Fantastic playing!! Bravo. I never realised an ophecleide could have such a sweet sound and be so virtuosic! Amazing. Really a lost art which you have rediscovered. Bravo!!
that was awesome! Totally didn't expect something that great while just roaming TH-cam for ophicleide stuff. Thanks for uploading. Man, that ophicleide player is a complete virtuoso! Awesome work mate!
Weber originally wrote it for viola, then later arranged it for bassoon (in the process of which he re-wrote the piece and made it much better). These other instruments are simply taking the bassoon part and playing it, with perhaps a few small changes.
I think it's pretty easy to understand -- no one else in the world besides Patrick Wibart has probably ever been able to produce sounds like this on the ophicleide! Instruments like the ophicleide, serpent, or members of the zink family (cornetto) are so difficult to play that only a handful of performers throughout history were able to make music worth listening to on them. As soon as instruments with a generally similar tonality -- but much easier to play acceptably well -- were created, these difficult instruments were abandoned. It's simply economics -- If you're a composer, would it make sense to write for an instrument that can only be played by Patrick Wibart, or just write for euphonium and have hundreds of performers to choose from? If you choose the euphonium, you can relatively easily create a performance that audiences will pay for, without having to find the rare ophicleide player who could do the job. What performances like this DO demonstrate though, is that these early brass instruments -- in the hands of a true virtuoso (rather than merely a competent professional) -- can produce sounds that are impossible to recreate on modern brass. Valves are a crutch that simplifies playing, but they also slow the instrument down when compared against ancestral instruments with simple tone-holes such as the cornetto. For example, listen to this performance (esp. the second half) of Diego Ortiz' "Recercada Secunda", performed on cornett by Doron Sherwin: th-cam.com/video/E2EHa3vsz-8/w-d-xo.html Could that be done on a modern trumpet? I don't think so!
My friend who is a basoonist and a retired music professor says that the early manufacturing processes just weren't up to milling the keys finely enough for them to work properly, and that the materiels they used for the pads degraded rather quickly. Perhaps if manufacturers could start building these instruments by modern methods and to modern design tolerances, it might bring a revival. I mean, look at the harpsichord; before Landowska, who really played it? (I know it is fashionable to look down on her, but really, she dragged the harpsichord from the museum back to the concert stage, you have to give her that.) As a devotee of another 'obsolete' instrument that is much maligned unfairly, namely the harmonium/reed organ, I sympathize. PS: Did you know that many pipe organs have an opheclede stop?
My sudgestion for composers is that they write a sonata for this instrument, then just put opt. Euphonium, therefore it can still be largely played, but the Ophicleide repertoire grows
Sounds great! But is tending to hang a bit sharp. Sometimes soloists do that to "bring out" the melody or something. But as a professional bassist of 50 years, our job is to put the pitch RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE. So perhaps I;m a bit oversensitive to it. : )
Fantastic playing!! Bravo. I never realised an ophecleide could have such a sweet sound and be so virtuosic! Amazing. Really a lost art which you have rediscovered. Bravo!!
Something that sounds even lovelier than the euphonium. Incredible.
that was awesome! Totally didn't expect something that great while just roaming TH-cam for ophicleide stuff. Thanks for uploading. Man, that ophicleide player is a complete virtuoso! Awesome work mate!
The picture at 5:12 is my great great great grandfather, Monsieur Jean Prospère Guivier, a celebrity of his day!
Wow, explain me!!!
By bassonist friend says that this piece is commonly played on the bassoon now; sometimes a euphonium or tuba; and occasionally on a baritone sax.
Weber originally wrote it for viola, then later arranged it for bassoon (in the process of which he re-wrote the piece and made it much better).
These other instruments are simply taking the bassoon part and playing it, with perhaps a few small changes.
Impressive refined playing ! Bravo !
Steps to be a High school band hipster:
Step 1: Buy an ophicleide.
Step 2: bring to class and play
It's hard to understand how such a beautiful instrument could have gone into eclipse. Let's hope the shadow is passing. This is wonderful.
I think it's pretty easy to understand -- no one else in the world besides Patrick Wibart has probably ever been able to produce sounds like this on the ophicleide! Instruments like the ophicleide, serpent, or members of the zink family (cornetto) are so difficult to play that only a handful of performers throughout history were able to make music worth listening to on them. As soon as instruments with a generally similar tonality -- but much easier to play acceptably well -- were created, these difficult instruments were abandoned.
It's simply economics -- If you're a composer, would it make sense to write for an instrument that can only be played by Patrick Wibart, or just write for euphonium and have hundreds of performers to choose from? If you choose the euphonium, you can relatively easily create a performance that audiences will pay for, without having to find the rare ophicleide player who could do the job.
What performances like this DO demonstrate though, is that these early brass instruments -- in the hands of a true virtuoso (rather than merely a competent professional) -- can produce sounds that are impossible to recreate on modern brass. Valves are a crutch that simplifies playing, but they also slow the instrument down when compared against ancestral instruments with simple tone-holes such as the cornetto. For example, listen to this performance (esp. the second half) of Diego Ortiz' "Recercada Secunda", performed on cornett by Doron Sherwin:
th-cam.com/video/E2EHa3vsz-8/w-d-xo.html
Could that be done on a modern trumpet? I don't think so!
My friend who is a basoonist and a retired music professor says that the early manufacturing processes just weren't up to milling the keys finely enough for them to work properly, and that the materiels they used for the pads degraded rather quickly. Perhaps if manufacturers could start building these instruments by modern methods and to modern design tolerances, it might bring a revival. I mean, look at the harpsichord; before Landowska, who really played it? (I know it is fashionable to look down on her, but really, she dragged the harpsichord from the museum back to the concert stage, you have to give her that.)
As a devotee of another 'obsolete' instrument that is much maligned unfairly, namely the harmonium/reed organ, I sympathize.
PS: Did you know that many pipe organs have an opheclede stop?
My sudgestion for composers is that they write a sonata for this instrument, then just put opt. Euphonium, therefore it can still be largely played, but the Ophicleide repertoire grows
@@brucealanwilson4121PS: Did you know that there are new ophicleides being made and at reasonable prices (under 2 grand)?
@@stewkingjr At the time, no. I have since found that out.
este instrumento no debió ver desaparecido posee un timbre hermoso y una agilidad sorprendente
It reminds me of a more delicate tuba. Very nice performance
Sounds like a Euphonium. So incredible.
Sounds great! But is tending to hang a bit sharp. Sometimes soloists do that to "bring out" the melody or something. But as a professional bassist of 50 years, our job is to put the pitch RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE. So perhaps I;m a bit oversensitive to it. : )
It sounds like an opera aria. Put words to the solo part and have a bass or baritone sing it.