Zampa Overture by Herold

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Yane
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Zampa Overture by Herold

Post by Yane »

Looking forward to Zampa with my community orchestra, but have a question about my opheclyde part: as written or octave down? Reading up on notation conventions for opheclyde was inconclusive. As written the part is mostly with bass trombone, which stikes me as pointless. Yes, I’ll ask my conductor, but I want the wisdom of the hive mind as well.
David

King 1241, B&H Eb, Sterling Euph, King 1250
Lake Murray Symphony; Columbia Community Concert Band; Capitol Brass; Die Lustigen Muzikanten; Seed and Feed Marching Abominable
West Columbia, SC
MTFULRUTUBA
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Re: Zampa Overture by Herold

Post by MTFULRUTUBA »

When I played the serpent part on Mendelssohn 5, I used an F tuba and played in the octave written. Worked well enough. It was a smaller regional orchestra and the conductor felt that an octave lower was too heavy. Plus, they didn't use a contrabassoon on the concert, couldn't afford it and it was cheaper to let me play it since I was already there. Since I'm the employee, I was happy to play it where ever they wanted ;)

Very cool to get to play a Mendelssohn symphony even if it wasn't exactly a tuba part.
Michael Taylor
Instructor of Tuba/Euphonium
Lenoir-Rhyne University, NC
North Greenville University, SC
Anderson University, SC
South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts & Humanities
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Yane
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Re: Zampa Overture by Herold

Post by Yane »

Thanks all for the suggestions, they were helpful. We will be doing the Mendelssohn 5 later this season, and I look forward to applying insights gained here. I am inclined to avoid switching horns, and the rest of the program sits well on Bb. I asked the conductor and his advice was “do what works”. After the first rehearsal I think I’ll do most of Zampa as written, and join the double basses softly in a few spots. It doesn’t help that the double bass section leader is also a tubist who is always ready to encourage me to crank pedal tones. 8)
David

King 1241, B&H Eb, Sterling Euph, King 1250
Lake Murray Symphony; Columbia Community Concert Band; Capitol Brass; Die Lustigen Muzikanten; Seed and Feed Marching Abominable
West Columbia, SC
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Yane
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Re: Zampa Overture by Herold

Post by Yane »

Richard Demy has a paper that changes my thinking on the subject. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67 ... adc700086/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Kudos to UNT for making this research readily available.
David

King 1241, B&H Eb, Sterling Euph, King 1250
Lake Murray Symphony; Columbia Community Concert Band; Capitol Brass; Die Lustigen Muzikanten; Seed and Feed Marching Abominable
West Columbia, SC
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