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Re: Some advice please

Mahler 1's probably as suitable an introduction to orchestral playing
for a purely brass band player as any - your basic approach should be
pretty similar in a way that it wouldn't be for, say, band and the
delicate and flowery parts that Mozart wrote. The main difference
between band Bass Trombone and the generic orchestral version is that
the 'power rip' used by so many players in bands should be much less
prominent in the orchestra, which is not to say that one doesn't play as
loud - the ending of Mahler 1 requires plenty of power, particularly
from the extra (4th, solo, standing up) Trombone - but that one doesn't
play as penetratingly. Equally there are occasions when one needs plenty
of edge, but not so much volume - when playing Elgar, for example. Only
very rarely does one need to engage turbo thrusters and press the
'obliterate' button... The parts also tend to be rather higher - Mahler
1 goes up to a high (concert) Bb a couple of times in unison with the
rest of the section, and there is a nasty fp cresc. on a high A for the
whole section near the end of the 1st movement - very easy to go out of
tune on or even fall off if the embouchure isn't tight... There is
hardly anything below the bass staff in the whole symphony. For all of
these reasons, I usually prefer to use a Bach 2G mouthpiece in
orchestras, as opposed to a 1 1/4 G at band.

Bars rest - a bit of a culture shock here, I would imagine; this piece
opens with about 400 bars rest for the Bass Trombone (though again,
think of the 4th player, who comes in after 50 minutes and 1766 bars
rest; I counted it during a bored half-hour in a rehearsal once...).
Orchestral scorers - and particularly those as adept at manipulating
tonal colours as Mahler - tend to only write for the Trombones when they
specifically require their sound, which might sound obvious, but a
substantial fraction of band scoring is very crudely done, adding in
instruments simply because they're there, and the arranger doesn't want
to bore the players. The result is that symphonic orchestral playing
tends to blend periods of boredom with periods of great musical
satisfaction - what you do have to play always has a well thought out
role in the overall sound. There are plenty of cues though, so you
shouldn't get lost.

Out of curiosity, which orchestra is this? Kidlington not being so very
far from Brackley...

Dave

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