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Re: French Horns

On Thu, 14 May 1998, Adrian Drover commented to me:

> That's an arrangers prerogative. You listen to what everyone has to say,
> give it consideration, then use what you like best. Guess you won't be
> using many of my ideas ;-)

Good you realised I meant no disrespect.... Guess I won't, but I did
consider it... :)

> My 10tet scores are written basically for Eb trumpet/cornet, 2 Bb
> trumpets/cornets, 1 flugel, 2 horns (or tenor and baritone), 2 trombones
> (tenor and bass) and 2 tubas (euphonium and bass). This is in fact a
> double brass quintet. I believe Howard Snell uses a similar
> instrumentation in his small brass ensemble charts. My charts are very

I admit I have never seen any of these.  My tentet experience comes from
the London Brass and Just Brass Series (etc).   Russel Acott's (a /very/
big music shop in Oxford) stocks tentets from 2 or 3 other sources too. I
suppose my thought on this parelleled a recent thread - if there is a  
standard instrumentaion for the tentet, why change it? :)

> versatile in that they can be played by any reasonable 10 piece brass

I don't deny this is versatile - useful for educational groups I know.
Personally I would rather arrange for a definite combination, not a
versatile group.  Of course, comercially I have no idea which is better -
presumably you've thought this through!

> combination that you can think of. You can use as few as 1 or as many as 4
> horns, as few as 1 or as many as 5 trombones. Both orchestral and brass
> band pitches and clefs are catered for. There are actually 20 parts
> supplied to cover the 10 parts in whatever pitches are required. The
> charts are basically the same as my BB charts and are designed for those
> bands that are deficient in full instrumentation. Although I label these
> charts as 10tets, they have 2 percussion parts in addition to the brass
> instrumentation. 
> 
> My newer BB charts are written specifically for standard brass band, but
> might also be used by bands that only have orchestral instruments, which
> is what many of my American customers have asked for and appreciate. Just

I expected you'd have valid comercial reasons for what you do.  My comment
still stands that the best arrangments are done specifically for one
combination, I feel that being flexible restricts you to being merely good
(not that I doubt you are, Adrian)

> thought I'd put the record straight Alistaire. Nice of you to look in on
> my site anyway, and thanx. 

Alistaire?  I don't think anyones ever called me that before (there's so
many variants, I lose track)

> > Now the big band charts, another story... If I was buying for the OU
> > Jazz Orchestra I'd be interested.  I'd never have guessed Adrian was a
> > bass trombonist.....  Shame there's no samples of the trombone ensembles
> > online either.
> 
> Sorry 'bout that. I seem to spend so much time scoring, I don't allot
> enough time to update my website. If you need credentials, my charts have
> been played by Bones West in LA, Bay Bones in San Fransisco and other
> large trombone ensembles in the USA that have been set up by George
> Roberts and others. Some of them were also recently recorded by
> Sony/Columbia in Tokyo, played by a 100 piece Japanese trombone choir plus
> rhythm, with George Roberts and Lloyd Ulyate as guest soloists.

Don't worry, I wasn't looking for credentials, just the charts - I was
intigued as to what you'd done (I havn't done any trombone arrangments for
about 5 years.  OK, I was 16, and looking them over again embarrasses me
:)

> Adrian

-- 
  Alastair Wheeler	 
  Euphonium & Trombone				   Fundamental Brass
  Bass Trombone				  City of Oxford Brass Band
  alastair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx	http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/~alastair
  "I am following my fish"


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