FA+
Shop
19 submissions
TITLE: Postcard
COMPOSER: Frank Ticheli
PERFORMANCE DATE: October 12, 2006
ENSEMBLE: Cornell University Wind Ensemble
I'm totally inspired by the wind ensemble postings by
Goodname Panda and 
Juniper_Squirrel so here is one from when I was a Junior. This is probably the most error free recording of any of my performances. The hardest part of this piece, I remember, was the amount of concentration it took to play it straight through with the amount of time signature changes.
The piece itself is a palindrome. You can read about it here if you'd like: http://www.manhattanbeachmusic.com/...../postcard.html
I was playing xylophone and vibes.
COMPOSER: Frank Ticheli
PERFORMANCE DATE: October 12, 2006
ENSEMBLE: Cornell University Wind Ensemble
I'm totally inspired by the wind ensemble postings by
Goodname Panda and 
Juniper_Squirrel so here is one from when I was a Junior. This is probably the most error free recording of any of my performances. The hardest part of this piece, I remember, was the amount of concentration it took to play it straight through with the amount of time signature changes.The piece itself is a palindrome. You can read about it here if you'd like: http://www.manhattanbeachmusic.com/...../postcard.html
I was playing xylophone and vibes.
Category Music / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 5.2 MB
Ticheli is fun but this piece was probably one of the more stressful ones that I've played (surpassed possibly only by Jug Blues and Fat Pickin').
As for the vibraphone I was using outdoor mallets for this piece ^.^;; mostly because it was what I was most comfortable playing with after a summer of drum corps. Other than that we always used to order the mallet instrument, in regards to proximity to the audience, based on how much they cut (marimba, vibes, bells, then xylophone) unless there were some fast changes.
A tip I picked up from working with Ithaca College was it's important during dress rehearsals to send a percussion member into the seats to see how all your mallet choices sound in the hall you're performing in. This hall absolutely killed all articulation so we could get away with using really hard mallets and it would sound fine, though it was almost impossible to get an articulate sound out of the timpani.
As for the vibraphone I was using outdoor mallets for this piece ^.^;; mostly because it was what I was most comfortable playing with after a summer of drum corps. Other than that we always used to order the mallet instrument, in regards to proximity to the audience, based on how much they cut (marimba, vibes, bells, then xylophone) unless there were some fast changes.
A tip I picked up from working with Ithaca College was it's important during dress rehearsals to send a percussion member into the seats to see how all your mallet choices sound in the hall you're performing in. This hall absolutely killed all articulation so we could get away with using really hard mallets and it would sound fine, though it was almost impossible to get an articulate sound out of the timpani.
Out of curiosity what mallets do you use? Usually for this orchestral/Wind Ensemble stuff I use Terry Gibbs M32 and M33 (medium hard and hard) and Gary Burton M25 (Vic Firth stuff). The M25s are actually intended for Jazz but I find that their color fits in really well for orchestral pieces of certain moods. Timpani mallets I always found the European Custom Timpani mallets by Vic Firth to have a nice resonance to it, but unfortunately those are discontinued, so once my set wears out I'll have to find a new set.
I've only had to deal with outdoor situations for the past couple of years so my memory's a little rusty. For outdoor I've used pretty much all of these at some point:
http://www.vicfirth.com/products/mu.....ion-series.php
I'm a huge fan of Vic Firth, though we had to deal with some poor construction issues and so I've recently started branching out to Innovative.
For concert situations, I used the Gary Burtons if I wanted a little bit of a thinner sound. They had a really good balance that I liked. I have a recording of my wind ensemble doing the first movement of Gershwin's Concerto in F and I definitely remember using probably the M25's for this slick run I had in the beginning.
For timpani I invested in some of the Tim Genis Vic Firth mallets. They had a lovely balance and were really fun to play with, though not all of them are very applicable. There's 8 mallets in the series which makes picking hard.
For marimba mallets my favorite ones I ever played with were some Steve Weiss brand mallets I bought. Unfortunately, I tried to repeat the success I had and received mallets that were probably the worst marimba mallets i ever used.
http://www.vicfirth.com/products/mu.....ion-series.php
I'm a huge fan of Vic Firth, though we had to deal with some poor construction issues and so I've recently started branching out to Innovative.
For concert situations, I used the Gary Burtons if I wanted a little bit of a thinner sound. They had a really good balance that I liked. I have a recording of my wind ensemble doing the first movement of Gershwin's Concerto in F and I definitely remember using probably the M25's for this slick run I had in the beginning.
For timpani I invested in some of the Tim Genis Vic Firth mallets. They had a lovely balance and were really fun to play with, though not all of them are very applicable. There's 8 mallets in the series which makes picking hard.
For marimba mallets my favorite ones I ever played with were some Steve Weiss brand mallets I bought. Unfortunately, I tried to repeat the success I had and received mallets that were probably the worst marimba mallets i ever used.
I'm also a Vic Firth person, in fact I can be really stubborn, I won't want to use other mallets. We had Promarks at my high school and I hated how they felt, in fact a lot of them broke way too easily, whereas my Vic Firths can take a lot of abuse and still last me YEARS!
For Timpani I've been thinking of Tim Genis mallets but I feel alienated from them in the fact that there's so many of them and I'm not sure which to buy. I would really have to test them all out and see which feels best on the timpani I play. That's how I decided on the European Timpani Mallets Vic Firth used to make.
I just pulled out my Marimba mallets. I currently use Giff Howarth M162, the M183s and the M184s, all of them in a set of 4, but I still mix and match them. I tend to not buy anything lighter than a medium mallet because my percussion playing nowadays is usually limited to orchestra and wind ensemble playing. I've seen the Steve Weiss ones though, a friend has two sets of four, don't remember which ones specifically, I like how they feel.
As for innovative percussion, I've seen their mallets but never used them, as I said, I'm pretty stubborn about my mallets and almost always just go with Vic Firth.
For Timpani I've been thinking of Tim Genis mallets but I feel alienated from them in the fact that there's so many of them and I'm not sure which to buy. I would really have to test them all out and see which feels best on the timpani I play. That's how I decided on the European Timpani Mallets Vic Firth used to make.
I just pulled out my Marimba mallets. I currently use Giff Howarth M162, the M183s and the M184s, all of them in a set of 4, but I still mix and match them. I tend to not buy anything lighter than a medium mallet because my percussion playing nowadays is usually limited to orchestra and wind ensemble playing. I've seen the Steve Weiss ones though, a friend has two sets of four, don't remember which ones specifically, I like how they feel.
As for innovative percussion, I've seen their mallets but never used them, as I said, I'm pretty stubborn about my mallets and almost always just go with Vic Firth.
Comments