Omnibus

[Tim Conway <tpconway@ozemail.com.au>]

G'day Miners,

In line with the recent trend of doing a catch-all answer, here's my 
offering:

(1) Alternatives to GG -- Alun suggested Weill sung by Lemper. Good idea, 
and I suppose it really has to be someone with an authentic German 
accent, or someone whose surname begins with 'L', as in Lenya. But if you 
want a fabulous non-German rendition try Australia's own Robyn Archer on 
a CD called 'Robyn Archer Sings Brecht' (EMI CDC 7 47576 2). Accompanied 
by The London Sinfonietta, Archer sings not only 10 Weill songs from 
various Brecht writings but also songs by Eisler, Brecht himself, 
Umlauft, Dessau and Muldowney -- a total of 26 songs.

(2) Bach while analysing/creating -- I'm with Tim Solomon on this one. 
Bach is the worst, he's worse even than listening to speech. Potboilers 
work best for me. We have two classical radio stations here in Melbourne, 
one of them professional (ABC Classic FM), the other an amateur 
non-profit organisation (3MBS). Both run 24 hours a day and broadcast 
mainly music, much of it sounding like 'Your 100 Best Classical Tunes', 
or 'The Beginner's Primer of Classical Music'. That's exactly right for 
serious work. You know a lot of the pieces they play, perhaps have some 
in your collection, maybe don't think a great deal of them but enjoy 
hearing them now and then, and they certainly drown out other 
distractions. And when the music stops for an announcement or whatever, 
you can switch to the other station.

(3) The best Bradenburgs -- this was a thread recently on the BACH list 
(send an email with SUBSCRIBE BACH-LIST Your Name in the body to 
<LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>; I _think_ that's right -- if it's not perhaps 
some kind Bach lister who's also on f-minor can supply the correction). 
My contribution read as follows:

QUOTATION STARTS----------------------------------------------------
The first Brandenburgs I bought (in 1966 on a 2-tape set) were those 
recorded by Yehudi Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra (England) in 
1959 on, I think, an EMI label. Over the years and my travels the tapes 
deteriorated and I couldn't find a CD version anywhere. Late in 1996 I 
found a Seraphim double-CD of that recording; the number 7243 5 68516 2 7 
is on the spine of the case, if that helps, but it seems a bit too long. 
The liner notes are abyssmal -- hardly any info of value.

It's an ADD recording and EMI seem to have done little to clean it up. 
However, it has George Malcolm on harpsichord, YM plays and conducts, and 
Concerto #2 has the best piccolo trumpet I've ever heard. I don't know 
who the trumpeter is, but he's the only one I've ever heard hit the 
incredibly high last note; everyone else fudges it. IMHO, it's worth it 
for that alone, although Concerto #1 is excellent too, and the others are 
all good, not to say unusual: for example, Concerto #3 has an adagio 
middle movement that (I believe -- I'm not a musician or musicologist) is 
usually played as a small number of chords on a small number of 
instruments because that's what JSB wrote. On this version that movement 
is expanded as the 2nd movement of the trio sonata for organ, BWV 530, 
arranged by Benjamin Britten for violin, viola and continuo. Purists may 
shudder, but it sounds good to me.

BTW, legend has it that it was this version of Concerto #2 that inspired 
Paul McCartney to ask George Martin 'What the hell was that?', to which 
GM replied 'a piccolo trumpet', to which PM said 'gotta have one in my 
next song, man', or words to that effect. Anyone remember which McCartney 
songs have a piccolo trumpet in them?
QUOTATION ENDS----------------------------------------------------

The Bach list can sometimes be quiet but my message provoked a number of 
swift responses (it seems most people on the list are musicologists and 
professional players, fascinating to listen to but a bit awe-inspiring 
for a simple listener like me). 

One responder said it's a baroque trumpet, not a piccolo trumpet. 
Another, a US military trumpeter, said piccolo was right in this case 
because it is typically pitched in Bb (as in Penny Lane) and the piccolo 
is  half the length of a modern trumpet. BC#2, he added, is a 'MOST 
formidable piece' (which probably accounts for few players hitting the 
final top note). A baroque trumpet is a valveless trumpet from the 
Baroque period, nothing like a piccolo at all. So there. [That shut 
everybody up.] Another responder suggested that one could always 
programme-out the 'weird' 2nd movement of BC#3. 

Nobody suggested any L&M songs using the piccolo trumpet other than 
'Penny Lane'; however, I think there were others but haven't the time to 
go through the entire Beatles canon. I also think McCartney used the 
instrument in the music he wrote for a film called 'The Family Way', 
starring Hywl Bennett and Hayley Mills, mid-60s as I remember. Anyone got 
any facts about this, and about L&M songs with the piccolo trumpet in, as 
opposed to vague memories?

Perhaps it is the BachFest/YM version of the Brandenburgs that Bob 
Williams thinks stinks. I hope not, Bob. Although later recordings are 
clearer and more authentic, the BachFest/YM version remains my favourite. 
A number of recent interpretations also seem to muck about with the both 
the tempi and the times of various movements -- or was YM the only one 
out of step?

That's enough for now. Apologies for wittering on about a whole heap of 
non-GG stuff...oh, yes, and for not trying to offend anybody -- or has 
that brief fashion now died the death it deserves?

Tim

_________________________________________________________________
Tim Conway          mail:               Conway Consulting Pty Ltd
                                 301 Glenfern Road (P O Box 1042)
                                       Upwey, VIC 3158, Australia
                    tel:                          +61.3.9754.8544
                    fax:                          +61.3.9752.5309
                    email:              <tpconway@ozemail.com.au>
_________________________________________________________________