Posted by Daryl on June 07, 2002 at 13:56:06:
In Reply to: High School atonality posted by Nick on June 07, 2002 at 12:03:21:
Hi Nick,
It's hard to say without hearing you play - there is a pretty wide range of ability levels in high school players. I've heard many high-school level musicians attempt the Hindemith Sonate (which, if memory serves correctly, isn't really *atonal* but is fairly difficult and tends to hang out in the outer quadrants of tonality), some better than others. The best thing is to probably just hit some pieces and see what happens. So, in no particular order;
Hindemith Sonate for Tuba and Piano
Unaccompanied Suite by Walter Hartley
Canto VII by Samuel Adler for unaccompanied tuba (this is a BLOW!! Enter at your own peril!)
Tuba Suite by Gordon Jacob (Tuba and Piano) has a couple of movements that feature extended harmony.
And on and on and on. Whatever you choose, expect -
Wide intervals (AKA Jumping around the horn)
extreme high and low register playing (One of the more challenging things in my Master's recital at MSU was belting out a series of contrabass F's at FFF in Canto VII)
odd rhythms and frequent metric shifts (if you're repeatedly thrown by a change in meter in band, this may not be the ticket for you)
THAT BEING SAID, just make sure you don't neglect other types of music. Just because playing really hard contemporary art music has a certain "jock" appeal to it, doesn't mean that you can't challenge yourself with some of the old masters. Take a blow through the Bach Cello Suites sometime, and you'll see what I mean.
Hope I helped,
Daryl