Popular Post karelm 2,890 Posted March 6, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 6, 2020 Do we have any recordings of Johnny playing the trombone? I bet he was a very good player and I'd love to hear his chops. Marc, Edmilson, Fabulin and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabulin 3,505 Posted March 6, 2020 Share Posted March 6, 2020 . rpvee and Marc 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Thor 7,385 Posted March 6, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 6, 2020 No recordings exist, obviously, but it's probably the instrument he played the most besides the piano. He "fooled around" with several instruments in his youth, including cello and percussion, but he most often mentions the trombone - as in the quote above. Even if he never became a trombonist (and thank God for that!), he has indeed written some great parts for the instrument in his scores. karelm, Marc, Edmilson and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,890 Posted March 7, 2020 Author Share Posted March 7, 2020 2 hours ago, Thor said: No recordings exist, obviously, but it's probably the instrument he played the most besides the piano. He "fooled around" with several instruments in his youth, including cello and percussion, but he most often mentions the trombone - as in the quote above. Even if he never became a trombonist (and thank God for that!), he has indeed written some great parts for the instrument in his scores. Fair point. I've had many teachers mention that trombonists make great orchestrators and composers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabulin 3,505 Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 10 hours ago, karelm said: Fair point. I've had many teachers mention that trombonists make great orchestrators and composers. Why could that be, if I may ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post karelm 2,890 Posted March 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 7, 2020 On 3/7/2020 at 4:24 AM, Fabulin said: Why could that be, if I may ask? Because the trombone is based on the fundamentals and partials of each scale. So the lowest note you play in each position is the fundamental. Then in that one position you go up through the partials in what matches the harmonic series. Unlike a piano where each note is separated chromatically, the trombone has notes separated by partials and orchestrating in this way tends to be more open, clean sounding. Since trombonists understand this very well, they tend to have more open, tighter sound. Of course sometimes you don't want an open sound, you want a darker, thicker sound, but a strong understanding of these concepts helps you achieve your objectives with greater clarity. Below is the harmonic series for B flat and you'll see these are all the notes in first position. Notice how the lower notes to the left are separated by an octave, then a fifth, then a fourth, then a third...the harmonic series that is the foundation of a triad and tonality. Not only that, but the first six notes in the harmonic series below are in the exact order of good clean voicings for note doubling and spacing. If you overlapped the first five notes into a single octave, you'll get the B flat major triad. If you played through the first six notes, you'd get B flat, B flat (up an octave), F (up a fifth), B flat (up a fourth), D, up a third, F, up a third. That makes 3 B flats, 2 F's, 1 D. The third is the least doubled note in standard voicing with the root (B flat in this case) the most doubled followed by the fifth of the chord (F) and you see here that is exactly what the trombone notes are doing when played in their partial. Having a good understanding of this only helps the clarity of your voice leading. Take the opening of Close Encounters as an example, that cluster that crescendo's to C major triad for the opening reveal of the desert has only one instrument playing the 3rd, a trumpet. Most instruments are playing the C and around have as many are playing the G so this is an example of murky dissonance going to very clean, tight consonance following that same principle. Also we don't tend to overuse or misuse the louder instruments which tend to dominate. Take a listen at 4:23 here. The entire orchestra is at the same dynamic, triple forte. The entire string choir is playing the same note, G, in octaves at 4:18. That is around 72 people playing the same note and they get pulverized when just three trombones come in at the same dynamic at 4:23. A little goes a long way and having a very solid understanding of how to balance and best utilize what the big guns are used for helps the quality of your orchestration. Third, many orchestrators start from the fundamental/root/bass and work up. So if the root is solid, everything can sit nicely on top of that. If the foundation isn't great, it's going to hurt everything else. The B flat harmonic series (1st position): Bayesian, Fabulin, Molly Weasley and 1 other 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricsim88 243 Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 Anyone knows what was the ceremony Williams was attending when he made those comments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,385 Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 5 minutes ago, ricsim88 said: Anyone knows what was the ceremony Williams was attending when he made those comments? Yes, I forgot to ask that earlier. I'm also curious about that. Was it a recent event? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,890 Posted March 8, 2020 Author Share Posted March 8, 2020 7 hours ago, ricsim88 said: Anyone knows what was the ceremony Williams was attending when he made those comments? 7 hours ago, Thor said: Yes, I forgot to ask that earlier. I'm also curious about that. Was it a recent event? It was a Los Angeles trombone festival (yes, those exist) where some of his frequent performers were giving masterclasses/performances. I stumbled on this looking for local trombone festivals which feature masterclasses and such but forget exactly which one it was. He is ubiquitous in the local music scene. Such as the Debut Youth Orchestra fund raiser he was a conductor of one of his pieces and wrote a similar note for them about how much that youth orchestra meant to him type of thing. Each of these offers some limited insight into a part of his history. EDIT: I found it. https://trombonefestival.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017-itf-program-book.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricsim88 243 Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 1 hour ago, karelm said: It was a Los Angeles trombone festival (yes, those exist) where some of his frequent performers were giving masterclasses/performances. I stumbled on this looking for local trombone festivals which feature masterclasses and such but forget exactly which one it was. He is ubiquitous in the local music scene. Such as the Debut Youth Orchestra fund raiser he was a conductor of one of his pieces and wrote a similar note for them about how much that youth orchestra meant to him type of thing. Each of these offers some limited insight into a part of his history. EDIT: I found it. https://trombonefestival.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017-itf-program-book.pdf Thanks for the info! I’m going to a trumpet festival in LA in July, where Tom Hooten will be performing his concerto at the Hollywood Bowl. It sure would be great to see him there. But I’m guessing he’ll be in Tanglewood during that time. karelm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edmilson 7,266 Posted March 8, 2020 Share Posted March 8, 2020 I thought this was another person named John Williams, aside from the guitarrist, the economist, the scientists, athletes, etc., that we already know of. Molly Weasley 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabulin 3,505 Posted March 9, 2020 Share Posted March 9, 2020 . karelm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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