Posted by Rick Denney on November 20, 2002 at 13:21:56:
In Reply to: Vaughan Williams posted by Chris Horsch on November 20, 2002 at 11:11:42:
I think Vaughan Williams must have had a small Barlow F tuba in mind when he wrote the music. That was the standard orchestral instrument in England at the time. British orchestral tubists didn't switch to EEb until the 60's, if I'm remembering my history correctly, and Fletcher was one of the first to legitimize the EEb for orchestral use.
Wagner clearly knew the difference between F tubas and C or Bb tubas. Some of his parts are written for bass tuba, and others for contrabass tuba, as marked by him (or his contemporary publisher) on the scores and parts.
In France, the standard tuba was a C euphonium with six valves at the time Ravel was composing.
I mention Ravel because Vaughan Williams studied with him in 1908 or thereabouts, and learned much about orchestration from him. Considering the instruments that would have been played in all the orchestras RVW conducted, the instruments known to his orchestration teachers, and what RVW knew about Wagner (which was considerable), I can only conclude that he both knew the difference between a bass tuba and a contrabass tuba, and that he fully intended his work to be on the F tuba, which was the standard British orchestral tuba of the day.
When you look at the runs in the first movement, they lay beautifully on the F tuba (except for one pesky low F#), particularly in the first-movement cadenza, which can mostly be played using only the first valve. The tessitura of the work falls in line with the bass tuba, considering the playing standards of the day, despite that modern players and past greats can manage it on a contrabass tuba. We all aren't Roger Bobo or Arnold Jacobs.
For the well-known DG recording, Jacobs specifically used a Besson of the design used by Philip Catelinet in the premiere (of which I have the recording made the next day). Personally, I think this was a mistake. I think he'd have sounded better with a bigger rotary F. But it's hard to judge, because DG used tracks of the cadenzas made when he was warming up, not when he was prepared to make the recording. The Fletcher recording is much better; in fact, I prefer all the other recordings I've heard with the exception of the premiere.
Rick "who was a Vaughan Williams fan before he had ever heard the Tuba Concerto" Denney