[TPIN] antiphonal brass

[Andy Del]

Hi Charles

I'm not sure I have you correctly here. This is a work for two choruses,
with text, etc? Or is it a work for two instrumental choirs? I'm
guessing the first in my response...

So, in my limited experience with Gabrielli etc., I have this thought
that the instruments were meant to support the vocal lines, or, when
played alone were only instrumentalists. That said this plan sounds
somewhat odd. But each to his own. They did however, definitely use the
galleries at St Marks for antiphonal playing, there are illustrations
and documentation to this effect. (I guess it could all be lies too..)

You challenge, beside the acoustical delays and echoes will be in
getting balance, and correct diction. Rather than having aggressive
attacks, make sure the voices are placing their vowels ON the notation,
rather than consonants. Get a good grip on your Latin pronunciation if
you haven't and decide on the Italian / German issue. Make it abundantly
clear to your singers.

Technically how you conduct is going to be fun. Singers generally like
lots of emoting, and instrumentalists (esp. brass) often like a plain,
no frills beat they can see (This is a gross and OTT generalisation).
You may have to do both, but making the bras players very aware of the
text their parts are based on is helpful - maybe more so than a good
beat. If you can supply parts with text on it, even better.

Have fun!

Cheers

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: tpin-bounces at tpin.okcu.edu [mailto:tpin-bounces at tpin.okcu.edu] On
Behalf Of tnlongrifle at juno.com
Sent: Wednesday, 13 September 2006 8:15 AM
To: tpin at tpin.okcu.edu
Subject: [TPIN] antiphonal brass

Has anyone ever played antiphonal brass vs. choir? I have my finaly
conducting recital in November and we're doing a couple of Gabrieli
pieces written for antiphonal choir. I'm using brass for the coro
secondo. My question(s) is (are) this (these?): Have you seen any unique
challenges that I as the conductor ought to be aware of? What literature
of this type have you played? For what it's worth, my recital is in the
chapel at Southern Seminary, which has balconies running down each side
wall. I plan to put brass in one and singers in the other. This is
supposed to be like St. Marks in Venice, but there's some question as to
whether or not they actually did that.


Charles Priest
tnlongrifle at juno.com
http://www.geocities.com/charlestpriest