A Short Ride in a Fast Machine

trumpetnerd7 · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:21 pm Post subject:

anyone out there played this? my youth symphony is playing this in the upcoming season ( along w/pictures, mahlers 1st, and gerswhins piano concerto in F ) i got the recording, and it sounds CRAZY HARD! anyone have any comments?

-scott cook

tpetplyr · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 3:15 am Post subject:

Only: "Man, I wish I was in your youth symphony!!!!!" have fun now.

Thats a heck of a concert...

Stuart
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redface · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:09 am Post subject:

I've played the wind band version (top E's in the first cornet part). It's a fantastic piece, great trumpet soli at the end. Getting the rhythms down is the hardest bit.

308WIN · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:28 am Post subject:

Make sure you count and maybe (if you're playing first) try to use a Eb trumpet.

Rich

fuzzyjon79 · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 1:31 pm Post subject:

I have neither played this piece or heard it, but it sounds like one of those pieces that would be very fun.... anyone have a recording they would like to share?
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elbobogrande · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 2:13 pm Post subject:

This piece is incredibly cool, but it is by no means John Adams' best piece, in my opinion. If you want a good recording of it with some other good John Adams music, there's a recording called "Harmonielehre" that has Harmonielehre I, II, III; The Chariman Dances, Tromba Lontana and Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Tromba Lontana is a "companion" piece to Short Ride. It was composed around the same time and it features two trumpets. Played together, they're "Two Fanfares for Orchestra."
Have fun with this! Check out Adams' other stuff if you haven't already!
John

[ This Message was edited by: elbobogrande on 2003-07-13 03:02 ]

Jarrett Ellis · Heavyweight Member Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Posts: 649

I never heard it... anyone know where I can get a recording?
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308WIN · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 5:07 pm Post subject:

I know there's a great recording of San Francisco doing it. Look on Amazon they should have it. Short Ride is one of his better "whiz bang" pieces, most of his other stuff is quite cryptic. Another great Adams piece is "The Wound Dresser". It's scored for chamber orchestra, solo trumpet and solo baritone voice. The lyrics are from Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound Dresser". Powerful stuff and a pain to play. It has a long piccolo trumet "obligato" section in the middle. I played it my senior year. There's a great recording of Chris Gekker playing it. FWIW, I always check Amazon for anything I might be looking for.

Rich

Clarion Wind · Veteran Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 141

I played it a couple years ago. High C's number in the hundreds even in the second trumpet parts.(I'm not kidding) High E's in the 1st trumpet part follow playing at least 50-100 high C's. All I gotta say, is good luck.......

jazzsolotrumpet · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 6:30 pm Post subject:

I just downloaded Short Ride in a Fast Machine off of Kazaa, and whoa its an awesome piece. Sounds like it would he hell to play. I would love to play this piece next year, there is a slim-to-none chance that its gonna happen.

Thanks for giving me about 4 mins and 19 secs of enjoyment. Thats not counting all the times Im gonna replay it.

Best regards.

-Matt

shinytrumpet · Veteran Member Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 151

The Hartt Symphony Orchestra performed that last semester. John Adams is an incredible composer and (from what I've heard from my professor) a really good, down-to-earth man. "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" is my favorite minimalist piece. The principle trumpeter last semester used a piccolo on the part...the only issue was tuning the blasted thing. Complex rhythms to hand to a youth symphony, but if the bunch can handle it, kudos to them!

There's one other piece I believe Adam's recently received the Nobel Peace Prize for...a piece commemerated to 9/11. Can't pull the name off the tip of my tongue, but what a piece. Does anyone know it?

Matt
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MrClean · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 11:14 pm Post subject:

Goodbye.

trumpetnerd7 · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 11:33 pm Post subject:

our director knows what hes getting us into. i dont want to brag but our trumpet section is very capable of playing this piece and the others programmed. last year we played mahlers 5th, an american in paris, and the pines of rome, including john williams star wars suite as an encore. hahah after that year we are in shape for this upcoming season.
-scott cook

elbobogrande · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2003 11:44 pm Post subject:

elbobogrande · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 12:01 am Post subject:

