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Has this ever been done by 4 tubas? I remember somewhere hearing it done that way. Is there an arrangement that can be purchased? If not, I'll gladly do it, but just checking beforehand. Thanks very much.

Hi Andy!

There's probably a pretty good reason why this has not been done with 4 tubas! The range of the low horn parts, when transposed to the tuba octave, would be in a really muddy tessitura.

While I am a HUGE fan of playing horn transcriptions, this along with the Brahms Trio, have always been off limits for me.

Give it a try, but I'm guessing that it will be so sonically different (in a bizarre kind of way) that you might want to punt. Not everything sounds good on the tuba!

Hope that you are well!

David Zerkel wrote:Hi Andy!

There's probably a pretty good reason why this has not been done with 4 tubas! The range of the low horn parts, when transposed to the tuba octave, would be in a really muddy tessitura...

In my memory the low horn parts aren't that challenging. (It's been a few years since I last "read through" the konzertstueck though, and also I chose my screen name for a reason )
The overall range of the piece is, in concert pitch, from B below the staff in bass clef to A above the staff in treble. If you take it an octave down for tubas, the notes ending up in the pedal range are not the most agile ones on horn either.

It has been done with three euphonums and a tuba.
The top horn part is often done on a descant, so it can be high for the first guy... but still do-able.

tuben wrote: Part of the reason the low two horn parts in the Konzertstuck are not very hard is because they were written for natural horn. Only the top parts were for valved horn.

I wouldn't (couldn't) like to play those parts on natural horn, and I am/was a professional natch player! Besides, there are plenty of #%^%$*^ hard horn parts which were written for natural horn.
The urban legend is that the first part of the Konzertstueck was performed on natural horn on the premiere, but that myth has few believers left. See: http://www.public.asu.edu/%7Ejqerics/folklore.htm
The parts are most definately for valved horns!