Posts made by barliman2001

I've been on many mouthpiece safaris in my life, and in consequence, I've assembled a heap of mouthpieces... many of them now obsolete for me. This thread brought me to think over my collection; and I've found that there are only a few things that I have learnt that are really of help to anyone:

1. If you are a beginner or a re-starter, don't start off with the expensive mouthpieces. Try out sizes and shapes with Arnold & Sons (aka Stoelzel). They are exact and durable Bach clones, at less than a quarter of the cost.
2. Have at least one plastic (or rather non-metal) mouthpiece of your size - invaluable for those mid-winter outdoor gigs that pay well because conditions are so poor.
3. If you are trying out different cups while staying with the same kind of rim, think of the Stomvi Combination System: One rim, two stems, eight cups... somewhat like the Warburton or Breslmaier screw-rim systems, but less expensive.

And if there are mouthpieces around your home that you will definitely never use again, donate them to deserving causes. I sent a box of 20 assorted mouthpieces (and a few instruments) to a friend of mine who was starting a school band in Bulgaria to keep kids off the streets. The band is going strong, juvenile crime in the area has halved, and the band are now regularly invited to play at civic events.

By the way, this is my wife's principal pianist as member of comic opera group THE CAST... enjoy!

@georgeb You are very welcome. Currently, there is not much on youtube; but amazon has several of her recordings.

Twenty years later, in a preview for a new Vienna musical...

and in between...

Currently to be heard and seen in Kurt Weill's A Touch of Venus in Opera Graz

@rowuk I can only second that opinion.

At the moment, I'm listening to a continuous stream of a number of arias and lieder, every day, live... my wife is having a solo recital on 9 February...

A Scottish husband and wife had an aerobatics pilot friend who never took any passengers with him because he absolutely hated talk during flight.
One day, it was the wife's birthday, and the husband persuaded the pilot to take them on a flight as a birthday present. Grudgingly, the pilot consented, and said, "You can have the flight for free if neither of you make a sound. But if you start talking, I'll charge you 500 pounds for the flight." - "Och aye, we'll be silent."
They take off, and the pilot did his best to impress his passengers. Loopings, barrel rolls - he performed his whole programme. In total silence. After landing, the pilot casually remarked, "That was grand, wasn't it? And you kept your silence. Were you never tempted to say something?" - "Och aye, only once." - "When?" - "When Maggie fell out!"

@curlydoc ergobrass, then.

@curlydoc In my experience, the best training for the low notes is just brabbling away on your lips, like you would when relaxing your embouchure. And I've found that some fun with a much bigger instrument and mouthpiece is good for the low range, too. Why not get a Peuphonium?
https://www.thomann.de/gb/startone_pep_20_bb_euphonium_blue.htm?shp=eyJjb3VudHJ5IjoiZ2IiLCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1

Nice! But it's bad that the flag prevented the page-turner from being in her proper place, totally obliterating the pianist...

@administrator You are very welcome. Info on www.meisterklassen-gutenstein.com (very soon).

Why do viola players sleep rough so often?
They lose the key and don't know where to come in.

@rowuk Rowuk, Ivan will be teaching a master class in Austria, near Vienna, in summer - perhaps you might like to attend?

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...

@rowuk That is absolutely brilliant. Just what I needed. Thank you.

@administrator If you can manage C that would be perfect.

@newell-post He's a well-seasoned pro who plays everything with a Bach C. I'd like to use my own C to avoid problems - we've played together before, and our instruments blend astonishingly well (my C is a supposedly second choice Courtois marketed under the brand name Gaudet).

Hi there,
I've been selected to play 2nd trumpet in a staging of Elgar's Enigma Variations in Sicily. Organizer only provides original parts in F which is... let's describe it carefully... slightly challenging for me (I'm still living down my trumpet begin in Concert Pitch in a Lutheran trombone choir...). The other piece in the concert is to be Brahms #2, with most of the trumpet parts in D and only a very few notes in B natural. THAT is no problem, but the F transposition is.
Does anyone have a transcription-transposition of Elgar into either Bb or C and is willing to share?
Slightly URGENT!

As regards speed in old recordings: Of course there was a time restraint in these days. The technical ability was limited, and if a conductor and his orchestra wanted to do a recording of a certain piece, the technician would ask "How long?", be told a figure and then say, "Can't do that - too long." And then they would dispute whether to leave out a bit (quite a few written repeats simply vanished in this process) or whether to speed things up. And sometimes they did that, just to be able to record at all. There usually was no discussion of artistic merit because that had to go to the wall before the question of "record or not". And as recording was a profitable business even in the times when they were still discussing whether recording would stay or would be a one-time wonder, they usually chose to record.
Remember, when Sony developed the CD, they asked Karajan whether he thought 70 minutes was a good choice for max playing time, and he said they needed at least 75 minutes so that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony could fit on one CD without speeding up. They did not quite manage that, so 74 minutes became the standard. And an old Karajan recording of Beethoven #9 now suddenly was one minute shorter on the new medium compared to the old vinyl recording...

Composers and performers of all ages have been freely interpreting the work of their predecessors, even if only by playing pieces that were written for the instruments of the day on modern instruments. Obviously the modern piano sounds very different from the harpsichord many of Bach's works were originally intended for, and even farther from the spinet they were composed on; and the modern trumpet is a totally different beast from the original, and the performers are acclaimed - just think of Glenn Gould and his Bach performances. One guy that takes Bach even further into modernity is Jacques Loussier and his PlayBach group...