By the way...I've never performed this piece (I read it once), but I know a few people who have (I saw them perform it in college). I specifically asked one how he played first part on it. I know he played it with another player (as in, neither played the whole thing), and I believe they used E-flats. He said he relied on the strings to take up a lot of the slack. Apparently much of the first part (not the soli section near the end, though) is unison with the first violins and other parts, so they played it at the most comfortable, natural volume they could pretty much throughout. I think the strategy was to play just loudly enough to add trumpet texture, but to allow the violins to provide the volume. I guess you could say something like, "if you know another instrument is playing your part, don't fight them to be heard. Let them do the work." They, of course, played out in the soli section and where the dynamics called for it. If you listen to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra recording of it, it sounds like they did something similar. On the other hand, the San Francisco recording is a little heavier in the brass sound.
John

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[ This Message was edited by: elbobogrande on 2003-07-13 03:33 ]

MrClean · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 9:59 am Post subject:

Goodbye.

Clarion Wind · Veteran Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 141

I like the composition in THEORY. It is good music, but is not well written if you know what I mean. Like I said I have played Short Ride, and the trumpet parts are insane, well beyond the scope of even many professional players to play with any sort of artistry. I agree with whoever mentioned that these minimalist and other contemporary composers are have gotten quite ridiculous about their physical demands upon the wind player, trumpet and otherwise, for many years now. The composers themselves either do it out of ignorance of the instrument's abilities, or blatantly ignoring what they very well know is utterly stupid to write. I have heard the line from the composers that they are "only interested in sound, and pure music, they write to the music not the musician" which is a line of bull#$% as far as I'm concerned. Other great composers through history have pushed the musical edge of sound without getting carried away, and I think many of these modern composers are either lazy, ignorant, arrogant, or irresponsible when they write this stuff. Like I said, I like Short Ride in A Fast Machine, but John Adams was one of thee above when he wrote trumpet parts like that. I've heard several professional orchestra recordings where major name trumpet players simply fuzz out on the last third of the piece.

shinytrumpet · Veteran Member Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 151

Thanks for the correction, John. I don't know what I was thinking with the Nobel Peace Prize...

I do also believe that the orchestra that premiered it was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra playing it at some outdoor grandstand.

It's a pain to keep those high c's rollin' but I believe the most meticulous part is the rhythm. I've always been taught that if the rhythm is wrong, then the notes are, considering the placement in time is off. And that's the beauty of the piece: trying to keep space and time on what's written on that ridiculous sheet of paper.

~Matt

elbobogrande · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2003 3:52 pm Post subject:

Matt,
Actually, "On the Transmigration of Souls" was commissioned for and premeired by the NYPO and a couple choirs about a week after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 events. I recommend that anyone who is interested in new music visit http://www.npr.org and search for John Adams. There's a really good streaming Real Audio interview on the archives of "Performance Today."

I'm just curious, Mr. Clean and anyone else who's played more of this technically brutal stuff, but what other pieces would you consider to be in the same ranks as SRiaFM? As it sounds, it seems that you'd rather just leave alone anything by John Adams. I'll admit that I haven't heard absolutely all of Adams' works, but I believe I've heard all of his big orchestral works and SRiaFM seems to be a bit of an anomaly. What is it about his notation that makes it such a bear to follow?
John

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[ This Message was edited by: elbobogrande on 2003-07-13 19:11 ]

shinytrumpet · Veteran Member Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 151

Last semester I played a wind ensemble piece by Schwantner called "And the Mountains Rise Nowhere"...He designed it for the Eastman Wind Ensemble back in the 1970's. That is one beast of a trumpet part, especially the first. It required wine glasses filled to certain amounts to be played by clarinet players as well as percussionists. A oil drum was filled with water to add effects in the percussion. I even got to whistle like a maniac and sing strange patterns. The meter changes were rotten to the mind and teeth grinding to look at. Actually, there were really no meter patterns, just a pulse of eighth notes (8, 7, 4, 9, 13, 2, beats...eighth getting constant pulse) that I had to follow and hope that the conductor execute them, which he did with grace!

Next to the Schwantner piece IMO is Maslanka's "Child's Garden of Dreams" and Gunther Schuller's "Symphony for Brass and Percussion," I'd say those are comparable, especially with Maslanka providing a very dark and twisted story that went along with the music. Maybe these are not minimalist (borderline atonal for Schuller), but certainly a treat (haha, right) to play. Sounded good though once I conquered my fear in playing those types of pieces. And although I could bash on it's ludicruous technicalities to perfect the piece (as well as what the hell the composer was thinking when he wrote it), I practiced it to the ground, and the performances I thoroughly enjoyed!

~Matt