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Kept a few brass players after band rehearsal tonight to read the quintet pieces - even without a horn player the charts sounded great!

Love the harmonies and voicing on Christmas Time is Here; can't wait to get that 5th part in there. We have some local tree lighting events coming up and these pieces will be perfect.

Christmas comes early to the TubeNet community - thanks to the Elephant!!

Thanks for these, Wade. It is really quite generous. The folio got a read through after regular band practice last week, and went down well with our usual quintet once our eupho player, reading the trombone parts, got over her fit of giggles on seeing "arranged by the elephant" on the front. Christmas Festival is printed and will definitely get a run next time we can get all five of us together. And then will almost certainly get played at our 2 late night Christmas Eve gigs we do.

I'm a long time lurker on here since being converted to tuba just over 4 years ago, but the generosity of this has prompted me to register just to say thanks. Also, would love to see the horn/tuba duets, if for no other reason than to stretch my Dad's horn playing a bit further...

Andrew

I printed your quintet folio to take to our church brass quintet rehearsal this evening. We read through the five pieces. What great arrangements! Even our 1st trumpet, who is very good, and usually very critical of many quintet arrangement, really enjoyed playing all five of your arrangements and kept commenting on the quality of the arrangements.

Like many churches, our church will be having 5pm, 7pm, 9pm and 11pm services this Christmas Eve. As we have for a number of years, our quintet will perform a 30 minute set of Christmas pieces (mostly religious, some secular) in the main lobby outside the sanctuary between the services. We will be including your arrangements in our sets. Our quintet asked me to be sure and thank you for so graciously providing this "pro bono" work. So, thank you Wade for this great musical Christmas present!

Duets emailed to Dad, and he just rang to say they were coming off the printer. So will definitely get a run tonight after band practice. Thanks for the articulations, I'm a big beleiver in respecting the dots on the page, so hopefully Dad and I can reach agreement on how to tackle them.

Percussion in CF may be a problem, not sure I can find a single percussionist to play all that, in fact our whole section might struggle, but will at least try without and then make a decision.

Our band is working on acquiring some recording equipment, so once we have it, will definitely get them up on here (if I can work out the technology).

Thanks again for your generosity.

Andrew

These look great! Could I be so bold as to request a trumpet alternate for the FH part on the quartet? We have a group at church that is 2 trumpets, trombone and me on tuba. These look MUCH better then the stuff we have right now.

Wade, on a scale of 1-10 (10 being crucial), where would you rate the importance of the timpani part? I agree that the percussion is important and wouldn't do it without bells, et al, but rounding up and then transporting timpani probably won't happen with my group (the rest of the percussion is fine - as a drummer, I've got that stuff around). Since the timpani doubles tuba most of the way, I'm hoping it'll fly without it.

I think the alternate trumpet 2 (or perhaps better, flugel) transposition for the horn part is valuable. I've read through most of the horn parts and they are scored in a good range for projection and clarity, but there is not a lot of relief below the staff.

My initial thought was that a Bb alternate part can be used to give the horn player a break here and there.

Great stuff here!

Mark

You rock! Don't worry, I won't even read through the ones you recommend against, there's plenty here for us without them!

Now that was a lot of fun. Ran through about half the duet book with Dad after band practice had finished the other night. I must say that I do find it difficult to play tuba with a broad grin on my face. Anyway, we only got half way before the old man chopped out, but it is 25 years since he gave away playing professionally, and has really only played intermittently since then while conducting our brass band. Consequently he found the going a bit high on the horn part. Or at least that was his excuse, maybe he was just copping out. I personally found a couple of the sharp keys pretty tough, seeing as I'm a brass bandie, read it as treble and add three sharps bass clef reader. 3 or 4 sharps is about my limit particularly when accidentals start getting thrown around. But a bit a of work and they are definitely do-able. And great fun!!!

The only other "problem" is that my wife also wants in on the act. She was an excellent Eb tenor horn player in her prime and F transposition is no real drama for her, but she currently has a cornet or flugel horn sitting in the cupboard at the moment that she gets out occasionally. I know you said above that you were pretty busy at the moment, but if it wasn't too much trouble ie not more than press a couple of keys, would it be too much to ask for a transposed horn part to Bb for flugel to try and providing the tuba line in treble clef to make those pesky accidentals a lttle clearer?

Cheers and thanks again
Andrew

Down and dirty transposition will be just fine!!!

Eb treble for the tuba part, please.

Definitely do not change a single note in the arrangement, that was the interesting bit. We'll work out the expression for ourselves. In fact, without trying to limit the target audience, I almost think these may be the sort of thing that can best be played by close relatives.

Also had a rough run of CF the other night, before we kicked the others out to tackle the duets. No percussion and short a cornet (and I haven't got the quartets printed yet - dumb) but enough in it to make us work it out. Dad even thought of a percussionist from another group that would be capable of tackling that part, so will see if she's interested. And message will go to pro trumpet player who comes home for Christmas holidays and usually comes and plays with us to make sure he packs his piccolo trumpet along with his golf clubs.

Amazing stuff, thank you again
Andrew

[quote="the elephant"]Bb trumpet transposition on 1st. Got it.
Bb or Eb treble clef for tuba?

This is easier than one of my friend here who wanted the quartet book first part for flute. I am not so good with flute and am having to pick through them very slowly for him. (I am doing the part, by the way. It is just taking me forever...)

quote]

Thank you elephant