the 1st Trombone playing the high lick. I think that it appears in the 3rd part less as a mistake, and more because the edition is meant to allow for performances by smaller orchestras that don't have a full compliment of musicians. We were just playing some Carmen excerpts on a Pops program last week, and I was reminded that some of the 1st Trombone passages from the opera appear in the 3rd part in the Suite. The 3rd part also has more cues, and I think they are to allow that player to cover for some missing players in woodwinds and horns in a small group. I think that there is a bit of an expectation in these editions that if you only have one trombone, you should have them play the 3rd part. This makes sense - have the root of the chord covered. Then, the cues in that part and others mean that missing parts elsewhere can be covered too. This is more for school/amateur situations, but even on professional gigs, a player could be delayed or sick.

Jim Scott

[BGuttman]

And here I thought the important part was the ostinato D

[LeTromboniste]

Yes exactly as Jim said. This is written for three "equal" tenors, so there is not this strict hierarchy, and definitely not originally a notion of having a different sound on the "bass" part. The third trombone was considered the most important and the least facultative. So when editing suites and arrangements, it was common to assign to the 3rd trombone everything you wanted for sure to be played.

Just swap parts as makes sense, especially if you're on a big bass

[Kbiggs]

Interesting about the French convention of trombone part writing. Does this also explain the high passage towards the end of the Franck Symphony in d?

[Burgerbob]

Yup!

[samopn]

Thanks for the hints..

I looked at the Remington "Security in the Upper Register" exercise and it seems that was more or less exctly what I've been doing, so I could have published it and made a fortune

Interesting.. I've been trying to keep the practice sessions on this quite short as I don't want to strain anything. Yesterday I couldn't do any practice as we were out all day, and today I'm noticably stronger... that must say something.

Anyway, thanks once again.

[TomRiker]

If I am working on something and it isn't happening I take a break from practicing it or maybe even take a day off the horn. I especially do this if I'm not seeing improvement. Like say I'm working a technical etude. Say I start playing it at quarter note equals 50 and I've worked it up to quarter note equals 75 but I can't get past 75. I'll walk away from it for a day or two. Pretty much every time after that break I can sit down and immediately play the thing at 77 or 80 or something.

[AtomicClock]

The third trombone was considered the most important and the least facultative. So when editing suites and arrangements, it was common to assign to the 3rd trombone everything you wanted for sure to be played.

What is the generalization of this rule? All French operas? All French music? Just Bizet?
(I know, I know... "It depends; study the score.")

[BGuttman]

The third trombone was considered the most important and the least facultative. So when editing suites and arrangements, it was common to assign to the 3rd trombone everything you wanted for sure to be played.

What is the generalization of this rule? All French operas? All French music? Just Bizet?
(I know, I know... "It depends; study the score.")

It appears to be very common for German publishers, especially before the end of World War II.

[Hannahgibbons]

This is a very interesting excerpt. If you look at the score, it is actually placed on the 1st trombone part with the bass trombone assigned to the D ostinato.

If your range is a little squirrely up there, you can see if you can exchange with the 1st Trombone and let him deal with the high A.

Otherwise, I used the Remington "Security in the Upper Register" exercise to expand my range; although you don't have enough time for it to really work.

This is one of the reasons I tell bass trombonists not to neglect the upper register. I had a great time playing it when I had to.