"The Typewriter"

New year, new post...

As the Gijón Symphony Orchestra was including "The Typewriter" (Leroy Anderson) for its New Year´s Concert, I thought it would be funny to tape a rehearsal and share this unusual experience (because of the instrument being played) with you.

The original score suggests two aditional percussionists (apart from the "typer"): one in charge of the bell, and other one imitating the carriage with a güiro. For the sake of the theatrical aspect, and for a better rhythmical fit, I decided to play everything myself. I also added some "notes" that were not on the original score, which I think make for a better phrasing.

This is the result:

Voilá... My letter to Santa is ready!

I´d like to whish you all a very happy, musical and percusive 2012.

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés

Prokofiev´s Classical Symphony.

Last October 22nd, the Gijón Symphony Orchestra played, among other works, Prokofiev´s Symphony #1 ("Classical"). As always, playing works by this composer is a real pleasure, and this article will deal with a fragment of its "Allegro con brio".

Before going on, here´s the score for that fragment (you can click on it to see it bigger):

This is the timpani part:

Estudying the score, we can see that, four bars before M (four before 20 in the score or, simply, 19 -sorry about the different editions) celli and basses play 8th notes (C-E-G-E, C-E-G-E...). The rest of the orchestra is playing either two quarter notes a bar, or a sustained note. The timpani are in no man´s land, as they sustain a long note while articulating 16th´s (no other instruments play this figure). Also, instruments playing long notes are clarinets, oboes and flutes which, in principle, are not related to timpani.

For all these reasons, my decision was to play the same thing as celli and basses do, ending my interpretation being this:

    

This is the final result (audio starts right on L), recorded live at Teatro Jovellanos in Gijón under Óliver Díaz (I´m sorry I cannot offer you a video like in previous occasions... Just audio this time):

As you already know, I´m in favor (always with a deep knowledge and the utmost respect for Music) of modifying the parts.

What do you think about this edition?

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés