Quote:
Originally Posted by cornetguy  hi manny and all
saint paul civic is doing till eulengpiegel (sp?) there is the spot marked gestopf. i have recordings that they are just using straight mutes and others that they are doing hand on bell. what is usually done in that spot? |
The true gestopft sound is a brassy sound. The folks that merely put their hands over the bell are wrong. A modern mute is probably closer to the right sound. Attempting a true gestopft sound is certainly possible but hardly worth the effort. You can reach around, jam your hand in the bell, transpose down half a step (or up, I forget which way right now, it's late) and get a fairly accurate rendition of the correct sound. It takes a lot of practice to just be able to nail it the first time in concert. I don't know anyone who can nail it on the first try but, what the heck, if you want to invest the time, why not? Just get the section to buy into the idea of practicing it so it's in tune and spot on and you'll have a "new" sound. It comes in handy for Mahler symphonies also.
For the rest of you: you're not allowed to write in and argue with me until you've played the section he's talking about as marked
in performance. That would be a concert G# above the staff fortissimo, in tune, and without missing. The same goes for your section.
ML