ITG Conference 2004 - Monette, Patrick, and Manny

[Derek Reaban]

Given the very large audience at the ITG conference, the prominent Monette artists in attendance, and the new horns and mouthpieces that Dave brought to the show, there was an impromptu master class arranged for Thursday afternoon at 3 PM. I have read about these classes in the past from Monette newsletters, and was anticipating a fantastic experience.

When I arrived at the room, it was nearly full and I was fortunate to find a seat in the second row (the room, with a stage, seated around 75). Since this was a last minute presentation, the players had little time to organize their thoughts, which added to my overall experience!

After an introduction by Dave Monette, Patrick Hession (lead trumpet with Maynard Ferguson) was the first to speak and play. What an absolute powerhouse! After his opening line on his new Monette Prana equipment (literally pushing the walls back), he said, “Any questions?” That got a great laugh! He discussed some pedagogy concepts and then modeled his ideas. He also mentioned that he typically doesn’t speak at master classes with Maynard, so this was something new for him.

What I found most interesting was what happened after he spoke. Since this was an impromptu talk, he hadn’t prepared any musical “examples”, and since he didn’t have any music with him on stage, he had to pause for a moment and consider what he was going to play. During this process he would quickly try to remember a specific phrase by playing a few notes in the low register. When the light bulb went on, you could tell that his internal mental image was firmly in place. Fueled with his imagination and a large relaxed breath, the idea would come to life, and literally, every time, energize the entire room with his powerful playing! He looked like Maynard when he plays!

Dave asked Patrick if he could share a story about one of his most exciting times on stage with Maynard. After a few seconds he got a smile on his face and in preparation for the story said that he covers the “Maynard” book, so anytime Maynard chooses not to play, he covers the part. He said there is one tune that has an extended percussion feature that lasts about 10 minutes. After this, Maynard has an absolutely screaming high melodic solo. At the concert, Patrick was standing, enjoying the percussion feature and then watched as Maynard started to tank up with air to play the solo. In the middle of the breath, Maynard’s arm swung out and pointed RIGHT AT PATRICK! Talk about finding himself in the hot seat! He said he just grabbed a quick breath and the part happened without any thinking. He played it for us after an extended period of trying to remember the tune (I’m glad that happens to all of us!). He was simply amazing!

I know that Patrick monitors this list and is selling a book, so if he wants to add more details here, that would be great. Since I’m more slanted to the orchestral side, I want to get to the next half of the presentation.

Dave introduced Manny Laureano (Principal Trumpet, Minnesota Orchestra) and Mike Thompson (Principal Trumpet, Lincoln Nebraska Symphony) for the second half. This was a pure treat, and something that I will remember for a long time.

Manny talked about practicing many hours a day when he was a kid. He recalls a friend bringing over a record of Raphael Mendez and falling in love with his sound. He said that to this day this solo line is ringing in his head! And then he demonstrated what he was hearing. What a sound! He went on to recall that when he plays the opening to Mahler 5, the sound of Mr. Vacchiano is also strongly ringing in his head, which he also demonstrated. Then it got very interesting. An individual’s sound if first developed by fueling the imagination with many different fantastic sound models. He said he spent countless hours listening and memorizing all of these symphonic works as a student. He said, “Now, based on a CSO recording, Mr. Herseth would begin Mahler 5 like this” and then his playing took on a completely different character. He then recalled the Roger Voisin recording, yet another completely different musical product came out the bell.

Manny said that Maurice Andre came to Minnesota many years ago and had heard great things about the Monette horns and asked to try Manny’s instrument. He was shocked when Maurice played the opening to Mahler 5, instead of the standard solo literature that he always performs. And he said it was just fantastic. So, we were then all treated to the sounds of Maurice Andre that were in Manny’s head as he once again played the opening to Mahler 5. He commented that he would really have enjoyed hearing Maurice lead a section with an orchestra (it was that good).

Then someone in the back of the room said, “How does Manny Laureano play it?” Manny said, “Well…Let’s find out”. As you would guess, it was a composite of all of those sounds, and commanded a strength and confidence that is what you would expect from a true artist!

This is a good place to break this into the second part of Manny’s talk (see next post).


Link back to ITG Conference 2004 (Trumpet Playing is Easy, No Really!)

_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[Derek Reaban]

Manny and Mike played several excepts (both on new Prana instruments) to demonstrate the concepts of section intonation and blending. Experiencing these qualities from top-flight players with vibrant ringing sounds on fantastic equipment from the front of the bell (only two rows back) was awe inspiring. They played a section from the 2nd movement of Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and the opening Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition.

