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Does anyone know if the Brahms Requiem has a Tuba part?

Yes. And there's a little tricky high stuff in it.
Roger

Thank you, Roger!

There's a pretty prominent high f in one of the latter movements as well as a strong bass tbone/tuba lick around the top of and slightly above the staff in one movement .In other words,what Roger said...F tuba,will need a little looking at...

tuben wrote:

Roger Lewis wrote:Yes. And there's a little tricky high stuff in it.
Roger

If you have high chops, the passage to high f in movement 5 won't be a challenge... In my opinion the hard part is the second movement where you are unison with the third trombone, bassoons, celli, basses and bass voices of the chorus. It's just in that comfortable top of the staff range that wants to really carry and you have to work like hell to tame it down and not everwhelm everyone else.

RC

Ditto; watch out for the key changes. The last tuba player I did this with (when on bass bone) didn't pick up on that.

The last time I performed this work was just a few months after I had sold my MW F tuba, and all I had was a MW CC 2145 with a PT-50 mouthpiece. Acting on Roger Lewis' advice, I bought a Wick 3L mouthpiece and that helped a great deal on the high-range lick towards the end of the piece. The Brahm's Requiem is a very beautiful work and I hope you enjoy playing it.

Brahms did NOT write a Requiem Mass. Ein deutsches Requiem is NOT a Mass. It was intended to be non-demoninational, even to an extent non-religious. The text is from a translation of the Bible by Martin Luther.

yes and it's fun

Sorry the indents on new paragraphs, and footnotes are not working properly(copy/paste from Word), but here is a paper I wrote on the Requiem last year.

Enjoy!





Occasionally, a composition breaks free of the ever-present mold and is given a chance to be truly unrestricted from the past. This requires a certain type of composer. What causes a person to set off down an uncharted trail? Conceivably, it might be a brave soul that feels the call of the unknown, seeking the concealed that is there to be found. Johannes Brahms heard the call and accepted the challenge of writing one of the greatest choral works of his day. If not for his unerring perseverance, and the willingness to utilize an untried plan, the German Requiem might never have been. Brahms’s German Requiem breaks new ground by employing text from the Protestant Bible as well as introducing a new form of multiple movements. Brahms exercises his personal feelings and ideas to produce an independent work that defies tradition. This paper will illuminate the text through the music, as Brahms radically broke from the Catholic tradition to compose a requiem in a way that had never been done before.
Brahms’s mother passed away in early 1865, and it is thought that the requiem was composed in her memory. Another circumstance that is suspected as well was the death later that same year of his good friend and colleague, Robert Schumann. In the spring of 1865, Brahms had almost finished the first, second, and fourth movements. The second movement, however, contained bits of original material derived earlier in 1854. This material had originally been intended to be part of a choral work; however it was abandoned when Brahms traveled to assist Clara Schumann and her seven children after Robert’s mental collapse. By 1866, the long-awaited fifth movement was finished, which includes words from Isaiah 66:13, “I will comfort ye as a mother comforteth.â€

Ditto; watch out for the key changes.

Ouch, been there, done that.

Great work.

Chuck"pencil impaired no more after that rehearsal"Jackson

All of the spirited dialogue on this is compelling me to grab a recording of this...

Best suggestion of one to look for?

There is a very good recording with Haitink/Vienna Philharmonic. i have it on LP, i'm not sure if its available on CD or not. Viennese F tubas seem to be just the thing for this work.

There is a very good recording with Haitink/Vienna Philharmonic. i have it on LP, i'm not sure if its available on CD or not. Viennese F tubas seem to be just the thing for this work.

If you are looking for the best prepared choir and soloists, You can't beat Robert Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony. Orchestra plays extremely well.

Speaking of Vienna F tubas, pull up the YouTube video of Vienna doing Mahler 7. The tuba player is using a Vienna system F. The bell is bigger, but there is a shot of him and the horn has the 3+3 set up. The guy lays it down. No problem being heard and fatter than one might expect.

The best documentation of the Old Style Vienna F is on a DVD of Hans Knappersbusch conducting the VPO in 1961 at the May Festival. The concert ends with Academic Festival Overture and there are many shots of the tuba player using a small Dehmal F. Interesting sound, especially at the end. You can hear it, that's for sure. It is different to our ears, but perfect for that orchestra in that day and time.

The same gentleman is on a DVD with the same forces doing a concert version of the first act of Seigfreid. He is using a HUGE BBb. Can't tell what it is, but it's big and he is sitting next to a 4 valve contrabass trombone, or probably a 4 valve bass trombone in F. Great performance.

Chuck Jackson wrote:If you are looking for the best prepared choir and soloists, You can't beat Robert Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony. Orchestra plays extremely well.

Speaking of Vienna F tubas, pull up the YouTube video of Vienna doing Mahler 7. The tuba player is using a Vienna system F. The bell is bigger, but there is a shot of him and the horn has the 3+3 set up. The guy lays it down. No problem being heard and fatter than one might expect.

The best documentation of the Old Style Vienna F is on a DVD of Hans Knappersbusch conducting the VPO in 1961 at the May Festival. The concert ends with Academic Festival Overture and there are many shots of the tuba player using a small Dehmal F. Interesting sound, especially at the end. You can hear it, that's for sure. It is different to our ears, but perfect for that orchestra in that day and time.

The same gentleman is on a DVD with the same forces doing a concert version of the first act of Seigfreid. He is using a HUGE BBb. Can't tell what it is, but it's big and he is sitting next to a 4 valve contrabass trombone, or probably a 4 valve bass trombone in F. Great performance.

I'd love to see these DVD's. I'm going to check Amazon or them right now.

The fact that this piece has been my one and only opportunity in orchestral tuba performance (way back when) makes me both smile and cry at the same time.

Side note: if you look at the full score (or choir part), look up that "Herr, lehre doch mich..." baritone solo (Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days... as mentioned earlier).
It´s a beautiful solo worth playing on tuba for the joy of it.