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Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 2:53 pm
by UDELBR
https://www.amazon.com/Mendelssohn-Symp ... B00UB1QSCC
I've performed this several times on French tuba, and Bloke (and others!) are in luck, as
they're now available! 
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 3:39 pm
by UDELBR
That's absolutely the best thing about a salaried orchestra gig: being able to justify instrument purchases. In 15 years on the job with it, I'd played enough Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, Gounod, Delibes, Saint-Saëns, Messiaen, etc. on it to easily say the French tuba had 'earned its keep'.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 4:01 pm
by UDELBR
I know you own a 3+1 Eb, so you're already good with that setup. The 5th is just as it is on any tuba (flat whole step). The only thing that takes getting used to is the 6th.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 9:15 pm
by tylerferris1213
As my serpent teacher says about this piece, if you can distinctly hear the serpent, they're playing it wrong haha.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 1:22 am
by Snake Charmer
Mendelssohn loved the English Bass Horn, even if he described it in a letter to his sister as a "type of watering can". But at the time were more serpent players around and the contrabassoons quite underdeveloped, so he combined them to a nice bass voice, playing in octaves.
Last year we played the Reformation, I used my Ophicleide for the Serpent part. (And for the Bass Horn part in the op.24 Ouverture). The recording is quite nice...
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 8:47 am
by MTFULRUTUBA
I was lucky enough to play this several years ago in a local orchestra. I remember packing up to go home and being handed the part by the personnel manager. It worked well on my F tuba, at least, I didn't hear any complaints. I've got the part laying around somewhere...
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:13 am
by iattp
the elephant wrote:The serpent is just another gimmick. It'll never catch on with the kids.
Cool kids play the bombardon.
Dude, bombardon is so
overdone. It's so
passé.
My cousin in Williamsburg plays the
carnyx and gets all the chicks.
Step up your hipster game, yo.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:09 pm
by bisontuba
Carnyx....now we're talking.....
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 12:55 am
by Wyvern
bloke wrote:Much of the W-offered gadgetry does not interest me...and some here know that I've sworn off 6/4-ery...but the "French" tuba...I
would like to sit down and mess with one to see "what it's all about".
Joe, Are you at DC conference? If so, you will be welcome to try the French C, as well as the B&F style Kaiser BBb which is another I think may interest you...
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 9:58 am
by Donn
bloke wrote:various config's of 9' long (sure: 8' long) tuba-like instruments HAVE piqued my curiosity.
Maybe Courtois or Willson will be there with a bass saxhorn.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 10:32 am
by Wyvern
bloke wrote:
Rather than (typically) dragging my rear end and arriving at the facility just in time to get everything set up in time for the midday opening, I'll see about being an early bird this time. (Thanks very much for your invitation to try out those two instruments! ...and I prefer not having to compete - sonically - with all the other elephants, which will be herding themselves in soon thereafter...and I also prefer to not try to test instruments after the entire herd of 250 - 300 lb. elephants have raised the room temperature up to 80° - which makes it somewhat difficult to evaluate intonation characteristics.)
That sounds a good strategy!
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2019 6:32 pm
by iattp
I made a recording two years ago of me playing it on my ophicleide. I know it's not the serpent, but it's closer than a bombardon. It's still not a carnyx, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoqfVOHZazk" target="_blank
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:18 pm
by barry grrr-ero
I had no idea Mendelssohn needed to reform himself. Perhaps he wrote a part for 6/4 tuba and got in trouble with the church.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:20 am
by Yane
I am given to understand Mendelssohn was an enthusiastic Lutheran, and the 5th seems to support that view. Sadly the symphony was not performed for the event it was intended, the 300th anniversary of the Reformation. What horn to use would seem to depend on the conductor’s views on HIP and the availability of a contrabassoon.
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:38 pm
by TheTuba
barry grrr-ero wrote:I had no idea Mendelssohn needed to reform himself. Perhaps he wrote a part for 6/4 tuba and got in trouble with the church.
If the church was headed by Pope Urban the second I would reform myself too
Re: Mendelssohn Reformation
Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:53 pm
by roweenie
TheTuba wrote:barry grrr-ero wrote:I had no idea Mendelssohn needed to reform himself. Perhaps he wrote a part for 6/4 tuba and got in trouble with the church.
If the church was headed by Pope Urban the second I would reform myself too
Not clear as to the significance of mentioning Pope Urban II in this context, as he was pontiff over 400 years
before the Reformation, and over 700 years prior to the composition of the Reformation Symphony....