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Belkis, Regina di Saba (Belkis, Queen of Sheba) by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Musik for Prague 1968 by Karel Husa

We´ll be playing these with Wind Band this season. I may be mistaken, but I believe the Respighi to be a transcription from a piece written for Orchestra, while I expect the 2nd piece to be an original Band composition.
Anybody know these works ? Cool tuba parts as in Fontani Di Roma ? Real fun stuff ? Tons of rests to count ?

I performed the Husa centuries ago. It is very modern in sound and performance techniques. As I recall, there is a spot where the tuba is asked to play the lowest possible note. I may be wrong, but I believe you even trill that note. As I said, it was several centuries ago. I may have forgotten just a little bit in that span of time. By the way, I performed this in a somewhat large concert band.

Huh !? Lowest possible note ? Trill ? Bwaha!!
Sounds like lots of fun coming up.

And yes, we´ll be playing this in a large band, varying in size each season according to the requirements of the current repertoire. We´ve been as many as 98 and as few as 65 people. That´ll be the Sinfonisches Blasorchester Vorarlberg (SBV), http://www.sbv.co.at , in case you´re interested.

As I recall, there is a spot where the tuba is asked to play the lowest possible note.

Ray,

That indication is in "Apotheosis of the Earth" by Husa. I have only conducted the orchestral Version of "Music for Praque" and my orchestral score doesn't indicate that, which doesn't mean anything of course since I don't have the wind band score (is "wind band" an oxymoron?). I remember playing Apotheosis in college and having to pick the lowest note possible and play it as loud as possible for a given number of seconds. Not sure about the trill. Oh yeah, killer bass sax part in Apotheosis, too.

Hope the band Tubeast plays in has a killer piccolo player. Praque is hard for that particular instrument.

Chuck

You are indeed correct, Chuck. I must have been asleep this morning. I'm awake enough to recognize that you are correct. In fact, oddly enough, I have never played Music for Prague. I hope this condition gets remedied sometime in the near future.