Best posts made by 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".

Just found this on the "Bored Bandsmen" FB page...

The orchestra was having a great rehearsal. The oboe player was keeping the double reed nice and moist between the lips when possible, but all of a sudden sucked a bit too hard and swallowed the reed which became stuck in the windpipe. The conductor spotted this straight away and dialled 999. Explaining that the oboe player had a double reed stuck in the windpipe the conductor asked what could be the best thing to do. The call handler without delay said "try a muted trumpet"....

Actually, it is customary not to mention the orchestral excerpts because the will be announced at short notice without any preparation time whatsoever. They are still an integral part of the audition process. In addition, the audition process at German orchestras usually is a multi-stage one, with only the requirements for the first stage being publicised. As the audition for a solo viola player showed... the orchestra were quite pleased at what the candidate presented, but, having been burnt before, they asked the candidate to play the fast demisemiquaver passage from "the Bartered Bride". And the viola candidate readily agreed, saying, "well, yes, if you've got enough time for that..."

This:

@administrator said in Wonder which Valve Oil they use.:

I'm curious about a few things.

1. How do we know they played with no vibrato in the Baroque era? I mean, we don't have recordings.
2. How do we know they ballooned their notes like they are doing in the video?

You are right, there are no recordings. But people wrote instead and closely described what was to be done. Almost every other musician of any note produced tutorials for his students: Friedrich Wilhelm Reiche, for example, could not just say, "Go and get yourself an Arban copy". For one, Arban would not be born for a couple of centuries; and for the second, printed books were still rare and expensive. So people like J.S. Bach produced things like the "Piano Book for Anna Magdalena Bach" which in their original version not only contained music, but lots of additional advice, thus showing us the way the composer wanted the pieces to be played.

@bobmiller1969 As to viola... how do you prevent a valuable violin from being stolen? -
Put it in a viola case.

What did the penniless viola player do at the end of the month? -
Went into a bank, took the viola out and said, "All the money, or I'll play!"

... and many, many returns...

@seth-of-lagos Mravinsky certainly let the brass do their thing , as you said, "on the ragged edge"; but that ragged edge was most probably sharpened by the instruments they had at their disposal... look at the year the recording was made: 1953. Stalin was probably still alive during much of the recording process, the Cold War was in full swing, trade relations between East and West were almost inexistent and "the Leningrad Factory" - one of only three places in the Soviet Union where brass instruments were made - still lay in ruins, only being rebuilt and back into business some years later. They probably had to do their best on - if lucky - very old instruments, or - if not - on some student grade horns slapped together somehow; and it is known that some of these musicians were reduced to building their own horns out of any materials they could find. One tuba is known to have had engine springs from a military truck as valve springs, being made out of the brass of spent shell casings...
As the joke went...
What is the difference between a Capitalist and a Socialist violin player? -
The Capitalist has an old violin and a new car, withn the Socialist it is the other way round.

@dale-proctor My gig bag would not even fit... and I always travel with gig bag, mute bag, music stand and "divers gear" bag...
but then, I would not fit in a Miata, either...

For me, this Christmas season started with four Christmas market gigs and will continue with five more of the same, but that is almost nothing compared to other years where sometimes I had to play Christmas Oratorio three times in a row... this year is centred around my wife's debut at Graz Opera (she sang almost everywhere else, but never before in Graz) in the small but important role of Mrs. Kramer in Kurt Weill's biggest Broadway success, A Touch of Venus - played many thousans of times in the US, but never before in Austria... Another 12 performances to go...

Time now to retell the story about a Vienna counterfeiters gang... the boss, on his way out, orders the gang to "make hundred fifties". Accordingly, the two slushers on duty give it their best and produce a wonderful sample banknote for 150 Euros... proudly show it to their boss for approval and the go-ahead for more of the same... the boss goes berserk saying, "you utter numbskulls, there are no 150s!! What are we going to do with this? You wasted your and my time on this!! Next time, I'll have you fitted with concrete boots!" - "No fear, boss, we can get rid of this one in extra quick time... we just go to Burgenland and there we'll have it in circulation in a sec." - "Then go!!"
Accordingly, they get into their car and drive off. Shortly after Eisenstadt (the capital of the Austrian province of Burgenland), they stop at a small village tobacconist's, and conterfeiter #1 gets out to "buy a lighter for one euro, and pay with the 150 euro note". Gets out, disappears in the shop, returns beaming. "Went a treat. She gave correct change - two seventies and a nine!"

As ROWUK had the right stuff at hand, the matter is now resolved. Thank you for all the offers of help - it shows that TB is the best trumpet forum ever!

And that means that I will be turning the key in the lock...

@J-Jericho You are d-n right with your last sentence!

The only thing I did at Christmas was to tag round the rehab clinic with the local ruffians (officially "students of logopaedia nd music therapy")... a four-part choir that managed to sing at least nine parts in three different keys, two guitars that had not been tuned to each other, a mouth organ and five recorders... I am really ashamed to have been seen with those...

Flowery lane, in Cefalu, Sicily... I'll be back there in a couple of weeks!

LOCKED, AT DR. GO'S REQUEST.

There's something new in the neighbourhood...

Ok, the tone of the discussion is getting more and more acid. I am closing this thread before bad language and undesirable arguments creep in.

Really had to unlock the thread again after yesterday...
Ok, first rehearsal with the ACB picc. Descant part for "Fairytale" (out of Shrek).
Orchestra horribly sharp. No problem with the ACB - you can tune it up to C.
In the part, it really sang. My trumpet partner in crime (trumpet student at Vienna's Music University) was impressed and said so, wanted to try it... did try it, with a few excerpts from Torelli and Michael Haydn... gave it back, cursing all the while.
I asked him why?
Well, turns out he only last week bought a brand spanking new gold-plated Scherzer, for an outrageous $ 5.600,-, and now likes the ACB better!

A viola player wants to escape his instrument and all its results, so he decides to learn some new instruments... goes into the music shop, looks around and says,
"I want that long harp, the red trumpet and the accordion." -
"You a viola player?" - "Yes, why?" -
"You can have the hatstand and the fire extinguisher, but the radiator stays!"