rberndtpt

Hello, I am having a hard time getting the 2 sixteenth/eigth with the turn up to tempo with the rest of the piece. Any suggestions? if i double tongue i have a hard time making the 16ths sound clean. using my E trumpet. thanks for the help.

Ryan

bigaggietrumpet

just where exactly are you talking about?

trumpetpimp

He's talking about the beginning of the third movement.

It sounds like this question isn't really specific to the Hummel, it just deals with your double tongueing. Like most things on the trumpet, start at a medium to slow tempo where you get the sound and feel you like and hike of the metronome up a few beats until you're where you want it. It takes a lot of dedication to do this method, I usually get bored after a few days or forget about it, but that's really the best way to do it. I have a euphonium player friend that did that for a year with the Carnival of Venice and although she's a good player the only reason she can play it is because she put the time in with a metronome.

Good luck.

Manny Laureano

Actually, isn't he talking about the last section of the Third movement? (Tu-tu toodle la, tu tu toodle la.)

Try two things: If you wish to single tongue it, you would best go to your Arban's and hit 148, all twelve of them, at about 112 to the quarter. If 112 is too fast, well there's your problem. Work that page and others like it until you can do it at 112 up and down.

If you wish to get a cleaner double tongue in this particular context, go to Arban's characteristic study number 5 and do it with the double tongue at about 120 as a goal. Start slower and go faster until you hit 120.

Hope that helps but iffen it does, it ain't gonna be overnight.

ML

rberndtpt

Hello, Sorry I wasn't clearer everyone. Mr. Laureano you were right on. Thanks and I practiced 148 today. that is what will do it. Do you prefer the single or double tongue method for the end lick? I just want to say I have looked up to you as a teacher and player ever since I attended your master class at St. Cloud St. a couple of years ago. A day I won't forget!

Thanks everyone,
Ryan

trumpetmike

How fast are you playing the last movement?

When I first came across this piece I heard a recording where the performer (can't remember who it was) took it very fast, double tongueing was the only option. Since then I (like most players) have acquired a mass of recordings and have noticed that not everybody takes it that fast, especially those who are playing the piece in an "historically informed" style of playing - even more especially when they are playing on a keyed trumpet.
Admittedly my single tongue is quite quick, but I have now taken to using the single tongue as my preferred way of articulating the final, movement. I find that a little less tempo can produce a more musical performance. I have heard far too many performances of this piece which become a pyrotechnic display, with not a shred of musicality involved. It doesn't have to be a race to the finish.

Well, I don't think it does

bigaggietrumpet

I believe the performer may have been Wynton. He absolutely FLEW through movement 3.

ScreaminRaider

hmmm, that would be quite interesting to hear it a little slower than usual. I say go for it.

Manny Laureano

As usual, Mike, you're dead on.

There seems to be a confusion between the classical "Allegro" and "Presto'. Too often, in my opinion, is the last movement of the Hummel performed like "The Flight of the Bumble Hummel". It loses the brilliance brought on by a sort of joyful elegance and grace if one were to play it about 132. Less is definitely more in this case.

To be fair to Wynton, he's not the only major artist to play it too fast. There's a recording with Maurice Andre with Van Karajan and the Berlin Phil that is surprisingly brisk. So is the one with Jerry Schwarz.

Also, how many of you bring the pace down a little at the second, minor theme? This was an idea given to me by a conductor named Henry Holt when I was asked to play it at a bunch of young person's concerts. I liked it! It's also a standard thing to do when interpreting a classical symphony. Not everytime, of course, but when it seems it right, it works nicely.

Oh, and hey... when I play it I put in two cadenzas, one a the end of the first movement just before "the walk up the stairs" and in the last movement just before the return to the major key. If you let the strings play that little dotted quarter and eighth figure with the resolution to the measure where the trumpet enters, it turns out to be a dandy little dominant chord that you can have them sit on with a fermata. They cut off, and off you go with a cadenza! The end of the cadenza works in the final lick to the major.

It's fun. Try it if you have a performance of the Hummel coming up and you want to do something different.

ML