Posted by Jack Kinsella on August 01, 2002 at 00:13:47:
In Reply to: Band Excerpt Help posted by John on July 31, 2002 at 20:14:39:
You may have been misinformed as to the composer of Hammersmith. The following is an idea of how Holst's Hammersmith could be played...
The Hammersmith is a very slow developing piece. The start and end of the work features an ascending and descending motif by the tuba, euph, and bone. Tuba moves the line up and passes it off to the euph and bone, which turns the line back down to the tuba. It's easier to think of this pattern as a wave. If the section of music in question could follow this pattern, performance tempo could be very slow. Pulse of each note is around 48 bpm.
Work for incredible fluidity and connection between the long tones, knowing you are part of a three-person-unison-melodic-line-team.
Hope it helps,
Jack "tone of voice is difficult to read and should not be taken as offensive" Kinsella
--also a frequent sufferer of "Band Directoritis"