Posted by JAC on November 28, 2003 at 02:43:01:
In Reply to: Re: Yes!! posted by Jacob on November 26, 2003 at 20:58:15:
I used to totally agree with you on "tubas aren't meant to play this high"--but you find out quickly that that's not the case at all. I really much prefer to play "BAT-parts" like you find in some Wagner, in Prokofiev, in Shostakovich, etc., but ours is an instrument that--thankfully--changes timbre a great deal throughout its usuable register. This makes composers exploit its capabilities and its range.
In band music, you'd usually be right. We've all been stuck in the basement playing the "oom" of a march over and over again, and playing phrase-ending runs in those same marches that are all below the staff. Some band music taxes your upper range, but it's in the orchestral/chamber literature where you really get worked. Think of, for instance:
Wagner (Lohengrin excerpts, the big Meistersinger solo, the Flying Dutchman)
Berlioz (just about of any his works, but especially the opening of the fourth movement and last minute or so of the last movement of Symphonie Fantastique)
Poulenc: Babar the Elephant suite (nice piece, wicked hard orchestration for tuba: written pedal D# to E above middle C)
Mendelssohn (Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream)
Stravinsky (Rite of Spring Bb leaps, the Petrouschka dancing bear solo)
Strauss (Tuba 1 in Zarathustra)
Elgar (Sym No. 2: D above middle C just a couple bars into the piece)
Bozza (Sonatine--brass quintet)
Kleinsinger--Tubby the Tuba
[Note: this tiny list totally sidesteps the "CC/BBb or F/Eb" question (most people would use F/Eb for many of the things above if they could--even ophicleide for the Berlioz and Mendelssohn) and leaves out things like the Bydlo solo that are often (usually?) done on euphonium--as well as loads of other "high" tuba parts. And it leaves out practically all the solo rep (Vaughan WIlliams, John WIlliams--ye gods!, Koetsier Sonatina, Kraft Encounters, etc.).]
However--the cool thing about getting that Bb solidly and consistently (and eventually to the F above that) is that when you see the 4th-space G that might have made your palms sweat before, it's a piece of cake! There will still be things that are "hard" no matter how long you play or how many times you play them (I still eat my Wheaties before having to play the Rite, for instance), but knowing you can nail the extremes of range makes playing things near the extremes a lot of fun and that's a huge morale boster.
The "artistic" part of the Woodruff book lies in just that--making yourself not sound like 30 other tuba players squeaking out Bbs above the staff. I can guarantee there are things that are damned-near unplayable on violin, too...but the thing that distinguishes a great player from a good one is illustrated in the old musicians' cliche: "You should have enough technique to make what you're playing sound 'easy'." Other tubists might know a lick is "hard," but for anyone else to hear that in your sound is not the way to go. Notes really are the easy thing; any auditionee's main job is to make it sound like the notes are so far under your belt that you're just into making music. You may never have to play a double-high-Bb in actual music, but a hyper-extended range takes that much more weight off your ability to make music.
JAC
[ps--I don't care for the Woodruff book, either. :-) Only one I like less: the Otto Mainz book. Give me Rochut any day!]