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Copland's Quiet City



 
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Oncewasaplayer
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 7:19 am    Post subject: Copland's Quiet City Reply with quote

In the March 30, 08 edition of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, the paper interviewed conductor Michael Christie about his upcoming concert with the NY Philharmonic (he's filling in for Ricardo Muti).

Christie (who conducts the Phoenix Symphony) began as a trumpet player and spoke about how Phil Smith was a big hero of his when he was in school. After a recent rehearsal, Smith told him that when he recorded the Copland Quiet City with Bernstein, they laid it down in the last 25 minutes of a recording session, almost as an afterthought. (Christie had Smith sign his cd cover of the recording.)
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Derek Reaban
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Paul,

Thanks for posting that. Interesting stuff!
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Fin Du Monde
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is a great story. Neil Balm's excellent recording with the New York Chamber Symphony was done in the same way. End of the session, almost and afterthought.
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PremierBrass.org
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 2:28 am    Post subject: Compare recordings Reply with quote

When I was attending the New England Conservatory in 1971, I created a tape of

Mundy's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armando_Ghitalla) and

Roger's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Voisin)

"Quiet City" and played it over and over again.
These were live performances (not recordings).

There was so much chatter of the Mundy/Roger differences. I never understood it. What the tape confirmed to me was that each of them played parts of the piece with incredible musicianship, character, and uniqueness.

After it all, I took high value from BOTH of their performances and decided right then and there never to play the "FAMILY FEUD".

It's a great way to approach your own performance development.

Try it!

You'll like it!
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jonboywilks
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Herseth was recently at Rice University in Houston. He had a wonderful story regarding Quiet City. He has a whole BUNCH of amazing stories about all of these amazing people that he knew well and worked with. He was talking about playing Quiet City with Copland listening on; he told the small audience that Copland took him aside afterwards and said, "now I know who I wrote that piece for." ... or something along those lines. WOW! What a compliment!

Someone else in TH posted that in a performance of this BH had to take 3 curtain calls. Any recordings out there of Mr. Herseth performing this?
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Phil Collins
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Advantage of recording it as an after thought - no anxious fore thoughts! It should sound that way. Good strategy by the management. I wish we had recorded it unannounced.
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Trumptrevol
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There actually is a video broadcast of Herseth playing Quiet City. Esteban Batallan posted a video on his Instagram story of it.
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tubbs831
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just saw the IG clip and have been searching the internet to see if I can find the whole thing. Hopefully, it will surface one day. Herseth's sound was so sweet in those days.
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Trumptrevol
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

tubbs831 wrote:
Just saw the IG clip and have been searching the internet to see if I can find the whole thing. Hopefully, it will surface one day. Herseth's sound was so sweet in those days.


Yea, I think it was from the “great music from Chicago” series with WGN. So if we find a date and who the oboist is, then someone can probably track it down.
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dstpt
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The reanimation of this 15yo TH thread spurred me to do a web search for...

"copland quiet city trumpet part .pdf free"

I own a copy of the J. Brodbin Kennedy arr. for English Horn (or Oboe), Trumpet, and Piano and performed it on a recital years ago. The top result in my search was this arrangement, which saves me from having to scan my own copy to put on my iPad:

https://pdfcoffee.com/copland-aaron-oo-quiet-city-piano-score-english-horn-part-oboe-part-and-trumpet-part-7-pdf-free.html

The second search result is a Boston University Libraries link to a copy for "Eb Trumpet" that Roger Voisin had done in hand manuscript:

https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/14614
========
Description
Trumpet part for Aaron Copland's "Quiet City," copied out and annotated by Roger Voisin for use in performance. Top right corner signed by Copland: "For Roger Voisin who plays this like a dream. A Copland 1957."
========
I'd never considered playing this on Eb tpt, but particularly if you're ever asked to record it at the end of a session as an afterthought, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea!
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Lawler Bb
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Phil Collins wrote:
Advantage of recording it as an after thought - no anxious fore thoughts! It should sound that way. Good strategy by the management. I wish we had recorded it unannounced.


Regardless of when and how you recorded it, your recording is my favorite.
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Neil Mueller
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 10:46 am    Post subject: Quiet City anecdote Reply with quote

Just noticed this discussion and, as I'm playing the piece with our university orchestra in a couple of weeks, was interested in these comments and anecdotes. I love all of the recordings mentioned (and thanks for your performance, Mr. Collins - great!). I'll add Tim Morrison's with Boston Pops and John Williams as being another wonderful one.

About 10 years ago, I was able to interview Harry Herforth (who played in both Boston and Cleveland, and taught for many years at Kent State) and published an article about his life in the ITG Journal.

Harry was a student at Tanglewood in 1940, the same summer that Aaron Copland was there and living in the same dormitory that housed the students, and he told this story:

Once I was practicing slurring octaves, with a big crescendo on the low note follow by a subito piano on the top note. He popped in and said, ‘Harry, that’s really interesting…is it difficult?’ I said, ‘It’s very challenging!’ He asked me to do it a few more times… he was really interested in that. It turns out he was working on Quiet City at the time and, of course, that gesture shows up prominently in that piece.

This is the exposed moment right before the return to the opening music. I don't think there was anything like that moment in the original incidental music (1939) from which Copland took material for the trumpet/english horn/strings version but I could be wrong.
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