This week we’re rehearsing a piece that has two of the most difficult technical passages that I’ve run across thus far in my playing career. \u00a0Unsurprisingly, it’s a symphony (No. 6) by Carl Nielsen. \u00a0The last time I gnashed my teeth and rent my garments this much was for Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5. \u00a0That one might still take the cake for most difficult (the passagework is much longer) work I’ve ever had to perform (in orchestra, at least). \u00a0Here are the two places that are tying my fingers in knots – enjoy!<\/p>\n
The first two pages are from the last movement – the tempo is dotted-quarter = about 90 – 100 beats per minute.<\/p>\n
The last two pages are form the first movement – the tempo is quarter = 120 beats per minute or so.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This week we’re rehearsing a piece that has two of the most difficult technical passages that I’ve run across thus far in my playing career. \u00a0Unsurprisingly, it’s a symphony (No. 6) by Carl Nielsen. \u00a0The last time I gnashed my teeth and rent my garments this much was for Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5. \u00a0That one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[2517,2400,2520,2519,3668,2518,3660],"class_list":["post-5763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viola","tag-carl-nielsen","tag-carlos-kalmar","tag-hard-passages","tag-no-6","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-symphony-simplice","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1uX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13628,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/01\/beethoven-9-a-few-of-our-favorite-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":5763,"position":0},"title":"beethoven 9 – a few of our favorite things","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We're in the second year of the Oregon Symphony's annual Ode to Joy New Year's Eve gala, and - in the viola section, at least - there is no sign of any of us being tired of playing Beethoven 9. 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In this spectrum of time, there are passages which may only be a few bars long, but which require hours and hours of repetitive practice to achieve consistent results. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"prok-ex","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/prok-ex-500x231.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5590,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/20\/omg\/","url_meta":{"origin":5763,"position":4},"title":"omg","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight's concert ended with the most recent of the Deryck Cooke realizations of the five movements of Mahler's Tenth Symphony. \u00a0It's a sprawling work, for the most part very austere in its orchestrations. \u00a0It begins with one of the most fearsome viola soli passages - over a minute where the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":277,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/13\/fischer-to-head-the-national-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":5763,"position":5},"title":"Fischer to Head the National Symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's starting to look like the western land grab movement in the US orchestral world. 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