Three new tutorials of trumpeter Marco Blaauw on the cup mute, the wah-wah mute and filtering sounds for the trumpet.

The musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik started to record tutorials in which they introduce their instrument and special playing techniques for composition students in the framework of Composer Collider. Find more tutorials here.

Within the framework of several workshops series with students and “Composer Collider“, a project especially for composition students, the musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik prepare tutorials in which they introduce their instrument and explain special playing techniques.

Marco Blaauw recorded four new tutorials and talked in detail about the trumpet pitch range, microtones, mutes and straight mutes on the trumpet. Find more tutorials for different instruments here.

Working together with many young composers and students during our Composer Collider series, we developed the idea to create a series of tutorial videos which explain contemporary music techniques on a very basic level. Many times we were facing the same problems and questions about the use or the notation of a certain bow movement or pizzicato technique. So, we hope this series of videos will help young composers as well as musicians to gain a profound knowledge and develop their own specific use of these techniques.

In this new video our cellist Dirk Wietheger explains the vertical bow movement with the hair of the bow (con crini) contrary to the the col legno technique which he explained in an earlier video.

Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Im Rahmen der Nachwuchsförderreihe Composer Collider werden Werke von Kompositionsstudierenden und – absolventen gemeinsam mit Ensemble Musikfabrik erarbeitet. In der Zusammenarbeit mit einem Profiensemble zeitgenössicher Musik und einem Dirigenten erhalten junge Komponisten so die Möglichkeit, ihre Kompositionsentwürfe zu erarbeiten und zu professionalisieren. Im Fokus steht hier die Beschäftigung mit der Spielpraxis der einzelnen Instrumente. Im intensiven Dialog mit den Musikern des Ensemble Musikfabrik können die Kompositionsstudierenden und – absolventen ihr kompositorisches Wissen erweitern – eine Erfahrung, die sie während ihrer gesamten künstlerischen Entwicklung begleiten kann.

In Video-Tutorials stellen die Musiker ausgewählte Spieltechniken ihrer Instrumente vor, die den Kompositionsstudierenden außerhalb der gemeinsamen Arbeitsphasen eine Hilfestellung bei der Erarbeitung ihrer Werke sein soll.

One of my favorite pieces for trombone solo is Keren by Iannis Xenakis.

In my opinion it is one of the best pieces ever written for trombone solo, next to Berio’s Sequenza, and I often wonder why it’s not performed more. I know it’s difficult, especially the 3rd page, but I think it’s definitely worth working on by ambitious students and professionals alike. In fact, if my memory is correct, it was one of 3 contemporary music pieces to be chosen from in the 2nd round at the ARD competition in Munich 2007.

What always surprises me though is, when talking to other classical trombonists, who are not experienced in new music, that they really don’t know what to do with the double note passages, the ones with the notes in parenthesis below the main note. Most seem to think it’s just normal multiphonics, singing and playing. This is most definitely not the case. Unfortunately, there is no explanation in the part, but there is an explanation in another work of Xenakis’ from the same year 1986. It’s an ensemble work called Jalons, written for Ensemble Intercontemporain and trombonist Benny Sluchin for whom Keren was also written. Much of the material in the two pieces is similar and in Jalons Xenakis uses split tones extensively in the woodwinds and trombone.

At the first split tone passage for the trombone he writes;

son fendu ou multiphonique labiale (produite par les lévres uniquement et n’incluant pas la voix). Elle est basée sur la note du haut ayant comme patiel voisin la note en parenthése du bas.

My French isn’t all that great but what I can decipher is that he wants both notes to be played with the lips only with no voice at all.

So how is this to be done?

In my experience, the best way to execute a split tone is to aim for the upper note, push the lower jaw a bit forwards and purse the lips a little more than normal. Out of the upper note a second, lower note should come out simultaneously. This note should be the next lower harmonic, so depending upon where you play it it can be a different interval. f-Bb in 1st position, f-C in F1 (or 6th position) or f-db in F5 (V) position with the valve. Xenakis uses many of these options in both pieces.

Some players can do this right away, but others, including myself, need(ed) months of practice to get them to the point of being reliable. The problem with Keren is that most of the split tones come on the last page, after the extremely taxing 3rd page. You’re tired and out of breath and if the split tones don’t work you sound like a total amateur, at best. When they do work though they are incredibly effective, very rich and complex in overtones. Much more so than a played/sung multiphonic.

I have found a substitute for the split tones which works quite well in the lower register where they are very difficult to play loudly. If you play the second harmonic low f, for instance, you can adjust the speed of your flutter tongue so it lines up and gives you the upper interval of the split tone, which when done correctly can sound very similar to a split tone and can be played very loudly. One composer, with whom I have worked with recently, remarked that it isn’t really possible to alter the speed of the flutter-tongue and that this effect must be more about altering the tongue or oral cavity similar to overtone singing.

Following are four video examples (at the end of the site):

1st video: normal playing

2nd video: (voice) multiphonics

3rd video: split tones

4th video: split tones mixed with flutter tonguing

 

Notice the stable frequency waves with the normal tones and that the singing does not seem to affect the lip vibration waves. The split tones have a very complex frequency wave and the flutter multiphonic has a very similar, but not quite as complex frequency wave. Notice also how loud the last three flutters are compared to the lower split tones.

I did these videos with Universitätsprofessor Dr. med. Wolfgang Angerstein as a part of his Studie über Lippenschwingungen im Funktionsbereich für Phoniatrie & Pädaudiologie am Univ.-Klinikum Düsseldorf (research project on lip vibrations, performed at the phoniatric department of the university of Düsseldorf medical school).

http://www.uniklinik-duesseldorf.de/deutsch/unternehmen/kliniken/PhoniatrieundPdaudiologie/page.html

For those of you who can’t get enough, here is a video of the complete Keren with camera in the mouthpiece (5th video).