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Are they appropriate for tuba quartet? The harmonies are very close. I'm thinking of maybe 2 Euph's and Two Tubas (maybe an F and a BBb). Opinions?

These can work quite well--Rodger Vaughan did a book of these--originally they were the Miraphone Books, and now are listed as "American Favorites" and published by Tuba-Euphonium Press.

We play a few in our quartet and the trick is to really listen. Sometimes the melody will jump around the parts like crazy (2 notes here, 2 notes there) so we'll highlight the specific notes in our parts that are the melody and try to keep that line clear as it passes around from player to player. Then keeping the high voice dynamic beneath the melody when the melody stays in the 2nd part (most of the time) is the challenge for me. But they sure can sound sweet.

--paul;

Try a couple out--there are a few on the Choral Public Domain library. IMOHO, the harmonies are probably too close to sound good on the two lower voices, but ya never know.

CPDL: http://www.cpdl.org

Doc wrote:That's why tuning is extremely important.

You miss my point--in the lower voices, anything closer than a fifth is hopelessly muddy, tuning notwithstanding. In our library of perhaps 500 or so tuba-euphonium quartet pieces, there is quite a number that were rejected on that basis alone.

The trick in tuba-euphonium quartet is to keep the lower harmonies w-i-d-e and if possible, the rhythmic figures varied. Otherwise, the ear quickly tires of listening in the mud. So much of barbershop requires sustained tones and close harmonies that I wonder about any sort of audience appeal.

Of course, if you're not playing for an audience, that's a different matter entirely.

Our most successful (from a listening standpoint) tend to keep the 1st euphonium at middle C and above, with the 2nd euphonium no lower than 4th line F and 1st tuba no lower than 2nd line Bb. You have to be really careful with 1st and 2nd tuba harmonies--"normal" close intervals like thirds don't work very well.

andrada wrote:Chuck,

Taking it from the other direction, what instrumentation do you think would work best for barbershop (except good ol' vox humana).

4 horns ('french") would probably be ideal in the brasswind category, don't you think?

andrada wrote:Chuck,

Taking it from the other direction, what instrumentation do you think would work best for barbershop (except good ol' vox humana).

I know I wasn't asked but I think trombones can more easily get away with those tight harmonies. Their long cylindrical slides give them that nice clear (or pure) sound with, I think, fewer overtones that clash. I think that's why you can get away with playing some pretty cool jazzy chords in a trombone quartet - that just don't work in the tuba quartet.

--paul;