Re: Re: The President's Own


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Posted by Tom Holtz on November 12, 2001 at 16:40:05:

In Reply to: Re: The President's Own posted by John Cradler on November 12, 2001 at 10:25:09:

If John thinks I'm a master, he's been working too hard under the sousaphone while we've been gone. Truth be told, we didn't have a whole lot of 8vb embellishments on that show. Gershwin's "Cuban Overture" is mostly latin bass lines, and there's a few nice E-flat's and D's actually written out in the arrangement. The "Louis Armstrong Tribute" is all jazz bass lines. One tuba only, and I played the ink; keeping time is more important. The Mark Rogers arrangement of "South Pacific" uses the tuba very sparingly, it's mostly bass and bassoon on the bottom. We played two Morton Gould pieces; "American Salute" goes by too fast to try anything down an octave, and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" has nice stuff written out in the low octave, like the Gershwin.

Cameron is right on about the who and when of pedal tones. If it's not in tune, forget it. Myself, I've pretty much given up on low D-flat, it's like trying to get HBO without cable. Each of us have notes that don't work, and we avoid them. We don't use pedals when they aren't appropriate, and if the hall is dead (no reverb, muffled sound) the octave has little or no effect anyway. Pedals are a wonderful effect when used properly, but with a program like the one in Florida, there's not a whole lot of need for them.

Thanks for the kind words about the concert--after six weeks on the road, it's nice to see a good review! Glad you enjoyed the show.

Tom Holtz


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