MalinTrumpet

Hi Ed:

I'm performing the Telemann Concerto in a few months. How do you get through the first movement because there are NO RESTS?

The other movements are very playable for me.

Thanks,


Larry

PS: I really loved the Chosen Vale concert this year. The most enjoyable yet.

sdfbailey

Just keep playing it until you get there!

If you're playing it on the piccolo, it can be very hard work. You may find, oddly, that it's easier to get through on the D trumpet. This is probably something to do with the D trumpet having less resistance than the piccolo - I'm not sure.

Try playing the movement on a bigger trumpet (Bb!) to make it harder for yourself - you may find you can get through it on the piccolo when you return to it.

Also, and this may sound like crazy advice, but try it in a higher key. If you can get through it in your practise room in E or F, then you'll have no worries getting through it in D on the concert platform. I used this strategy when I last did the Brandenburg a few years back, and it really worked.

Best of luck.

SB

trumpetnick

How about practicing it on the big B flat trumpet in a higher key? No, thanks - I am not Maurice Murphy

__________________
Spada Bach B flat 72, leadpipe 2L/DWMM1.5C
Spada Bach C 256, leadpipe 2LQ/DWMM1.5C
1956 Olds Ambassador Cornet
Spada Custom Piccolo

If you don't know where you are going, you 'll end up someplace else

sdfbailey

I think you need think before you post Nick. I'm not Maurice either, but I can play the Telemann on the Bb in the comfort of my practise room without needing a truss or an aqualung!

Good trumpet players can play their highest note on whatever trumpet they play, be it a Bb or a piccolo. Bigger instruments have closer harmonics in the high register, and less resistance because of their length.

Consequently, it stands to reason that any trumpet player capable of playing this piece on the picc, should at least get close to playing the piece on a D, or even a Bb. Intonation will be tough, but not impossible - we're talking about a high Es and F#s on the Bb for this piece. I'm sure a good player like you (I've seen the repertoire you talk about in your other forum posts, I know you know how to handle a trumpet) can get those notes in a classical circumstance.

Musically, of course, you'd never perform this concerto on a modern trumpet bigger than a D (and that would be ambitious), but that's not what I'm talking about - my post was offering tips on how to practise the piece.

Thanks.

trumpetnick

Everyone of us has his approach to learning those baroque concertos some of which require owning the stratosphere and other like Telemann's have some rather long phrases and bits with no rests. I occasionally do practice baroque stuff with a big (B flat or C) trumpet with my piccolo mouthpiece.

Though this is an advice I heard first from Maurice Andre I recently begun to doubt in its usefulness (or at least how useful is to me) - playing piccolo is so different (resistance, breathing even tonguing may be so different) from those big trumpets that sometimes the time spent on them for a piccolo piece seems wasted to me. As for Telemann - I find that make everything to sing (phrasing and sound wise) is much more challenging than the endurance issue. Still the original question was about stamina...

Your approach still may work for some, but if I wanted to increase my ability to play piccolo trumpet for a long time (or long phrases) I would simply spend more time on the piccolo and try to optimize my embouchure and breathing for the piccolo playing. Some Clark or Arban may do wonders...

I can see the reason of playing a concerto in a higher pitch...But it is difficult for me to imagine to play the whole Brandenburg in a higher pitch...May be I will get there one day, but as for now I am still struggling with that concert C in the 1st movement.

__________________
Spada Bach B flat 72, leadpipe 2L/DWMM1.5C
Spada Bach C 256, leadpipe 2LQ/DWMM1.5C
1956 Olds Ambassador Cornet
Spada Custom Piccolo

If you don't know where you are going, you 'll end up someplace else

MalinTrumpet

Thanks guys:

I found a tempo that I can play the 1st movement comfortably and I'm gradually decreasing that tempo. It's working.

I can play all the notes on my Bb, C and D but I tend to shy away from practicing on the bigger horns because they don't sound very beautiful. I also tried playing it up a whole step. Nothing seems to work as well as finding a comfortable tempo and increasing my level of comfortability while playing it slower.

I first tried it on my Benge piccolo that I enjoy using in the orchestra. I changed my mind and went to the Schilke which just seems to be a better instrument.

LCM

sdfbailey

I haven't played the piccolo seriously for a few years now - mainly because I wasn't getting much work on the instrument, and also because my old Courtois instrument was falling apart.

I was asked for the first time in a few years to play 1st in a Christmas Oratorio on the modern trumpet (I play a lot of natural / baroque trumpet these days) and ended up doing it on the D because my piccolo playing sounded truly, truly awful, and I didn't have much time to fix the instrument, or me. My Yamaha D proved to be ideal for the job - all three of us used Ds, and it sounded great - tuning was much easier than it would have been with a mix of piccs and Ds. I'd do it again - in fact I did JC Bach Magnificat on the D more recently.

Nick's point is entirely correct - you've got to practise piccolo to get good on piccolo. Nevertheless, hours of picc practise can really hurt, and using other instruments to get your chops set up there can really help.

As for tempo in the first movement - there are many, many interpretations and extreme examples out there. Andre did a very slow recording, as did Smedvig, and there may be slower out there. Reinhold Friedrich's is somewhere in the middle, and Gabor Boldoczki's is on the quicker side (and no worse for that). Niklas Eklund's nat recording is my personal favourite I think. You're right to find the tempo that works for you and stick with it.

Best of luck.

ecarroll

Hi Larry,

Sorry to be slow in responding.

Have you ever heard me talk about something I call "the Telemann Concerto Syndrome"? In short, it reflects the condition when a performer on this, or any other, piece sounds great on the opening phrase, sounds like crap by the end, and blames it on fatigue instead of imbalance.

Don't fall into the common trap of breathing after each short episode in the middle. Adding new air on top of un-exhaled old causes a tremendous amount of tension in the upper body -- a feeling not unlike swimming underwater. Play longer phrases.

Best and great to see you and Marty at CV,
EC