Difficult Concert Music

Topics centered more on music performance

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bgirl781
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Post by bgirl781 » Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:12 pm

Phantom Phan wrote:Here's a real band buster: Symphony #4 by David Maslanka. It's a fantastic piece, but it's one movement and over 26 minutes of non-stop music.
wow, and I though 1812 overture was long. That one is also pretty hard, when you have the full, difficult version at least...
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Post by Hostrauser » Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:29 am

bgirl781 wrote:wow, and I though 1812 overture was long. That one is also pretty hard, when you have the full, difficult version at least...
Eh, not really. Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave" is more difficult (and, in my opinion, a MUCH better piece) than his 1812 Overture (which, ironically, Marche Slave quotes).

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Post by cobybos » Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:53 am

Winds of Nagual by Colgrass. Played this at CSU Fullerton with Mitch Fennell. This piece is insanely difficult but very musically fulfilling. The piece has to do with a guy's adventures while on opium, lots of odd meters and a great tuned cowbell part.

Persichetti-Symphony #6. Just an overall difficult piece, especially for the percussionists. Each percussion part is it's own multi-percussion set-up. The parts interweaving is so detailed that if one of the players is off it ruins the piece. Lots of trading 16th notes at very soft volumes.

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Post by armysax » Mon Jan 31, 2005 2:52 pm

I've always thought one of the most under-appreciated pieces is Lincolnshire Posey. Playing this piece correctly, with all the little nuances is not just a challenge for the players, but for the conductor as well. Truly a masterwork.
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Post by lowbrass89 » Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:22 am

yeah my most difficult song I played was last year as a Freshman Folk Song Suite or English Folk Song Suite. Some people might think its not very challenging but try playing it with a 2nd band almost all filled with freshman. We did a great job playing it. I have to say that the most difficult part in in would have to be the 1st movement because of the woodwind thing they have in the trio im surprised they got throught it.

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Post by Schimmy » Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:29 pm

Went through this pretty quickly but I didn't see the couple of peces that I think are the most difficult. Most fo you think of difficulty in terms of playing the correct notes, but to play a piece correctly can be very difficult even if you can play the notes. The hardest piece to play musically in my humble opinion is "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" orchestrated by Calliet.

The piece that I would like the most that is insanely hard is "and the mountains rising nowhere" by Joseph Schwantner.

"Festive Overture" is a good finger bender but the really hard part is getting the upbeats together. Once you can figure that out it really isn't that difficult. Symphonic Metaporphosis is one of my all-time favorites and definitley a much harder piece to play than "Festive"
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Post by guardthepiccolo » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:25 am

i know what you mean about the upbeats. we have spent SO much time on that, it's insane. the runs are really easy, just a bunch of scales. the upbeats are sooo hard to get all together, totally agree
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Post by PGOK » Wed Feb 02, 2005 11:32 am

Phantom Phan wrote:
bgirl781 wrote:wow, and I though 1812 overture was long. That one is also pretty hard, when you have the full, difficult version at least...
Eh, not really. Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave" is more difficult (and, in my opinion, a MUCH better piece) than his 1812 Overture (which, ironically, Marche Slave quotes).
I don't know if I agree with you about the difficulty. :? I would agree that I prefer March Slave.

You probably know the following, but for the youngin's-

Tchaikowsky did not like Overture 1812. In fact some reports say that he hated it. (didn't care much for Nutcracker either) He wrote 1812 on a commission. Also in both pieces he quotes the Russian national anthem, "God save the Tsar".
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Post by Hostrauser » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:39 pm

PGOK wrote:Tchaikowsky did not like Overture 1812. In fact some reports say that he hated it.
Tchaikovsky was bi-polar and hated most of his music. A couple of his symphonies exist only because the orchestra members hid/saved their parts, and the score was reconstructed from them.

One of the few pieces Tchaikovsky was ever openly fond of was his Sixth Symphony, "Pathetique" (which means "Passionate," not "Pathetic").

On a related note, I wonder why I've never seen a band version of Tchaikovsky's "Festival Coronation March." It's an outstanding piece, and a lot shorter (at 4:30) than Marche Slave (10-12 minutes) and 1812 (12-16 minutes).

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Post by PGOK » Wed Feb 02, 2005 2:47 pm

Phantom Phan wrote:
PGOK wrote:Tchaikowsky did not like Overture 1812. In fact some reports say that he hated it.
Tchaikovsky was bi-polar and hated most of his music. A couple of his symphonies exist only because the orchestra members hid/saved their parts, and the score was reconstructed from them.

One of the few pieces Tchaikovsky was ever openly fond of was his Sixth Symphony, "Pathetique" (which means "Passionate," not "Pathetic").

On a related note, I wonder why I've never seen a band version of Tchaikovsky's "Festival Coronation March." It's an outstanding piece, and a lot shorter (at 4:30) than Marche Slave (10-12 minutes) and 1812 (12-16 minutes).
There is at least one arranged by John Boyd. I also seem to remember a second, but I don't recall who arranged it.
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Post by lowbrass89 » Thu Feb 03, 2005 1:10 am

Schimmy wrote:Went through this pretty quickly but I didn't see the couple of peces that I think are the most difficult. Most fo you think of difficulty in terms of playing the correct notes, but to play a piece correctly can be very difficult even if you can play the notes. The hardest piece to play musically in my humble opinion is "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" orchestrated by Calliet.

The piece that I would like the most that is insanely hard is "and the mountains rising nowhere" by Joseph Schwantner.

"Festive Overture" is a good finger bender but the really hard part is getting the upbeats together. Once you can figure that out it really isn't that difficult. Symphonic Metaporphosis is one of my all-time favorites and definitley a much harder piece to play than "Festive"
I agree Elsas is a difficult piece to play because its so slow you have tune the notes. Our top band played it last year for festival along with the First Suite in Eb and they did a great job with both of them especially the Trombone part at the end of Elsas man if you heard it it was in tune and was rich and full. Yeah the only thing that screwed up was the oboe player in the begginig of Elsas wwith her solo but besides that they got a supeior and were the first band to get a superior for 2 days. Only 3 supeeriors were given and Loara was one of them.

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Post by lowbrass89 » Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:24 am

yeah I dont know if you guys ever played of heard of Symphonic Movement but its a really challenging piece. Its a AA song and there a whole mess of off beats so you have to be good at subdividing the beat or else this song wont work out. Well for whoever else plays it for festival besides us good luck with it.

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Post by Jakob der ludner » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:13 pm

Anybody here ever play or heard of Statement by Brent Heisinger? Weird piece that one. Half the piece is weird instructions to do stuff for effect (I mean, there's more than one place where it just asks you to play a random rhythm, and a few places where the indicated notes were in "relative places in the measure"), and we have to SING *groan* Our director just presented it to us this year, since festival is still a while away, and we have something else to look over besides our festival pieces. Also, I was wondering where a recording of this piece might be obtained? I would very much like to hear it put together.
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Post by EMT-911 » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:12 pm

I would have to say Joyant Narrative, by McBeth
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Post by Mallet_Mike » Mon Mar 21, 2005 8:58 pm

One fun and hard one is Joe's Last Mix by Tanner Menard. It's one of those 'every instrument is doing something different at all time' deals, sort of like Toccata Marziale except more modern

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