The Sound of Cimbasso?

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by Bove »

quesonegro wrote:If anybody's interrested,
That was nice! Thanks for posting the video!
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

Here's another one...last week of vacation :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5ravXscKA" target="_blank

This one is a silly rendition of Kraftwerk´s Das Model...

Cimbasso, Tuba and Melodica

Cheers

//Mattis
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by Wyvern »

quesonegro wrote:Here's another one...last week of vacation :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5ravXscKA" target="_blank" target="_blank

This one is a silly rendition of Kraftwerk´s Das Model...

Cimbasso, Tuba and Melodica

Cheers

//Mattis
I like that - very effective! 8)
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by imperialbari »

Image

Don’t know why bloke’s new design didn’t show in his posting. Everybody ought seeing that he has prepared an expansion of his musical scope: 3-note bass riffs will become the rave.

K
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

And here's the last one for a while...going back to work today...
This one is me playing Air on the G string by Bach.
Obviously, I'm not a classical player, this is just for fun!! I have the greatest respect for the classical colleagues out there and I am not suggesting that this has anything to do with what they do! As I said, it's just an experiment for the fun of it...

Melody on cimbasso, the rest on bass trombone...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N63DfmSKBc" target="_blank



Live long and prosper!

//Mattis
Last edited by quesonegro on Sat Aug 29, 2009 3:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by Tubadork »

here is Mattis (who sounds great BTW)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N63DfmSKBc" target="_blank
and here is, well something:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7b6sIp ... re=related" target="_blank

Enjoy,
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

Ahh....crappy link, sorry!

Thanks Bill!!

//Mattis
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by tubeast »

As Heiko Triebener put it on a Tuba workshop at MELTON`s a few years ago:
"Cimbasso is the suitable tool to cut the conductor in halves with"
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by imperialbari »

tubeast wrote:As Heiko Triebener put it on a Tuba workshop at MELTON`s a few years ago:
"Cimbasso is the suitable tool to cut the conductor in halves with"
That is not what I hear from Mattis, as he displays a very smooth and melodically fluent playing.

As I have worked with Bach in perfomance as well as in the toolbox of musicology, there are points in his Bach I don’t agree with. There is one flunker, which I could have done much worse, and a long note held too short (which also might happen for me), but what made me jump in the chair was the omission of a certain appogiatura towards the end. I checked with the score, and that appogiatura is not there. Only it is mandatory from a performance tradition documented by Quantz and others. Most editors/arrangers write in that appogiatura, because they know about the small overlap between low brass players and baroque style performers.

Still I enjoyed the playing, and I very much would want such cimbasso if the price and my usage had been a bit more proportionate to each other.

In recent weeks there has been a wild discussion of the ophicleide and cimbasso matters in 19th century Italian music on the Finale list. One point made caught my interest: the cimbasso in the form of a valved bass trombone in F or lower was said solely to be an invention by a certain German low brass player fifty years ago.

I happen to disagree, as I have seen Italian valved bass trombones (3 valve F and 4 valve BBb) documented, and they were at least from before WWII.

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

If I understand you right, you're right - it's definitely hogwash. Verdi's own "trombono contrabasso" was an upright contra-bone in BBb. The term for Cimbasso, however, is a widely applied, little understood term. Concretely, many cimbasso parts are for an upright serpent, many for ophicleide or valved ophicleide (more often) and then latter misapplied frequently when the composer or publisher wouldn't have any idea what was covering the part – a very common issue. Valve trombones were exceedingly common (though unfortunately not for Rossini) and adopted very quickly in Italy in F (and I've even seen G) for the 3rd parts, but applying the name cimbasso to the lowest valve bone is rather new, but was started actually by a German (I forget his name) for an F slide instrument developed with Alexander, Mainz.

There are also several examples of Eb valve bass bones from the late 19th century in Brittan.

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

I seem to remember reading that the "cimbasso" was also used in italian "Banda" music, though as to when or to what instrument the nomenclature refers to in this case I couldn't say...I'm just throwing it out there in the hope that maybe someone else might know more precisely :)

Cheers

//Mattis
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

It does come up from time to time... but more often the poor bombardone and the bombardino (Mascagni) join the Banda. This is more an anecdote of my experience than an absolute fact, but there you go :-)

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

In the end, isn't it mostly about trying to make it more "legit"?
I can see how this has a bearing in the classical world where authenticity is more of an agenda, but for me playing it is just about music and having fun, not about whether my instrument is a "real" cimbasso...
A rose, by what ever other name, is still a rose!!

//Mattis
Last edited by quesonegro on Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

quesonegro wrote:In the end, isn't it mostly about trying to make it more "legit"?
I can see how this has a bearing in the classical world where authenticity is more of an agenda, but for me playing it is just about music and having fun, not abouth whether my instrument is a "real" cimbasso...
A rose, by what ever other name, is still a rose!!

//Mattis
Unless that rose is a watermellon.

An upright serpent and a 5 valve F contrabass Valve Trombone with a tuba-rimmed mouthpiece aren't even closely reated. Early Cimbasso parts are scored for that. What you determine to be the time and place to emply whichever instrument comes down to the blend scored for and what you have available, as well as the conductor's tastes (if you know them). Most tuba and bombardone parts are clearly marked as such, distinct from Cimbasso parts. But "ophicleide" (Verdi) and "Cimbasso" are pretty vague terms at times, and at times not at all vague. Late Verdi and Puccini are about the only crystal clear uses of contrabass valve trombone on the 4th part.

Some cimbasso parts will work relatively well with Euph or tuba. Some work - in my opinion, very poorly. "Cimbasso" is a term deserving of research in each work, since use of a tuba of modern cimbasso may be at times as appropriate as using a French Horn.

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by quesonegro »

I agree with you...
My point was more that since I play it in a big band and there is no precedence in that case, I can relate to it in a more or less completely free manner...as far as I'm concerned...
That doesn't mean that it's a moot point as far as orchestral work goes, quite the contrary!
I leave that to the conductors and to the people that actually have to play the parts in question :)

//Mattis
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

Amen. I love using my 'basso out of context!

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

Very nice! You sell it nicely!

I love that opera... I'd be happy if the score only included that lick and its couterpart in the beginning only. Thankfully, we get other use too : )

Tuba kills this - cimbasso's edge completes it!

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by Bob Kolada »

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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by J.c. Sherman »

Got to do that last season; it's a completely different character than a tuba (though the term "cimbasso" for La Forza may have been a valved ophicleide).
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Re: The Sound of Cimbasso?

Post by Bob Kolada »

I played it once on euphonium and once on a very small Eb tuba.


Though the first time was in a brass band and the second a concert band.... :D
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