We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:

Search the site Search

No Problem.

February 7, 2013 at 6:35 AM

Tweet

Make sure someone will wake you up before you have to come in, and watch out for the change from forte to mezzo-piano in the fourth measure.
At least it's in a friendly key signature. Just keep that intensity coming! Maybe you could count out loud.
I always wondered what the sheet music for John Cage's "4:33" looked like.
Charlie - I bet in "4'33" the time signature was 6/8.
Hilarious!
Cage's 4'33" isn't in 6/8; it's a waltz in 3/4. See http://thesession.org/tunes/2399, where you can also download the sheet music. It's in the key of G-dorian, although my considered opinion at the time was that it should be E-locrian. Today, I'd be happy to settle for D-minor or even F-major.

[edit added] A learned contributor on the above linked website pointed out a few months ago that it is the first movement of three, the others being a hornpipe and a jig. The evidence surely must be that recently discovered 11th century parchment in the Monastery at Melk, which is believed to be the earliest known example of a music manuscript written in invisible ink.
Trevor - I was joking, but thanks for the link.
Is that a viola cadenza? :-)
Not with that kind of intensity, it's not.
Glad the bass-clef part isn't too challenging...
Out of interest, what cello concerto is it? In any event, from what I can see of the score, with those frequent changes of time signature, careful counting in a page of rests is of the essence. Don't rely on the section leader, or even the conductor.
Amazing! Don't forget to sell the intensity with your face as you rest.
It's the Dorman concerto. The conductor writes that it "will require some slow practice and wood shedding on your part individually to master these rhythms."

And yes, I've been practicing it carefully.
I suppose the question is: Do you actually have to play after all those rests? :) The person who can count rests best is the most valuable person in the section, yes?
In actuality, the second page is quite incredible; I'm taking it very seriously. (In case any section leaders or maestros happen to be reading...;) )
I've just googled "Dorman Cello Concerto" and, lo and behold, its World Premier performance is February 23, 2013 with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. No wonder I couldn't find it on IMSLP :).

I hope it all goes well Emily - I've recently played in a couple of premiered performances, one of them a doublebass concerto, so I've some idea of what these occasions are like - and I'm sure we look forward to a blow-by-blow account here when it's all over.

I guess that means I can't cheat by looking up a recording...
Dorman Concerto or Dormant Concerto? :o|
The doublebass concerto I referred to above was rehearsed and conducted by the composer. A few weeks before the concert he gave everyone in our orchestra a CD in MIDI format of the piece to help us with the complex rhythms - in one movement in particular no two successive bars have the same time signature. He used Sibelius to compose it, so it was no problem to provide a MIDI version. MIDI sounds dreadful of course, but it really did help with understanding the structure.

Incidentally, why is it that some modern composers go out of their way to make things that little bit more difficult by changing time signatures every bar or so? And I don't mean 3/4 to 4/4. I can cope well enough with Eastern European rhythms such as 11/16 because they are intimately connected with folk dancing, and are obvious when you see the dance, but the purpose of the rhythmic structures of some modern art music does elude me.

I must abstain from further public comment regarding modern composition.