Hey, I hope you all can help me quickly, I forgot that I could ask this question on here. For my college placement auditions (for symphonic band and orchestra) people who want to audition for piccolo, have to play Bolero. So, here is the question.
Should I play as soft as possible w/o vibrato (as it should be in an ensemble) or slightly louder with vibrato (as it should be in an important solo)?
My teacher thinks I have a really good shot at the piccolo part. I have a really nice wood picc, and I can play as soft (with good tone, and tuning etc) as she can, and she is the piccolo in the Louisville Orchestra (the big orchestra around here).
Help would be much appreciated. Auditions are tomorrow night at 9pm eastern time. I can play it both ways, I just want to know everyone's opinion before the audition.
Bolero
Moderators: Classitar, pied_piper, Phineas
Piccolo playing
fluteguy,
I would go for a light vibrato, playing not so loud, because anyway you would not be playing inside a whole orchestra. Therefore is no need to make a loud sound, but it's still important to show expression and to maintain the color of the phrase.
Zevang
I would go for a light vibrato, playing not so loud, because anyway you would not be playing inside a whole orchestra. Therefore is no need to make a loud sound, but it's still important to show expression and to maintain the color of the phrase.
Zevang
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fluteguy18
- Posts: 2311
- Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:11 pm
Picc solo in Bolero - not really a solo per se
Hi, I realize that this is a bit late for your audition, but this info could help you in the future.
When you are about to study an orchestral excerpt, you should listen to various recordings of the piece in question. A good way to do this is to subscribe to an online service such as Rhapsody.com or Naxos.com so that you can listen at your leisure and burn CDs if necessary.
Then you can find out what sort of consensus there is (if any) for the performance of the excerpt.
For example, you will notice that the picc solo part in Bolero is a bit weird. It has the two piccolos reinforcing different harmonics of the fundamental which is played by the French horn.
A balance needs to be achieved by all three instruments. For the piccs, a blending sound is necessary to keep from overbalancing the French horn.
It's a weird effect. It basically should sound like an organ stop when executed successfully.
Hope this helps.
When you are about to study an orchestral excerpt, you should listen to various recordings of the piece in question. A good way to do this is to subscribe to an online service such as Rhapsody.com or Naxos.com so that you can listen at your leisure and burn CDs if necessary.
Then you can find out what sort of consensus there is (if any) for the performance of the excerpt.
For example, you will notice that the picc solo part in Bolero is a bit weird. It has the two piccolos reinforcing different harmonics of the fundamental which is played by the French horn.
A balance needs to be achieved by all three instruments. For the piccs, a blending sound is necessary to keep from overbalancing the French horn.
It's a weird effect. It basically should sound like an organ stop when executed successfully.
Hope this helps.