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...I did meet a bass once who could actually go all the way down to the F, a fourth BELOW that Bb (No kidding, I stood there and watched him do it)..[/b]
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Cool! but only after drinking two cans of Pepsi and an consuming entire Pizza in five minutes, right?
Maybe as a compromise you could put it in the score parenthetically; I've done it myself with notes as high as an E below the staff. Seeing notes that low may discourage some choirs (or conductors) from attempting the piece in the first place.
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On the subject of tempo, if I was conducting it, I would probably move it along in some places a little faster than written, and add a lot of rubato that's not heard in the MIDI. It's hard to electronically simulate the level of expression that I intended for this piece. It certainly wasn't intended to "plod" along at one tempo the whole time. I don't have specific marks for it to accel. or ritard., because I want that part to be open to a little interpretation.
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Though it is implied in this style that there is to be some flexibility, it doesn't hurt to give license to the idea by including it in the initial tempo indication. This doesn't mean that you can use a term like
freely or
rubato solely as a tempo indication, but certainly, you can include it with a valid one. Something like, Slowly and Freely, Quarter = ca. (circa) 63-72, may be a bit overboard, but it gets the message across. Occasionally, I have composed music that has taken on a life of it’s own under the hand of a different conductor, and it seems invariably, I like what I hear. Many times I’ll make the point of not ‘helping’ a conductor with these things because I enjoy seeing what they do with it. I don't want to discourage you from doing things properly but I must confess, I’m not particularly enamored by tempo markings. They’re so restrictive when proscribed liberally and consumed literally. For instance I’ve heard a recording of Appalachian Spring conducted by Copland himself as a young man, and then a recording conducted by the same man 30 or 40 years later. You want to talk about taking license with tempo! A range of 10 beats per minute wouldn’t even cover the spread. As you know, choirs have a way of settling into their own groove with every piece. By concert time, the presence of a conductor is practically a formality if they’ve done their job well. Well, maybe I'm exagerating just a tad.
Just a few things to think about.
Bottom line: Put a lot of thought into your tempo indications and other instructions.
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I can't wait to go to college and begin my major in Composition, so I can possibly have this piece performed (and perhaps even conduct it myself).
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Continue building your portfolio. Don’t worry about this one. It may or may not happen. If this piece is any indication of what’s to come, I’m quite sure you’ll get your opportunities.
Jul 9 2006, 4:27 PM
I don't know what he ate before he did it, I just know that I saw him do it! He was actually one of the choir directors from an area school who was attending All-State choir as a member of the organization that runs it. 
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