Posted by bl. on March 08, 2004 at 15:14:52:
Another tuba player on this list and I (in two different cities) both played the Mendelssohn "Midsummer Night's Dream" music this weekend.
Both of us were concerned about our somewhat high pitches (half notes, in slow-moving scales), our double whole note two-pitch solos, and some fairly high jumps (again, in half notes) of the interval of the ninth.
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A few feet away, string players were playing seemingly endless lightning-fast passages in perfect unisons and at perfect pianissimi...all of this as near strangers who fly in - literally from the four corners of the country - to throw these concerts together once a month.
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As (I believe) Ronald Bishop was once paraphrased as saying, "I am in continual awe of string players."