The resultants that were ringing in the room were so powerful that they were literally pushing on everyone’s ears. From the back of the room Dave said, “Manny, I see a lot of people pulling on their ears. Could you give us a quick description of what were are all experiencing?” With time running out (we were down to the last 2-3 minutes, Manny quickly said that when two different pitches are played at the same time, the difference between the frequencies of the two notes generates a much lower “resultant tone”. For example, if two notes are played, one with a frequency of 100 and the other with a frequency of 50, the resultant is 50. Or another example with 100 and 75 would generate a resultant tone with a frequency of 25. He then asked Mike to play a C, and he would play an E to demonstrate. Mike played a low C instead of a third space C, so Manny opted to just play the 1st line E. Dave said, “Play that up an octave and we’ll be able to hear it 10 times better”. Sure enough, the pedal C resultant was pushing on our ears again!

For the end of the class we were all treated to the Final Hymn from Stravinsky’s Firebird (both the slow and fast themes). Again, the resultants were buzzing very loud on every note. Truly amazing! This class was a true highlight of the conference for me. I had a chance to introduce myself to Manny afterwards, he literally was standing right in front of me and I just reached out my hand to say hello. What a neat person!

After the class, I considered how I would have answered Dave’s question about resultant tones. Manny and Mike’s playing spoke more strongly about the concept of resultant tones than any words ever could. However, to understand the theory just adds another dimension to this physical psycho-acoustic phenomenon. I’m betting that without the perfect example though, understanding the details of this concept in a master class for the average participant is like catching a Hail Mary pass instead of receiving a baton in a relay race.

I found Manny the next day in the Joy Burns Plaza at the Lamont School of Music after sketching out some ideas about resultant tones and thinking of a story to illustrate the idea of the “perfect example”. I told him that my three little boys all love dinosaurs. We have the Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs at home and it says, “the T-Rex is 35 feet long and has razor sharp teeth that are each 6 inches long”. I don’t know about you, but I tend to forget numbers rather quickly when they are associated with how big something is. I took my boys to the Mesa Southwest Museum that has a fantastic dinosaur display. The guide at the museum presented an example that I will never forget. In fact, it was the “perfect example”. He said, a T-Rex stood tall enough to look in a second story window and had teeth that were as large as an average banana”.

When I told Manny this story, I saw him looking up to the second story balcony area in the Plaza and said, “That paints a great mental picture”. I told him that to this day, every time I walk through our kitchen at home and see a banana on the counter I can’t help but think to myself, “T-rex tooth!” The “perfect example” can literally take an intangible idea and indelibly etch it in our minds, never to be forgotten.

That’s the kind of example that we need when talking about resultant tones in a master class situation.


_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[ This Message was edited by: derek reaban on 2004-07-07 12:29 ]

[Derek Reaban]

Picture the following two situations: When you pluck a string and then touch it exactly in the middle, it sounds one octave higher than the original pitch. Every orchestra concert begins with the oboe playing A440. So, every octave is twice the original frequency.

110 Hz = Pedal A
220 Hz = Low A
440 Hz = 2nd Space A
880 Hz = High A

When A octaves are played, the resultant tone is the difference between the frequencies (as Manny described). 440 Hz – 220 Hz = 220 Hz. Beethoven was taking advantage of this phenomenon, which acts as an acoustical multiplier (enhancing the lower octave), as demonstrated in the opening chord of the Beethoven 5 example.

With several more minutes, it’s very easy to give some general examples about which resultant tones are produced from the various intervals played in the Beethoven example. While fine intonation doesn’t depend on knowing this information, it is very interesting for the players to understand what they are hearing.

Every set of interval combinations and the corresponding resultant tones can be determined very easily by looking at the standard overtone series (in A to make the math align with our A440 example):

Partial.......Note Description
1..............Pedal A
2..............Low A
3..............1st Line E
4..............2nd Space A
5..............3rd Space C#
6..............4th Space E
7..............Top of the Staff G
8..............1st Ledger Line A

Quickly looking at the partials, 1, 2, 4, and 8, they are all A’s, and we know the frequencies already (110, 220, 440, and 880). It’s very simple to figure out the frequencies of the “in-between” partials.

Since we multiply by 2 to move a full octave, we need to multiply by a number less than 2 to get to the in-between partials. To get to the 3rd partial, the Perfect 5th, you multiply by 3/2 (1.5) from the above partial description. To get to the 5th partial, the Major 3rd, you multiply by 5/4 (1.25). Again, this is just from the table above.

