Friday, December 24, 2010

The Dance of the Reed Flutes

Happy Christmas Eve to those celebrating the holiday, & a happy Friday to all.  It’s time for our Alice in Wonder Band song of the month; I probably should point out that this is the penultimate song in the series, which will wrap up in January. 

The last Alice in Wonder Band show ever was a Christmas show at the Alpine Playhouse in McCall in December 2004.  At this point, the band had five members: Art Troutner, who played oboe & mandolin; Bob George, who played clarinet, mandolin & guitar; Deadre Chase, the singer; Eberle Umbach, who at this point was playing flute, melodica, glockenspiel, & occasionally throwing in something wild like the lap steel; & yours truly,  playing guitar, baritone uke & plectrum banjo. 

I’m happy to say we went out on a high note: the show was one of our best, & I think a lot of this was thanks to some inspired arranging by Eberle; & among all her good arrangements for the show, none surpassed her distillation of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Reed-Flutes” from The Nutcracker into a piece for a quintet.  In case you’re curious, the original score calls for an orchestra with 18 distinct instruments, as follows:

  • Flutes (4)
  • Oboes (2)
  • English Horn
  • Clarinets (2)
  • Bass Clarinet
  • Bassoons (2)
  • French Horns (4)
  • Trumpet
  • Tenor Trombone
  • Bass Trombone
  • Tuba
  • Timpani
  • Cymbals
  • Violins (two sections of course, which could be up to 32 players)
  • Violas (as many as 12)
  • Cellos (as many as 10)
  • Double Bass (as many as 8)

She managed to pare this down to the following:

  • 1 flute
  • 1 oboe
  • 1 clarinet
  • 1 voice
  • 1 electric guitar

I don’t recall now exactly how the parts were absorbed—I do know that my guitar part drew heavily from the cello music. 

I hope you enjoy the music—it was a lot of fun to play!—& that you have a joyous holiday season.  Oh, by the way: Robert Frost’s Banjo will be on the air tomorrow with the final installment of the Old-Time Holiday Train series!



Note: All images in the video are in the public domain except the intial photo of the Nutcracker.  This photo, entitled "Nußknacker aus Seiffen," is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported by Bernd Reuschenberg
The photo at the top of the post is from the original production of The Nutcracker. Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, 1892.

7 comments:

  1. Well, that was certainly an interesting version of an old classic! But I never really heard the guitar in that mix.

    Have a great and
    (knowing you guys) musical holiday!

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  2. As always, lovely music. Happy Christmas to you both and thanks for providing me with one of my very favourite blogs. Have a great holiday.
    Alan

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  3. Great music - thank you for that, Merry Christmas!

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  4. Hi Roy, Alan & Jhon

    Roy: Thanks--yes, the recorded mix isn't good, & I noticed yesterday the guitar part is pretty well swallowed. You can hear it at the beginning--it's sort of like a bass part in many ways. Merry Christmas to you as well!

    Alan: Thanks so much--I'm glad you like RFBanjo so well--News From Nowehere is also a terrific blog! Happy holidays.

    Jhon: Thanks, & Merry Christmas to you. Willful Resemblances is an interesting site--I'll be back to check it out more thoroughly.

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  5. Enjoy your holiday; I hope it's filled with happiness and warmth.

    And it sounds like you guys had a lot of fun with that arrangement. It's pretty cool to have condensed everything to only a handful of instruments.

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  6. Hi HKatz: Glad you enjoyed it, & many thanks for the kind holiday wishes!

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  7. Very nice, John. Here's wishing you and yours a happy Christmas, from me and mine.

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