Technical demands on brains and fingers increase continuously. Indeed, with the "impossible" music some composers are dreaming up these days it's getting even worse. So, beginning with this issue I will include a column of ideas, for specific problem note combinations, trills, etc. This was a very popular feature of WOODWIND magazine years ago, and I am sure it will be welcomed again. If any readers would like to contribute fingerings to this column, please mail them to me stating clearly (1) the purpose or need for the fingering, (2) exactly how to finger the note or notes mentioned and (3) indicate if there is a tendency towards flatness or sharpness for any given note. Thank you very much.
2. Opening of the Overture to Mozart's La Nozze di Figaro (to begin very softly with safety, and to avoid the resistance met in playing the first f# with the normal fingering)
3. c#/d trill at opening of Finale movement of Beethoven Second Symphony. The abnormal c# fingering gives a resonant note which can be easily "lipped" in tune if slightly sharp or flat; the trill is simple, requiring the movement of only one finger; and the resolution to b - by sliding R.H. 1 off the c/c# key to the first finger hole - is not really difficult.
4. Opening statement of O. Resphigi's Pines of Rome (Thanks to L. Hugh Cooper, University of Michigan.) All the d'' 's with this fingering: (1); all the c'' 's with this addition (2); The a' after b'-flat (2nd triplet of 2nd bar) (3)
5. The difficult tremolo (d' to f'# for both bassoon I and II) at the end of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 (Thanks to Mordechai Rechtman. Israel Philharmonic.)