So, for A440 (4th partial) multiplying by 1.25 and 1.5 gets us to the 5th and 6th partials:

A440 x (1.25) = 550 (C#)
A440 x (1.50) = 660 (E)

On to the math for the resultant tones which are all found in the Beethoven example:

P5: 660 – 440 = 220 (Low A)
M3: 550 – 440 = 110 (Pedal A)
m3: 660 – 550 = 110 (Pedal A)

Now to generalize the specific intervals:

The interval of an Octave leads to the resultant tone aligning with the bottom octave (440 – 220 = 220).
The interval of a Perfect 5th leads to the resultant tone being 1 octave below the bottom note.
The interval of a Major 3rd leads to the resultant tone being 2 octaves below the bottom note.
The interval of a minor 3rd leads to the resultant tone being 2 octaves and a 5th below the top note.

The math is even simpler here to determine the resultant (from the partial table above):

O: 4-2 = 2 (always the bottom note)
M6: 5-3 = 2 (a P5th below the bottom note)
m6: 8-5 = 3 (a M6th below the bottom note)
P5: 3-2 = 1 (1 octave below the bottom note)
P4: 4-3 = 1 (2 octaves below the top note)
M3: 5-4 = 1 (2 octaves below the bottom note)
m3: 6-5 = 1 (2 octaves and a 5th below the top note)

I enjoyed thinking through this (with reference and thanks to both Chris Leuba and Roger McDuffie for helping me understand these concepts)! I hope it helps those who read it!

Link to A440, Savings Bonds, and Symphony Trumpet Players
_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[Derek Reaban]

Here’s the example from Beethoven 5 (second movement), where the trumpets first come in:

Number.....1.......2.......3.......4.......5.......6.......7.......8.......9.......10.......11
1st Tpt......C.......C.......C......D.......C.......E.......G......C.......C.......D.......E
2nd Tpt.....C.......C.......E.......G.......E.......E.......G......E.......E........G.......C
Interval....O.......O.......m6.....P5.....m6.....U......U.......m6.....m6.....P5.....M3
Resultant..Low....Low....Low....Low...Low....N/A...N/A....Low...Low....Low....Ped
...............C.......C.......G.......G.......G........................G.......G.......G.......C



Number.....12.......13.......14.......15.......16.......17.......18.......19.......20
1st Tpt......C.........D.........E.........E.........F........G.........E.........F........G
2nd Tpt.....E.........G.........C........C.........D........E.........C........D........E
Interval....m6.......P5.......M3.......M3.......m3......m3......M3......m3......m3
Resultant..Low......Low.....Ped......Ped.....Ped.....Ped.....Ped.....Ped.....Ped
...............G.........G.........C.........C........Bb.......C........C........Bb......C


Look at all of those Pedal Cs and Low Gs! No wonder our ears were ringing. Great playing and great writing lead to an experience that’s impossible to describe in words. You had to be there to fully understand how amazing this really was.


_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[ This Message was edited by: derek reaban on 2004-06-28 23:14 ]

[Mikester]

This Master Class was my first experience listening to Monette horns played together. Due to the spectrum of tones these horns project, the resultant tones are easily heard. I was one of the people who were caught off guard by the phenomena. Thought my ears were ringing.

Could listen (and learn) to Manny all day. Not just his incredible playing. His explanations of how he approaches each piece was inspiring. Made the listener feel they could pick up the horn and do it. Of all the events at ITG, this short class made the biggest impact on me.

Or course, I really enjoyed Patrick's presentation. Had a chance to talk with him in the Monette display room. I commented on how much more relaxed he looks than 4 years ago. His playing was awesome in the upper register. Enjoy his approach to playing, as presented at ITG and his book.

BTW Derek, I was in the third row against the wall (more leg room).

[Derek Reaban]

Mikester,

You wrote:

[PhxHorn]

He said there is one tune that has an extended percussion feature that lasts about 10 minutes. After this, Maynard has an absolutely screaming high melodic solo.

Would this be Girl From Ipanema? That's the only tune they play these days with a ten-minute drum solo that I can think of. After the drum solo, the band comes in with some sychopated stabs, and then MF plays the first half of the bridge up an octave, starting on a G above the staff. The only high note in that passage is when MF takes up the last note to an Ab above high C. I've seen him play this passage literally dozens of times, but have never seen him hand it off to Hession. Was it a different tune?

[Derek Reaban]

PhxHorn,

Yes. I’m certain it was the Girl From Ipanema now that you mention it. I can hear the bridge of that tune clearly in my mind, and that’s what Patrick played. While I guess the starting note really wasn’t that high, the sheer power that he generated as he played made a very lasting impression on me. Instead of saying “an absolutely screaming high melodic solo” I probably should have said, “a melodic solo dressed in a wall of sound that pushed me back a row or two!” It was really hard to describe going from a room of silence, only hearing Patrick taking his breath before he played, to that bridge phrase. Awesome!



_________________
Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona

[ This Message was edited by: Derek Reaban on 2004-07-07 15:00 ]