Christmas Services

[Bob Pixley]

Finished playing a dress rehearsal and 8 concerts in 5 days last night. I have a Christmas Eve service to play, and then I'm finished for the year. A couple pics from the "pit"...

[adc]

Merry Christmas

Just bought this one:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OyIAAOSwVhhdNibL/s-l1600.jpg
Will be playing it in christmas eve service

[GeorgeB]

@adc
Shucks, the link didn't work for me. What did you buy ?

[administrator]

@GeorgeB said in Christmas Services:

@adc
Shucks, the link didn't work for me. What did you buy ?

Looks like a vintage cornet.

[barliman2001]

OK, first interim report. Played a Midnight Christmas service last night, as additional trumpet for a group consisting of a Lutheran parson and his seven daughters. The church we played in is rarely used - Christmas, Easter, and the occasional wedding - so the heating in the church had only been switched on an hour previous. No snow yet, but bloody cold. No rehearsal - just a list of numbers from the Lutheran Hymn book and its official Trombone Choir Arrangement book. The group - the parson, on a vintage Yamaha rotary. Daughter One on a rather decrepit Amati French horn. Daughter Two on a Cerveny rotary tenor horn, Daughter Three on a ramshackle Jupiter student bone, Daughter Four on an ancient Conn bellfront euphonium. Daughters Five and Six on no-name rotary baritone horns, and Daughter Seven, the youngest and smallest (age 13 and a half) on an enormous 1890s vintage Bb tuba. And, of course, the parson's wife on a pair of timps with half the tuning screws broken off.
We tuned up about 15 minutes before service. Then, there was a long wait because quite a few dignitaries had turned up (vice mayor, fire chief, police chief, President of the Lions Club, President of the Lutheran Women's League, the Catholic Priest with the President of the Parish Council) and were saying a few words as Christmas greetings. First tune was played an exact 40 minutes after tune-up, in a freezing church... we sounded like a fire truck with asthma. The cooling of the instruments had worked havoc with the tuning, and a few of the daughters just were unable to provide enough air for their instruments... In total, we played nine tunes and decided not to continue carolling after the service (as had been planned), as the tuba and one of the baritones had seized up due to cold...

[GeorgeB]

@administrator

OK, the link worked for me.

[GeorgeB]

@barliman2001
Now that was one really interesting situation. Playing in the cold is definitely no fun. But I'm sure you did well, sir.

[barliman2001]

@GeorgeB said in Christmas Services:

@barliman2001
Now that was one really interesting situation. Playing in the cold is definitely no fun. But I'm sure you did well, sir.

We did miserably. No doubt about it.

[barliman2001]

@GeorgeB said in Christmas Services:

@barliman2001
Now that was one really interesting situation. Playing in the cold is definitely no fun. But I'm sure you did well, sir.

As to playing in the cold - one Austrian oompah band a few years back bought several score of hand warmers (working with burning coal sticks inside) to zip tie to the valve blocks of instruments to avoid freezing (which is liable to happen at below zero temperatures). On one occasion, before a Christmas market gig, these hand warmers were lit and issued. Most of the guys directly zip tied them to the instruments and just carried the unwrapped instruments to the gig ( a few hundred yards down the road). One of the flugel players did not yet bother to fumble with the zip ties but just tossed the hand warmer into his gig bag. Half-way down to the gig, his bag was giving off smoke signals... the hand warmer had come undone and spilt the burningcoal inside, setting the lining on fire... when the guy investigated and opened up the bag, he was welcomed by a raging flame. The local fire brigade had a busy fifteen minutes putting the blazing bag out, and the insurance later refused to pay for the burnt-up flugel (an almost new gold-plated Votruba Professional worth around € 5,000) due to "culpable negligence".

[Dr GO]

Finished my Christmas Performance at the Lutheran Church just a few hours ago, the last service ending about 12:15 AM! Two Services were played. One at 7 pm, the other started at 10:30 pm.

The organ/trumpet combo was just perfect. The organist arranged I play each hymn with the lyrical line the first verse, sit out the second verse (choir only sings) the descant vocal line for the third verse, and the trumpet descant part (the piccolo lines) for the forth verse. That REALLY was a nice way to present the parts as ending with the descant piccolo line really made the ending ring out in the church.

[barliman2001]

@Dr-GO said in Christmas Services:

Finished my Christmas Performance at the Lutheran Church just a few hours ago, the last service ending about 12:15 AM! Two Services were played. One at 7 pm, the other started at 10:30 pm.

The organ/trumpet combo was just perfect. The organist arranged I play each hymn with the lyrical line the first verse, sit out the second verse (choir only sings) the descant vocal line for the third verse, and the trumpet descant part (the piccolo lines) for the forth verse. That REALLY was a nice way to present the parts as ending with the descant piccolo line really made the ending ring out in the church.

That's Christmas Service as it should be.

[Dr GO]

The organist also had the brilliant idea of ending the performance as the congregation processed out with Te Deum, Prelude pour Trompette & Orgue by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704). While not a traditional Christmas piece, man did it make for a perfect finale to bring a Christmas Service to a close!

[barliman2001]

Brilliant idea - in the US. In Europe, that piece unfortunately is played out due to being used as a TV fanfare, cropping up every time a show is broadcast over the all-European network.

[Dr GO]

@barliman2001 said in Christmas Services:

Brilliant idea - in the US. In Europe, that piece unfortunately is played out due to being used as a TV fanfare, cropping up every time a show is broadcast over the all-European network.

Too bag Mark Antoine is around to get the royalties on this!

[Kehaulani]

@adc said in Christmas Services:

Is that a Connstellation? Love 'em.

[Bertie]

Oh, I wanted a week free, but I got last minute gig for New year's eve lutheran church service in Munich (3 trumpets + 3 trombones). And now I have to practice . My son was born a week ago, so you know... not much sleep anyway

[barliman2001]

@Bertie said in Christmas Services:

Oh, I wanted a week free, but I got last minute gig for New year's eve lutheran church service in Munich (3 trumpets + 3 trombones). And now I have to practice . My son was born a week ago, so you know... not much sleep anyway

CONGRATULATIONS!

[Kehaulani]

@Bertie said in Christmas Services:

My son was born a week ago . . .

Herzlichen glückwunsch!

[Dr GO]

@Bertie said in Christmas Services:

My son was born a week ago, so you know... not much sleep anyway

Hope you were not the one chosen to do the breast feeding!

Congratulations!