it was ok... it definitely sounded difficult. not my favorite piece ever but its kind of catchy. id play it, needless to say.

good point, that Romberg is not played enough, and many don't know it...

My favourite concerto is Reinecke ...closely followed by Rodrigo. And I also like Mercadante in E minor. But I'm not a fan of Ibert though!!

Ooh.. yes, I forgot about the Romberg b minor! LOVE that one!
I can't get the Mercandante up so speed because of the darn triplets. They always through me off. Any suggestions?

first, practice the melody they are written around, slowly, then all slurred, slowly, then try it as written

Patrick...I just saw your request to stop an idiotic debate over which concerto was better. I have to say I am beside myself right now because I only responded to Kate's reply about liking Ibert, but not liking music that she feels is just written to play lots of notes. Kate and I have discussed this before, and she had said differently during that discussion re: Ibert...I was clarifying with her, and it seems she was clarifying herself at the same time by modifying her post. I would rather wish that people would stay out of side conversations that particularly do not pertain to them. There was no debate...there was nothing idiotic, and there was nothing concerning Rodrigo. As you can see, I did not debate with whomever brought up the beautiful 2nd mvt. of the Ibert. Was that because I agreed, or because I didn't WANT to start an idiotic debate. I value your opinions Patrick, but don't jump the gun on assuming someone has malice toward another's views.

Thanks Patrick and Prodigy. I was playing them very slowly last night with my metronome and I finally started to get it. It took me forever to get used to double tounging but now I can do it in my sleep so now I really need to work on my triple tounging. I have been lazy with that.

point taken Dennis, I guess I should stay out of some of these debates...

I see it more as expressions of opinions than a debate, really.

ive noticed that the more people i talk to, i find less and less people who like modern (20th century) instrumental music. strange because in the other sense, i find more and more who are fond of the classical era. strange, i always thought it was the other way around.

A couple of my favorite instrumentalist are both very modern. I love the music of Arndreas Vollenweider and David Arkenstone, and that music is almost completely instrumental and of course very modern. For me there are styles, and I pick what I like from each of the styles.

Or a in a more radical way, it could be looked at this way. There are NO styles, and things should have no classification since it only inhibits the music and prevents it from expanding beyond a genre. We use styles only to describe something in conversation, and when we do that maybe we limit the possibilities of a piece, and make it less than what it could be in the human mind. Just because a song was written in 1785 does not mean that it is a classical period piece. It might be a rock piece, and Mozart might have written Jailhouse Rock! Who knows? Right?

not my meaning. mozart wrote his pieces during the time period known as the classical period. bozza wrote his in the time period known as the modern period. some composers try to "copy" the style that was most popular during other periods, but they still wrote in their own time. ex: i wrote a piece that sounds like a bach sonata. im in 2007. im a modern composer, no matter what the style is like. i just find more and more people every day who arent fans at all of the more recently written work. but its all a matter of taste. i dont like baroque at all, classical isnt my favorite, romantic is nice, i love modern. for me, it gets better with every "period." but if you dont like the jacob concerto because you dont think it has a melody doesnt make it a bad piece because the next person may think its the best thing since internet.

<Added>

re-reading makes me wondering what would happen if all of us just had this conversation in person...


oh, geez.

Ok, I think you are taking me to literal, I truly understood what you were saying and I agree with it. I know people label music as classical or baroque even though it was written in 2007. I am going beyond that here..this idea is a SUPPOSE and I am calling it a RADICAL idea. Now can we just SUPPOSE for fun here? It's not a debate, it's a "suppose", and a "what if" scneario.

Now this is a radical thought to most people and not necessarily my belief at all but let's examine it for FUN:

What I was talking about were descriptions alone having caused limits in music, and I was suggesting that maybe removing all descriptions, including classical, etc, would allow the music to grow in more subtle ways, and become more pure. Everytime a person says it sounds classical, baroque or romantic, then it gets a label and a stylization is slapped on it. I am just saying consider how much more pure something might be if it had less stylization descriptions or labels, maybe NOT calling it rock, jazz, or blues, and see where it might go? Music is labled too much for our own selfish reasons like we don't want to hear RAP, or we don't want to hear jazz and we do want to heard rock. Maybe we should open our minds a little a leave the stylizations alone is all I am saying. (Ok, this SUPPOSE is over now)

I wonder where music would go if people just played what they felt without conscious effort of fitting into some uptight style. Where would the sounds would go, and what instrumentation would be used? Imagine a blues violin, or a jazz harpsichord, or maybe and just maybe a heavy metal flute? (no way anyone would ever win a heavy metal award on flute!)
Now, on the other side of the fence, how would we package music up to sell to the igonorant public? How would we be able to talk about music without a reference point? How dare anyone suggest that a few points as a reference point would have much if any affect on a song or in music in general. This is all absurd and should be passed off as poppycock!

i think we should play some heavy metal on flute. it is made of metal afterall...


all in favor of metallica on flute say i!

I think I will arrange something for flute and harpsichord by Rob Zombie, I am actually really into metal...