Word: trumpet
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...group of soloists rather than the modern symphony's big, anonymous cushion of sound. The woodwinds are changed from the way we know them: the oboes and bassoons, like the strings, are sharper and brighter; the flute is much softer. The brass is an entirely different world. The baroque trumpet, producing notes only by the natural overtone series without the aid of valves, has a brilliant, searing sound. All in all, the baroque orchestra is a gathering of strikingly individual voices, quite the opposite of the contemporary orchestra...
...production number is a musical setting of the 150th Psalm, which must have been a first for the Copa. Wearing a beaded vest over blue satin shirt, Doc conducts and plays while a thunderous offstage voice intones, "Praise ye the Lord, /Praise him with the sound of the trumpet." Later he reminisces about childhood days in Arlington, Ore. (pop. 686), gives a brief recital on musical spoons, and reveals that his clothes are not hand-me-downs from Liberace's wardrobe, but are often sewed by his wife...
Among the other treasures: crystal flutes; a ceramic horn from Germany, painted with blue flowers and glazed; fish-shaped slit drums from Japan; 5-in.-long fiddles that 18th century dancing masters carried in their pockets; Indian randsringas, a form of trumpet (left); New Guinea bull-roarers (wood carvings designed to roar when swung over the head on a string); and walking sticks that unfold into violins for instant serenades...
...only flaw in programming was the dull Bach Cantata No. 51. Not even a magnificent trumpet obbligato part could redeem the initial aria. Joan Heller, the soprano soloist,' has a beautiful voice remarkable for its evenness. Her diction was good and one could only wish for more variation in dynamics. It was a mistake to use a harpsichord against the full string body: Gerald Moshell pushed the instrument as much as possible and all it produced was a distracting non-tonal jangle. With smaller forces, though, it was quite adequate; and the continuo playing included some appropriate ritards...
...only cut that doesn't really get it together is "Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead", an old Marvelettes number on which the backup band never quite seems to find their groove. The album closes with "Women Be Wise", a Sippie Wallace blues that features truly demented piano and trumpet solos. (The piano player sounds like Erroll Garner with a stomach ache...