[Trombone-l] Nelybel tuba etudes- fictional situation

[Ray Horton]

I was about to post and say the same thing, that the Nelhybel etudes 
were too late.  Also, are there Blazevich tuba etudes other than the two 
books published by King?  Those are the same as the trombone clef 
studies, albeit all in bass clef, down an octave.  I always assumed that 
Robert King was responsible for those, but I don't know.  It's possible 
that Blazevich wrote other tuba etudes, or that tubists played trombone 
etudes in the Soviet Union. 


I'd vote for Arban as the most logical.

----
The story of Vaclav Nelhybel is an interesting one, if the version I was 
told by my college band director is accurate.  Sometime in the mid-late 
60s a band director happened to drop in to a church service in NYC and 
heard the most unusual, modal music coming from the organ.  After the 
service he talked to the organist, found that he was playing his own 
music, and told him 'that music would sound great for concert band!' 


Nelhybel replied "What's a concert band?'  


The director then either told Nelhybel about or took him to a band 
festival/contest taking place at the other end of the city.  Nelhybel 
went, listened all day, was so fascinated by what he heard that he got a 
motel room and bought socks and underwear in order to come back a second 
day.  The rest is history.
----

I remember that time.  I was in high school during the years when 
Nelhybel hit the market.  I would read _Instrumentalist_ magazine in the 
school library, and seemingly every month would be new reviews of pieces 
of his.  It was a while before I played some, and they did breathe new 
life into the concert band lit of the time, and were without a doubt a 
big influence on later composers for band. 


A year or two later, I played under his direction at a music camp.  
After years of hearing conductors say 'It's only forte," he was the 
first conductor (and last) to turn to the percussion section and say 
"It's marked _forte_.  Play LOUD!"


So, yes, this is a long way of saying Nelhybel is an American composer.


Raymond Horton




 Dennis Clason wrote:
> If your husband's picking Nehlybel because he sounds Eastern European, 
> he should know that VN emigrated to the US in 1957 and is primarily 
> known as a US composer of wind band music.  I wouldn't find it very 
> believable that an emigre Russian would use the Nehlybel etudes, nor 
> that a British teacher would use them.  This is especially true if the 
> action is taking place in the UK.
>
> I think Blazevich is much more likely, or Bordogni down the octave.  
> Both were in fairly wide use at that time (at least among trombone 
> students, tuba students were poaching music where ever it could be 
> found, but then so were trombone students.)  Arban's is another very 
> likely possibility.
>
> The stuff I've seen on the 'net give a copyright date of 2006 for the 
> Nehlybel etudes, which means that in 1987 she would have been playing 
> them in manuscript.  They're listed as grade 4, and the samples look 
> like about a 4+.  So the music is at the right difficulty level for an 
> ambitious talented student with a good teacher.
>
> Jackie Harris-Stone wrote:
>   
>> My husband's novel is now including a young tuba student.  He has her playing a Nelhybel tuba etude.  She's about 11, has played for 2-3 years, and has quite a lot of talent and practices a lot. She was taught by a Russian for a year or two, and then a British teacher took over.  This occured about 1987.  
>>  
>> I gave him some suggestions of what she would be playing- I thought Blazhevich, perhaps Bordogni-, but for some reason, he found the Nelhybel etudes on the internet, and thought it would be a better fit.
>>  
>> Does anyone know of these, and would they fit the above scenario?  If not, and you were writing the novel, what do you think might she be playing for etudes?
>>  
>> Trombone content- almost every trombone teacher teaches tuba students, and us bass trombonists play tuba etudes.
>>
>>
>>       
>> _______________________________________________
>> Trombone-l mailing list
>> Trombone-l at samford.edu
>> http://maillists.samford.edu/mailman/listinfo/trombone-l
>>
>>   
>>     
>
>