Posted by Steve Dedman on May 15, 2001 at 14:41:23:
In Reply to: Re: Bydlo: Musicianship vs. Masculinity ? posted by Steve Oberheu on May 15, 2001 at 06:17:38:
If you listen to the original piano scoring, the solo is in the same general range of the orchestral solo. However, due to the texture of the scoring, it is very difficult to imagine a lumbering oxcart from the melody line. The lumbering comes from the plodding eighth notes in the strings behind the solo. That is the oxcart. The solo, IMO, is NOT the ox or the cart, but rather is something else in the picture. Perhaps a farmer driving the cart who, after working his fields all morning, is now headed to market and singing a long-forgotten peasant song. After all, the assumption is that the cart is seen at a distance in the first solo, is next to the viewer at the FF section at figure 42, then is receding into the distance during the second solo. Perhaps this is subconsciously why I have always liked a quicker tempo than most for Bydlo.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate the picture to see what that something else might be. By all accounts I've seen, this picture is no longer in existence, and in fact, was not even displayed at the exhibition of Hartmann's works. (http://ficus-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/mussorgsky/pictures.html) That said, I am quite sure that I have seen A picture of an oxcart in relation to this piece. I just don't think it's the original picture and all I can recall is an ox and a cart anyway.
Let the lumberers lumber. The solo has to sing to provide the contrast, and in that range, a contrabass tuba won't sell it as well as a euph. As to whether I would hand it off, that would depend on who I KNOW would do the better job-me or the tacet bone player. If s/he can play it better, let 'em! If the maestro wants me to play it, then I'd do it on a euph.
Steve "hoping I am faced with that decision someday" Dedman