Subtle Corrections
In his article “Subtle Gestures” (March 2005), David Pedergnana demonstrates an amazing grasp of what takes place at the molecular level when real live instrumentalists do their thing. Even better, he is able to communicate those concepts to the reader in concise language. However, I would like to call attention to several factual errors.
Under the subhead “One from Column A,” Pedergnana says the violinist pulls the bow (toward the body) when up-bowing and pushes away when down-bowing. Actually, the opposite is true in both instances. First of all, the body is not the best reference for explaining bow direction. It's better to discuss the direction the bow hand travels to and from the instrument itself. If you look at the photograph of the violinist at the beginning of the article, you can see that the bow hand pulls the bow down (away from the instrument) and pushes it up (toward the instrument).
Incidentally, that's easier to see when the violinist is bowing the highest string (E), because the bow is nearly vertical (as shown in the photograph) and does in fact move up and down. But when the lowest string (G) is bowed, the bow is more horizontal, and the terms up-bow and down-bow become less descriptive of what happens.
Under the heading “Bowed Tremolos,” the definitions of tremolo and trill were reversed. A tremolo is not the same as a trill, which uses two notes a half step or a whole step apart, whereas the bowed tremolo consists of back-and-forth bow strokes on a single note. That should not be confused with the fingered tremolo, in which the player rapidly fingers back and forth between two notes at least a minor third apart. Both notes are played on the same string, on which the bow travels in long, continuous strokes.
Then there was the overtone chart (Fig. 4). It applies to the trombone or euphonium but not the B< trumpet, for which it needs to be one octave higher.
Under the subhead “Winds of Inspiration,” the author discusses methods of woodwind vibrato production. Included was one called mechanical vibrato, involving “changing the orientation of the mouthpiece to the lips.” I have been a professional woodwind player for more than 40 years, and I've never heard of anyone doing vibrato that way except, many decades ago, on trumpets. While I cannot conclusively say Mr. Pedergnana is in error on this point, my left eyebrow is arched to the point of discomfort.
Notwithstanding all this pickiness, I congratulate Mr. Pedergnana on an exceptionally well-done and informative article.
Lee Brooks
via email
Author David Pedergnana replies: Lee — Thanks for your thoughtful, professional letter. Your feedback improves the original article.
The suggested bow directions are actually reversed. Down-bows are pulled across the strings with the heavier end of the bow touching strings first, creating accented notes. In up-bowing, the weaker part of the bow (closer to the tip) is on the strings, and the player pushes until the heavier heel (or “frog”) of the bow approaches the instrument.
The original text of my tremolo description states that bowed tremolos are played on a single pitch (trills involving a major or minor second), not on a single note. Somewhat misleadingly, I also wrote that tremolos are played quickly. When I wrote this article, I was thinking of the rapid, unmeasured tremolo samples typically found in high-end sample libraries. Slow, measured tremolos are as possible as fast, sloppy ones.
As you correctly note, I failed to transpose the overtone illustration up an octave. A good trumpet player can play every note in the chromatic scale from B< below middle C up two and a half octaves. The lowest and highest five or six notes are difficult to play and sound weak, so try using small amounts of Pitch Bend and fewer note Velocities to simulate those awkward pitches.
Alfred Blatter describes mechanical vibrato as a woodwind technique in his book Instrumentation and Orchestration (p. 76). He writes that this effect sounds “inferior,” which is why most performers don't even consider it. It's only used in experimental music.
Spring Cleaning
I've worked with digital audio on the Mac for a number of years. I'm fairly new to Mac OS X, and I typically defragment my hard drive using Symantec's Norton Utilities in OS X's Classic environment. I found out that Symantec will no longer support disk utilities in OS X after version 8 (the current version) of Norton Utilities. As a result, I'm hesitant to buy into that product line when no upgrade path is available.
Which utility is everybody using for defragmenting disks under OS X? Thanks very much for a great magazine.
Jim Campbell
via email
Jim — According to EM's Mac-using technical editors, Alsoft's DiskWarrior (www.alsoft.com) is a popular choice. Geary Yelton uses Symantec's Norton Speed Disk but is contemplating a switch to DiskWarrior.
Apple Computer claims that there is little need to defragment in OS X. Apple's support document on this subject is at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668. — Matt Gallagher
Top-Notch Musician
I briefly met Steve Oppenheimer at Winter NAMM 2005, where he bowled me over with his mastery of the keyboard. Wow! What technique and soul! I coaxed him into revealing a bit about his rich history of doing professional gigs. When asked why he doesn't let EM's readers know about his skills and experience, he replied that EM's readers don't care about his playing — they just care about reading quality articles. I respectfully disagree.
We live in a world where review articles written about newly released CDs are suspect at best, more often than not written by people who understand little about music. Likewise with magazines. Although EM has earned a well-deserved reputation for its knowledgeable writers and integrity of journalism, no publication can entirely escape the cynicism of its readership.
Experiencing Steve O's playing was more than enough for me to read EM with a new level of confidence and enjoyment. Thanks for all the reading and listening pleasure.
Please tell EM readers about your experience as a musician.
Bret Schneider
Outbreak! Music Systems
Bret — I still think that our readers are (and rightly so) more concerned with reading quality articles than with what an ex-pro keyboard player did in what seems like another lifetime. But thank you for your kind words. — Steve O
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