Cornet Sound!

[dafyddapiago]

Are cornet players sacrificing the quality of sound for technique?

Having read on a number of threads that some cornet players sounds are getting hard and harsh; it reinforces something I’ve felt for a while. It also set me thinking, who or what is responsible for this deterioration in the quality of sound.
Is it the players themselves wanting to play a million notes to the square inch!
Is it the teaching they are receiving!
Is it conductors demanding them to play louder and louder!
Is it modern composers who write hard angular aggressive music, and have great difficulty in writing a romantic melodic line!

Or am I going deaf in my old age?

Dafydd ap Iago

[James McFadyen]

dafyddapiago said:

Is it modern composers who write hard angular aggressive music, and have great difficulty in writing a romantic melodic line!

Dafydd ap Iago

YES - IMHO some composers are to blame, there really is no need for robot music, that's no test, anybody can wiggle their valves fast!

IMHO, a real test is to play with grace and emotion, to move people and to play a god damn melody. Too many composers are selling-out to the sport of banding and it really isn't doing anything for the standard of playing.

For me, a good melody and lots of musical sounds will enable players to test their cornet sound to the limit, making them play with refinement, instead of like robots.

[smaca]

Another great topic Mr J; you always seem to raise points that encourage participation.

I am not sure of what the teaching techniques are at school, or at the colleges for that matter(Salford etc), but my teacher from a young age always encouraged lots of slow melodies and expressive playing.He himself is a great cornet player(James Smith) where one of his assets was his sound.He recently entered a solo contest after years of not playing, and won both the slow melody and air varie.I presume the adjudicator liked what he heard, and not how many notes he could cram into 5 mins of playing.

There was a recent article on 4bars rest by Sandy Smith who more or less was saying the composers today need to think again on what kind of music they are composing, and in a round about way was suggesting the movement would benefit more from writing material with a melodic line. Here is some of what he said;

So a plea to all composers vying to get their latest opus used at forthcoming contests - get away from the formulaic, rapidly changing rhythmic cobblers with inevitable euphonium cadenza covering a range that only dogs and blue whales can hear.

Don't try and write a test piece, just write well structured interesting music which doesn't sound like it has various "tricks" shoe-horned in to tick all the "test piece" boxes.

[Sharpy]

Im with you Stuart, couldn't agree more mate!!

For me personally it doesnt make one bit of difference how good your technique is if you sound like kazoo! If it doesnt sound nice then I wont listen too it. Sound is the key!! Although if you dont have any technique to back up the sound its a bit of a waste.

This is a bit of a chicken before the egg type poser really! Do you need a good sound first or a good technique? Or are the two linked?

Good question Mr J!!

[dafyddapiago]

smaca said:

Don't try and write a test piece, just write well structured interesting music which doesn't sound like it has various "tricks" shoe-horned in to tick all the "test piece" boxes.

[/b]

[/quote]

I have to agree with Sandy; as I have previously stated I hate the words test piece. Surely the test is to make music of it; extremely difficult when the concept of the music is to test technique and not musicality.

Dafydd ap Iago