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Thread: Toughest music piece

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853

    Toughest music piece

    We recently got a new piece of music in our folders that is pretty difficult for me. (Thought this might be a good idea for a thread.)

    "Tulsa" [A Symphonic Portrait in Oil] (Original score by Maurice Ford - transcribed by Don Gillis).

    It's in the key of 'C' for the most part, but with numerous accidentals, triplet 16th notes and 32nd notes, it's been eating my lunch in places. Anyone else ever played this piece?

    Tulsa - Don Gillis

    What piece 'eats your lunch'?

    edited link above...
    Last edited by RickF; 11-10-2012 at 11:10 AM.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  2. Toughest music piece

    23 views and no responses? I'm not embarrassed to say Karl King's The Melody Shop gives me problems. And I truly dislike modern pieces with lots of syncopation. What Arthur calls, DAM music: Dissonant, Abstract, and Modern. Holsinger pieces come to mind, but then maybe I am talking about music I don't like?

  3. #3

    Toughest music piece

    Originally posted by: keithbarton
    23 views and no responses?
    For my part, I was too overwhelmed to answer. There are so many great challenges!

    For all the times I've played it, starting in college, I don't think I ever got totally comfortable with Festive Overture in one particular place. One of the twisty-fingered passages goes around the fingering:

    2, 1, 2, 23, 2, 1, 2

    or, with alternates:

    2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2

    If you go really fast, neither of those is all that easy because of the cross fingerings. I think if I had just chosen one of them and practiced only it I'd have been fine, but I kept changing my mind! So I never really "owned" either.

    Another candidate was Agean Festival Overture by Andreas Makris. However, I did "own" this one for a while at least - I could nail it every time. But it's darned hard and goes up to a high D concert.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
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    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853

    Toughest music piece

    For all the times I've played it, starting in college, I don't think I ever got totally comfortable with Festive Overture in one particular place. One of the twisty-fingered passages goes around the fingering 2, 1, 2, 23, 2, 1, 2 or with alternates: 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2
    I take a bit of comfort in the fact that a 'Pro' has trouble with Festive Overture too. I don't think I'll ever get it right. Even with some alternate fingerings that you and Neal Corwell outlined some time ago, I still have trouble with that one.

    Keith says, "Melody Shop". Oh yeah... that's a tough one too.

    I didn't mean to say that "Tulsa" was the only one. I only wish it was.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  5. Toughest music piece

    Wow, Festive Overture is tough. Bu the one that "owns" me is the introduction to Pineapple Poll. All the 4th valve stuff is outrageous.

    Doug
    Adams E3 0.60 Sterling bell - Prototype top sprung valves
    Concord Band
    Winchendon Winds
    Townsend Military Band

  6. Toughest music piece

    No matter what piece it is, you have to practice, practice, practice, and one piece will be difficult for me and another for you and not the same for both of us. Let it lay for a few months and you have to start all over again. Pineapple Roll, another Arthur has talked about!

  7. #7

    Toughest music piece

    Originally posted by: keithbarton

    Pineapple Roll, another Arthur has talked about!
    Hard, but easier if you know the alternate fingerings. Check out this:

    Euphonium Audition Advice

    Look under Strategies.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  8. Toughest music piece

    Wozzeck is hideous. I have nightmares about that, from the last audition. I was actually grateful not to make it through to the round where that would be asked for. Pathetic, I know. I had learned it, but it nearly killed me. And I have a horrible feeling it's going to rear its ugly head in an audition I plan on doing in six weeks' time. Aaaargh!
    I don't know the band version of Pineapple Poll, but I played it in orchestra in my double bass playing days ( before I accidentally modified my left wrist shape!), and I remember that it had monstrous runs for double bass in the opening. I may have faked a bit.
    Sue

  9. Toughest music piece

    yeah.. the 2 1 2 1 thing from festive overture kills me too

  10. Toughest music piece

    For me, its the break strain in Colonel Bogey. I find some of those fingerings awkward. I can play it straight but not to tempo, or at tempo and miss stuff. It is getting a fair amount of woodsheddin' right now.

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