[robcat2075]

I notice that (presuming the pitches written will be the pitches played) there are three or four different opinions here on how to finger such a passage.

Given that, if the printed notation must suggest proper fingering… what could one possibly put on the printed page that would satisfy everyone?

For example, my original expectation was to alternate hands in groups of three like this (resembling Saul Davis Zlatkovski’s suggestion):

But that is not a majority view. There IS no majority view. What is the conscientious arranger/copyist to do?

[robcat2075]

The ugly fact for harpists is: Virtually all other musicians are hired to PLAY the part they are given. Harpists are hired to REWRITE AND PLAY the part they are given, except that they are only paid for the PLAY part.

I’m going to guess that this has only gotten worse since the advent of electronic scoring and playback tools. A composer or arranger can now write ANYTHING and hear it played back rhythmically perfect with some approximation of the instrumental timbres and that becomes the expectation.

I’m a member of a trombone group on Facebook and just about every week someone posts a snapshot of an absurdity they have encountered in a recording session or a pit-orchestra gig.

[robcat2075]

Thank you for your responses, encouraging or otherwise. 😀

I am previously familiar with harpists’ complaints about the writing in Wagner and yet somehow they manage to get the job done none-the-less so, in view of the several suggested solutions above, I figure this passage can be reasonably assigned to the harp.

And if not the harp… who? 😮

Why are you trying to work backwards from a piano reduction? Don’t the parts or score exist?

That is the problem! If they exist, there are no known publishers of for-sale or rental parts. This early Soviet-era composer’s work seems to have survived mostly in hand-made copies passed down from teacher to student. This present piece is one of his few commercially published concertos (out of 13 trombone concertos!) but it is billed only as “Concerto Nº 2 for Trombone and Fortepiano” with no hint anywhere of an availability of orchestral parts.

Good trombone concertos are rare things. This one could be a solid entry but the piano incarnation is a virtuoso’s nightmare and there is currently no option to perform it with orchestra so it is rarely performed except in rather diminished circumstances at student recitals.

[robcat2075]

But it is none-the-less playable by a typical harpist?

I can presume a competent harpist would be able to devise some workable fingering to execute the passage as written, right?

The tempo is around quarter note = 72

[robcat2075]

I’m seeing 9 notes up then 9 notes down, no?

I figured it might be broken into 3 notes per hand and that would make for left-right-left-right-left-right.

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