Prom 4 - 14.07.13: Les Siècles – The Rite of Spring

[mercia]

I thought you had made up the name "jingling johnny" but that really is what its called - wikipedia reckons it should be deployed in Beethoven 9 too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_crescent

which work(s) used it on Sunday ?
that's a sweet little family of kettledrums in the background

really looking forward to seeing this all on telly

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Good news. According to Les Siècles' Facebook page, 'Le CD du sacre sortira bientôt ...'

[Bryn]

Good news. According to Les Siècles' Facebook page, 'Le CD du sacre sortira bientôt ...'

What, no SACD? Whatever, I do hope what is issued derives from live performances rather than studio sessions.

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought you had made up the name "jingling johnny" but that really is what its called - wikipedia reckons it should be deployed in Beethoven 9 too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_crescent

which work(s) used it on Sunday ?
that's a sweet little family of kettledrums in the background

really looking forward to seeing this all on telly

Mercia!! Me, make something up?! I resemble that nasturtium, Sir!!

(OK... I deleted 'Tinkling Tomcat'... )

I was wondering where the name came from in fact - I wonder if it's from the same sort of origin as 'Johnny Foreigner' - after all, twas the latter who came up with the demn'd contraption, what?!

It was deployed in 2 or 3 movements of the Lully and the Rameau - especially in the finales...

And those timps were among my favourite things in the concert, I think - I love the tight yet full sound they produce, with nice hard sticks... I'm not a fan of flabby plastic modern timps played with big fat cottonwool buds...

[amateur51]

Mercia!! Me, make something up?! I resemble that nasturtium, Sir!!



I was wondering where the name came from in fact - I wonder if it's from the same sort of origin as 'Johnny Foreigner' - after all, twas the latter who came up with the demn'd contraption, what?!

It was deployed in 2 or 3 movements of the Lully and the Rameau - especially in the finales...

And those timps were among my favourite things in the concert, I think - I love the tight yet full sound they produce, with nice hard sticks... I'm not a fan of flabby plastic modern timps played with big fat cottonwool buds...

Those tight timps were reet grand, Caliban

[Pabmusic]

I thought you had made up the name "jingling johnny" but that really is what its called ...

The siege of Vienna in 1683 gave us an array of 'Turkish' percussion - triangles, cymbals, bells, bass drums - and the jingling johnny became a familiar sight, certainly to 18th-century military musicians. Many still use them (called bell-trees, Turkish crescents or pavillons chinois), though not in Britain now.

...I was wondering where the name came from in fact - I wonder if it's from the same sort of origin as 'Johnny Foreigner' - after all, twas the latter who came up with the demn'd contraption, what?!...

Caliban, 'jingling johnny' is at least 18th-century, and I suspect it's the alliteration ('robin redbreast') that's at play here, rather than late-Victorian colonial types. At least I hope so.

[mercia]

whenever they show a close-up on telly of a timpanist at work he/she usually has a tray-full of different sticks, so I'm assuming composers are pretty specific of which they want used (?)- or is it at the discretion of the player ?

[Pabmusic]

whenever they show a close-up on telly of a timpanist at work he/she usually has a tray-full of different sticks, so I'm assuming composers are pretty specific of which they want used (?)- or is it at the discretion of the player ?

The usual situation is that composers say nothing, and it's up to the timpanist to decide (the conductor might have an opinion, too). Some composers - especially more recent ones - do specify 'hard' or 'soft' (or even something more complex - sponge heads, wooden heads, etc).

[Edit] I've just remembered that Percy Grainger occasionally specifies the make and size of beater (that is, Lottanoyse & Son No. 6 beater). That'a exceptional though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The usual situation is that composers say nothing, and it's up to the timpanist to decide (the conductor might have an opinion, too). Some composers - especially more recent ones - do specify 'hard' or 'soft' (or even something more complex - sponge heads, wooden heads, etc).

Yes; Berlioz (who often played percussion in orchestras in his student days) was very precise about the beaters he wanted - he was one of the first to use "sponge" heads, IIRC.

Cali is absolutely right about plastic Timp membranes, too. I had lessons on my school Timps - antique instruments with tuning "taps", but lovely hide drumheads which gave a gloriously rich "ring" when played properly. When I moved to Uni, I was delighted to see that the Timps there were pedal-tuned; but the tone of the shiny plastic heads! It was as if the sound had been wrapped in cling film.

[Nick Armstrong]

Fun photo of the principal bassoon 'warming up' with a soulful look before his second half solo

https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=554284064635331&set=a.183143525082722.48749.179201272143614&type=1&theater

EDIT: I've just read the comments, the pic is actually before the concert as a whole, as the photographer confesses - i.e. a Lully bassoon not a Stravinsky one, as some sharp-eyed Facebooker pointed out!

[doversoul1]

…and here is François-Xavier Roth with his staff.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jul/15/prom-4-les-siecles-review

I thought Lully pierced his toe, not smashed it/them, and I wonder if the audience was meant to hear the banging (I’d have thought it was tapping rather than banging)

Jayne

If you've listened to Bruggen's, Christie's or Minkowski's recordings as enthusiastically as I have, I'm sure you'll know what I mean!

I was trying very hard not to say this. Maybe these pieces are meant to be more like a theoretical foreword to this programme rather than a musical prologue of a concert. Still, without the names of Lully and Rameau, I’d probably have missed the amazing part two.

[ardcarp]

…and here is François-Xavier Roth with his staff.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013...siecles-review

...I wonder if he considered conducting The Rite with it? Now that would be a real feat [!]

[Nick Armstrong]

...I wonder if he considered conducting The Rite with it? Now that would be a real feat [!]

I would recommend dress shoes with reinforced steel toe-caps!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

What, no SACD? Whatever, I do hope what is issued derives from live performances rather than studio sessions.

Since its Chabrier/ Bizet disc for Mirare, Les Siècles has recorded a series for Actes Sud entitled Les Siècles Live. No SACDs, however. François-Xavier Roth has confirmed the release of Le sacre to me this morning!

[Ferretfancy]

I thought you had made up the name "jingling johnny" but that really is what its called - wikipedia reckons it should be deployed in Beethoven 9 too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_crescent

which work(s) used it on Sunday ?
that's a sweet little family of kettledrums in the background

really looking forward to seeing this all on telly

The Janissaries still do a display every day at a military barracks in Istanbul, complete with a jingling johnny. Many yonks ago Colin Davis conducted a splendid performance of the Berlioz Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale, which also features this instrument, at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, and for once it didn't rain. At the Prom I could only see part of it from where I was standing, but in the Lully there was a weird string instrument with a very long neck -a theorbo maybe ?