The Example.
Arabian Dances (Brian Balmages, 2009) opens with a D major defective pedal chord D-A, that tubas, bassons and bass clarinet sustain in piano for sixteen bars. Then, a crescendo leads to… the full chord with the trombones adding the F sharp. It is not until bar 25 that this dominant resolves into G minor, just to return to D eight bars afterwards. To my knowledge, the rest of the work alternantes traditional Arab themes with original ones both in D major, D minor and finally G major. But this is of no interest for the purposes of this comment.
To some musicians, amateur or professional, performing these sixteen bars without breathing is possible, but exigent and tricky. The tempo marking for this initial section is 72 quarter notes per minute; at this pace, 17 bars contain 68 crotchets, which implies that the player has to hold their breath for about one minute. The crescendo leaving to the full chord in bar #17 doesn’t add up but one more difficulty to the player.
Structure as an excuse.
Unfortunately, this so demanding playing is common in many contemporary compositions for wind ensembles. The idea appears to be introducing an initial tonality with the lower instruments providing the fundamental tone. Then the introduction could be followed by either a little ternary form or a succession of narrative parts. In the first case a theme is presented in an allegro section followed with other animato passages until a moderate recapitulation and possibly a coda lead to the end. In the narrative form, there’s a succession of moods, each one corresponding to a descriptive episode, that also ends with a recap and finale. By the way, sometimes (too many, actually) the same effect can also be found in the last bars: a sustained bass note and a crescendo that leads to the end.
Anyhow the question remains: is there any alternative which, without sacrificing the desired expression, could alleviate the effort of such an increment after so long pedal notes ?
Some useful remedies.
Saving wind players from a dramatic on-stage respiratory failure could be in the hands of the composers, of the conductors or both. The indication “staggering” could be added to the score, meaning that two or more players perform alternatively the prolonged tones. Actually so appears in many works. Te support of a rolling timpani or the unison of double basses could also be of great help.On the other hand, a crescendo can also be obtained by simply increasing the number of instruments at play.
Should the composer disregard these alternatives, the conductor could aid the players by amending the original score. Here both staggering and the double basses support (when possible) come in handy helping the original players
Code.
Letters to Santa from grown-up people are rarely attended, sometimes even misinterpreted. Do not get this one wrong: Brian Balmages’ Arabian Dances is nonetheless a very estimable score although someway too demanding for some amateur players.
Todays video offer a good example of the blissful music of Michael Torke, this time the seventh number of his Psalms and Canticles (drawn from the Song of Songs 2: 10-17) and shoot, obviously, aroud spring flowers beds. Lyrics can be found here.
And finally, as the Spanish bureaucratic formula goes: Gracia que se espera obtener de ustedes, a quien las musas inspiren muchos años.
Ingenious 