Two advanced questions from a composer

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fluteland
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:17 pm

Two advanced questions from a composer

Post by fluteland »

Hello.

I need a help with two cases.

1. Sing a tone and play. You will sing any pitch below or tone A. You will play the melody, in tempo q=48-66.
Is this possible? In 'piano'?
Image


2. I need to use a key / timbral trill. The tone can be the same or very close to it or any quartertone.
Is it possible in the same tempo?

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Thank you a lot!!!

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pied_piper
Posts: 1962
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:31 pm
Location: Virginia

Re: Two advanced questions from a composer

Post by pied_piper »

1 - Yes, it is possible for many players to sing (actually hum) while playing. Some players may have difficulty doing this, but it is a well documented technique and composers do write passages with the voice humming the same or different notes along with the written notes for the flute. Specific pitches will depend upon the vocal range of the player and there will be obvious differences between male and female players because their vocal ranges are normally in different octaves.

2 - It is possible to do timbral trills on some notes of the flute, but the G is a difficult note on which to accomplish this. A player with an open hole flute can raise the G pitch by uncovering a portion of the open hole G key. Unfortunately, it is difficult to do this with adequate speed to call it a trill. For the trill over the subsequent notes in your example, the A on the staff can be lowered a bit by closing/trilling some of the RH keys. The same goes for the A above the staff. The Eb is probably the most difficult and really not practical because all the fingers except the left pinky are closing keys. Opening any key will result in a note 1/2 tone or greater from Eb.
"Never give a flute player a screwdriver."
--anonymous--

fluteland
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:17 pm

Re: Two advanced questions from a composer

Post by fluteland »

Many many THANKS, pied_pipper!

2 - So it means that it is very tricky, and should be avoided? Is there any quarter-tone alternative?
I would like to get a kind of tremolo sound, but not flatterzunge or similar. Is there any way to make a such sound? Tremolo, vibrante...?

fluteland
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2014 3:17 pm

Re: Two advanced questions from a composer

Post by fluteland »

pied_piper wrote:The Eb is probably the most difficult and really not practical because all the fingers except the left pinky are closing keys. Opening any key will result in a note 1/2 tone or greater from Eb.
What about this:

2 G# | 1 3 tr2 D#

or:
Th 1 2 3 | 1 2 gizmo

or:
Th 2 3 | 1 2 tr2 gizmo

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