APO players’ rehearsal and practice wiki

The APO players’ practice and rehearsal wiki captures information from rehearsals, to help any players who couldn’t make a given session, or to help those who were there remember what happened! The source of that information is YOU – the APO players. Send us your observations on Facebook, Twitter, email, the comments box below, or use the white sheets at rehearsals, and Andrew will transcribe it onto this page for everyone to see.

Practice tempi for The Planets

Mars

  • Allegro – crotchet = 132 (and thus the minim speed in the 5/2 section is 64)

Venus

  • Adagio – crotchet = 60-70
  • Andante – 80-90
  • Largo – 50-60

Mercury

  • Dotted minim = 72 (probably easier to set your metronome to dotted crotchet = 144, for practice)

Jupiter

  • Allegro giocoso – crotchet = 120
  • Figure V – crotchet = 160-170 (not as fast as you think and I’ll probably hold it a little bit back from this, but good for practice!)
  • Piu mosso (which we reach via the stringendo) – crotchet = 180-190 (beat in 1 – dotted minim = 60)
  • Andante maestoso – crotchet = 84
  • Tempo 1 at X will probably be a little faster than the beginning (132 or so) before returning to the opening 120 at the Maestoso
  • XV – more like the 180 immediately it’s meant to be the first time (cos there’s no accelerando to worry about, this time round!)
  • (Lento Maestoso is the same beat as the 1 in a bar (60) before it.)
  • Presto – a very exciting minim (1 in a bar) = 96!

Saturn

  • Adagio – crotchet = 74
  • Poco animato – crotchet = 86
  • Animato sections and Andante from V – crotchet = 90 (minim = 45)

Uranus

  • Allegro – dotted minim = 112
  • Largo (worth practising for breathing and sustaining the sound!) – crotchet = 58

Neptune

  • Andante – crotchet = 84
  • Allegretto – crotchet = 96