another annoying bloke post: "legato" vs. "technical" etudes

[bloke]

Quite a few on this board know all about this, so just click away and read something else, but I believe there are quite a few young students who don't know much about this stuff...
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In particular, tuba players seem to view etudes (and books of etudes) as one of two types: "legato" (ie. music) and "technical" (not particularly musical, but "hard"). I have been sucked into this p.o.v., but it's really not valid at all.

All etudes (as is all execution of music) are technical, and all should be musical. Finally, if music is well-executed it should flow...regardless of whether sounds are begun "gently" or begun "harshly".

The most popular "legato/musical" TUBA book is one whereby the editor selected 43 etudes written by the formidable Italian vocal teacher, Marco Bordogni for use by his students...and yes, they were written with piano accompaniments - which are available (both online performances and sheet music).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Bordogni

Those 43 (selected/edited by a tuba player, and written in the tuba range) are mostly part of the first book (of three) which an early 20th century Boston Symphony French-born trombonist, Joannès Rochut, choose from Bordogni's vocal etudes and edited into the trombone range for his students.

http://valeriesbrassresourcelibrary.wee ... etudes.pdf

There should rightfully be a feeling of accomplishment if/when a tuba player masters those 43 etudes (particularly if all to performance level), but it should be known that (again) those 43 were (again) mostly choose from Book #1 of a set of 3 trombone Rochut-edited Bordogni etudes - with the first book including 60 etudes.

Mr. Rochut - I have to feel certain - considered his first book to be an "OK, You're off-and-running" book, as Book #2 contained 30 more (with each one much longer and much more technically difficult - so as the second book contains just about as much material as the first book), and the same is true for book #3 (yet 30 more - for a total of 120 selected Bordogni vocalises - written in the trombone range and edited for trombone)...and Rochut's selected 120 etudes run the gambit of major/minor key signatures - including some F-sharp major/D-sharp minor.

As a sidebar, many of the 120 feature omitted rests, whereby the pianist/accompanist is playing short interludes (allowing the vocal/trombone/tuba student to "catch their breath").

The main point of this post is that - once the 43 (or 60) are mastered to a student's or teacher's satisfaction - there are 60 (or 77) more that become quite...

...TECHNICAL.

OK bloke...but what about tonguing...??
All of those etudes are loaded with slurs?

No...They really aren't.
The overwhelming majority of those markings aren't necessarily "slur" markings, but are phrasing markings.
Bordogni (if like most other vocal teachers) would have had his students insert solfège, repeated syllables (la, tah, duu, whatever), or (sometimes) the vocal equivalent of "slurs" (ahh, etc.)...SOMETIMES...so any of those etudes can be played with tons of slurs, tons of soft articulations, tons of hard articulations, tons of long staccato (the type that string players do) or tons of short staccato (as wind band players do)...

...or can be mixed/matched to suit the character of the music (by the teacher and/or the student).

What I'm suggesting is that there is endless material in those THREE books of Rochut-edited-for-trombone Bordogni etudes, and that - yes - they are "TECHNICAL" etudes...ALL of them.

Finally, it doesn't hurt a bit for tuba players to become (quite) accustomed to reading bass clef music written in the trombone/cello/bassoon range - and playing it in the tuba range (or in the trombone/cello/bassoon range...or - particularly with all of these midi-keyboard composers/arrangers - who write too low for the tuba because their electronic speaker can "play" it - an octave BELOW the tuba range)...

...so that defines that those three books supply EVEN MORE "technical" material (with all "technical" passages of ANY music needing to be played "musically", of course).

[Jewood]

Totally agree. Rochut is my go to. In fact, any time I think my technique is slipping, I pause and pull out the vocal music. It’s all about the music.

[JESimmons]

As a bass and tenor trombone player and tuba honker, I have the trombone range, the Ostrander bass trombone version with the keys changed, and the tuba version. I practice all of them on all instruments to work on reading different octaves. Yes, play them musically.

[gocsick]

Great conversation @bloke and all... However that doesn't change the fact that my son is currently auditioning for all state band and our metro area youth symphony orchestra and both auditions request etudes of the players choice ..... one technical and one lyrical/legato. So the music education community seems to be propagating this distinction.

[bloke]

yes...and the education community also grades compositions by difficulty and (perhaps beginning roughly around the beginning of my lifetime and getting more and more over the top with this tendency) composes compositions to various difficulty levels, which results in hundreds upon hundreds of uninteresting compositions.

edit:
As so many of the etudes towards the end of Book 1 and well into book 2 and 3 of the Rochut collections of Bordogni etudes obviously require a remarkable level of technique - particularly if played at marked tempos, I tend to wonder what percentage of band directors view "legato" etudes as etudes with a bunch of slurs and "technical" etudes as things that resemble duple or triple meter marches or polkas. As an example, I sort of view the Tyrell book as a collection of "polkas, pollacas, and a few other things". I suppose another type of "technical" exercises book is one where everything written is very predictable such as much of the Arban cornet and Kopprasch horn books... but I still view Bordodni vocal exercises as a great bit more technical, as they are not mechanical and are far less predictable. If a player is already remarkably well versed in scales, arpeggios, and sheet music reading, they're going to be able to read the predictable exercises in Arban and Kopprasch, but they're going to have to pay much more attention when reading Bordogni.
A lot of tuba players view the trombone book written by Blashevich (an octave lower) as a "technique" book, but - for fairly accomplished trombonists and certainly 11th and 12th grade woodwind players who can cover their parts well - those exercises don't require a tremendous amount technique, and were actually written for trombone students as clef studies, whereas everything in the tuba book is in bass clef.

I've perused school instrumental music individual and band score sheets, and have even judged just a bit - being aware of how various aspects of playing our balanced in scoring. However they choose to label it or whatever synonym there is for it, "phrasing" can often be scored at a zero - with everything else being scored high, and the individual or ensemble will still score in the first division.

bloke "Don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm saying that music education (ie. corporate music education - teaching hundreds of children every day) is an easy job. It's too hard for me. I possess a teaching certificate, and never used it."

[jtm]

At the North American Brass Band Association get together last weekend, they divide the solo contest pieces in several dimensions -- instrument, performer age, etc. -- including "slow" and "technical".

yes...and the education community also grades compositions by difficulty and (perhaps beginning roughly around the beginning of my lifetime and getting more and more over the top with this tendency) composes compositions to various difficulty levels, which results in hundreds upon hundreds of uninteresting compositions.
...

Many people love competitions, but they can foster the same problem: a cycle in which contests value graded music and music with expected features (solos for certain instruments, slow bits, fast bits, multi-meter stuff, acrobatic percussion, extreme dynamics, ...), then people write music to fit in that environment, and it repeats. There can be some great music and great performances, but there's lots of music that feels like it started with a check list, and the people who enjoy listening to it most are those that also have the checklist, where part of the enjoyment is in comparing with other performances.