Best posts made by barliman2001

Just happened upon this Norman Rockwell painting... I am sure someone can identify the trumpet!

Our family teddy bear Wendelin who came into the family in the early 1890s... sitting in the rocking swan my grandfather made for me... I used to sit in there in a suit of plastic armor, listening to Lohengrin...

Title says everything. Details here. One place already taken - by me.
www.meisterklassen-gutenstein.com/trumpet-2023

@Vulgano-Brother When I was still playing in a brass quintet - can't seem to get one together these days - we had an external musical director who not only supervised our rehearsing, but wrote original music for us as well. Worked perfectly and brought a bunch of rank amateurs (as we then were) into all the big local concert halls... even though some of the original music was distinctly weird: "Variations on Greensleeves", with every variation representing a different period of music history: va. 1 a Bach fugue, var. 2 a Mozart minuet, var. 3 Beethovenesque, var. 4 Bruckner, var. 5 a military march, var. 6 Wagnerian, var. 7 being dodecaphonic...

@bigdub Good on you to give away musical ability that way. A few months back, I donated three instruments and a heap of mouthpieces to a school in Bulgaria in a disadvantaged district... only last week, they sent me pics and videos of their founding a band at the school and their first performance at the End of School Year ceremony... with an official thank you document and an icon blessed by their local Orthodox priest... I can't tell you the joy I had from that. May you be similarly blessed.

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!

@Newell-Post I've got his e-mail and will send him a note. Haven't heard from him for some time, though, and he was living in a particularly lively corner of Africa...

Michael Praetorius was a 16th century composer, one of the first to really incorporate brass music into the Church, and one of the most important not to take up old melodies, but provide new melodies for later composers and arrangers...

@j-jericho Can only concur with your description. Could not have done better myself (probably would have done far worse!).

The European Folklore Festival in Bitburg, Germany, is an annual event of some considerable size with a remarkable 50+-year tradition. Groups from all over the world meet and show off their skills - great stuff.
Traditionally, some of the music is always provided by Welsh brass band Coronation Brass, a scratch formation meeting once a year in Bitburg and playing up to eight gigs over a four-day period. No rehearsal - just plain sight-reading one minor test piece and lots of marches (no marching!) and old favourites, with a tasty selection from the cheeseboard.
For the last years, Coronation Brass have been welcoming guest players from all over the world... me, for one (I've already managed to worm myself into the inner circle), and there were players from Germany, Italy, Russia and the US...
It's always great fun - great music, great people, free meals and floods of free drinks (main sponsor is Bitburger, one of the largest breweries in Germany!). ssmith1226 attended one festival, and a year later he wrote, "my liver still remembers!"

This year's event will be smaller than usual, more like a local affair, but Coronation Brass have been confirmed as participants and are inviting brass band players to join them for a long weekend of music and mayhem.

The Dates:
Arrival in Bitburg Friday, 8 July, 2022, lunchtime
Concerts - most of them open-air, in the centre of town - from Friday evening until Monday morning
Departure after breakfast Tuesday, 12 July

Bitburg is fairly easily reached by car, and is within reach of both Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Hahn airports. Airport pick-ups can be arranged, and for those travelling from the UK, there will be free seats in cars.

Accommodation traditionally is in a 3-star hotel in the centre of town, just 50 metres from the main concert venue... cost is likely to be at most € 250 for the whole period including large breakfasts (that's the upper figure - Coronation Brass usually get special rates and sponsoring. At the last pre-lockdown festival, cost per nose was € 180.)

Contact me for details, or apply directly to Nick Jones (organizing genius, and trombone wizard) at coronationbrass@hotmail.com

See a few pics from previous festivals...

Yep, that's me as flag-bearer.

The umbrellas in the background belong to the band hotel...

Fellow participants from Slovakia, with a tromboline

Bitburg's Mayor conducting Coronation Brass (he's a Euph player of note and has been known to join the band for a few pieces)

Music and drinks!

Street food

Folk dance group from a Swedish Seniors' Residence - the youngest member is 87, the oldest 101 years old

@Dr-GO ...and someone could be a humorous person adept at joining string with two needles - the knit wit...

@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".

Amati - conglomerate name for a series of small workshops working as a Soviet style company in Socialist Czechoslovakia. Operating under this name from about 1955 onwards, simply continuing to produce whatever instruments the previous companies (like Bohland & Fuchs) had been making since before the War. In the period between the end of WWII and 1955 (or so), some of these small companies simply resumed whatever production they could with the materials and workers available. Usually, these instruments are built like tanks (because you can't produce delicate instruments if your precision tools have been looted by the Red Army - sorry, they called it War Reparations). And development of new things being generally frowned upon in the Eastern Bloc (except arms!), when amalgamated into Amati, they just continued with what they had been doing, without proper quality control or much interest in same, things going from bad to worse. Thus, if you find an instrument that was later marketed as Amati, it is very likely better instrument if it does not bear the Amati brand.

@Dr-Mark Pope John Paul II was notorious for his sudden decisions and irregular outings (at least, at the beginning of his pontificate). So, one day, he decided to swap places with his chauffeur one day and drive through Rome a bit - the pontiff at the wheel, the chauffeur in the screened back. Pope John Paul II had a hankering for speed so, inevitably, he runs into a speed check by Rome City Police. Obediently, he stops and rolls down the window. The policeman sees him and staggers back, at once caling HQ: "HQ, we've caught someone very high up speeding... what shall I do?" - "Arrest and enforce a fine!" - "But he's someone really very high up..." - "What do you mean, very high up. The Mayor?" - "Nnnno, no, much higher..." - "Well, then, the Prime Minister?" - "No, even much higher." - "What in the devi's name do you mean, much higher? Who is he?" - "I don't know exactly, but the Pope is His driver..."

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..."

And here's another, with a special scene from 4:40...

@SSmith1226 In the same spirit: How do you describe a marriage? A marriage consist of two people. One is always right, and the other is the husband.

@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.

This is what happens if a group of superb dancers just have fun with a good band...