[Trombone-l] Trombone and Percussion performance practice

[Joshua Hauser]

I have a question for all you folks who have experience playing pieces for
trombone and percussion.

To preface, I am working on a CD project of works for tbn and perc that we
will be recording in May for release next fall.  We've been gradually
performing all of the works and I will be playing one of the new pieces, a
duet for trombone and vibraphone, at ETW in a couple of weeks during the
guest artist recital on Thursday afternoon.

My question is, what is the prevailing thought about re-tuning to a=442 to
match the keyboard percussion?

For the vibes piece, I have been retuning because there are a couple of
multiphonics sections where I need to pick up my starting pitch from the
vibes.  Since I had to retune for that piece, I have been playing all the
keyboard pieces at a=442, BUT there are some pieces on the project that
don't have keyboard percussion.

As part of a recent discussion with Sam Woodhead of the US Army Band, we
talked about the fact that you have to adjust all of your slide positions
slightly if you tune to a new pitch center.  Obviously it would be easier
for me if we tracked down a top quality marimba and vibraphone at a=440, but
that's not an option.

Since I feel that I have to retune for SOME of the CD, should I retune for
ALL of it?  Should I play only the pieces with keyboard percussion at a=442
and the rest at a=440?  Should I just stick with good old a=440 and let the
percussion sound a bit brighter because of the differences?

If anyone has any suggestions of some good resources to read on this topic,
I'd appreciate it.  For the short term, I am going to re-tune, but I'd like
to have more info about this issue before we get to the recording sessions.

There is a good website at
http://www.tedrounds.com/Can_you_hear_the_difference.htm, but it doesn't
seem to give a definitive answer (not that I am sure I'll get one anyway).

Just to add an additional level of clarification, this is for trombone and
percussion only, no piano or other instruments to throw into the mix and add
to the pitch dilemma.

Thanks much,

Josh

______________________________________________
Joshua Hauser, Associate Professor of Trombone
Box 5045
Department of Music and Art
Tennessee Technological University
Cookeville, TN 38505
931/372-6086
jhauser at tntech.edu 
http://iweb.tntech.edu/jhauser
http://www.tntech.edu/brass/trombone
Trombones at Tech new CD Project!!
http://www.tntech.edu/publicaffairs/rel/2006/dec06/music.html
http://www.tntech.edu/publicaffairs/rel/2007/march07/trombones.html