TubeNet

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Mr Catlinet told me, at our only meeting (unfortunately for me) that it was the opposite, actually...RVW was writing a piece for harmonica and orchestra, and someone jokingly said, "you may as well write it for tyooba" as only the British can say the word. (Although Harvey tries.)

The Hindemith sonata was composed at about the same time as the VW, arguably, depending on which date is believed this week. I realize you're referring only to works original to tuba, but certainly there were a number of things adapted by Mr Bell and others.

I'm not sure of the ultimate result of the harmonica piece by VW. Heck, at times I'm not sure of the result of the tuba piece, frankly, for reasons you mention. Excluding the Romanza, of course.

Face it, tubas are funny. They do comical better than any other instrument.

A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals. The run two measures before 1 in the first movement usually presents the most problems for that instrument. I was actually playing some of the second movement today on my newly acquired bass. The low B proved tricky on a single valve horn; if I ever decide to seriously work it up I will definitely keep the slides pulled to flat E, and really woodshed my slide technique!

I've heard the second movement performed many times by cello. Usually it is refered to simply as "Romanza" by RVW, performed by XXXX on cello.

TMB

MartyNeilan wrote:A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals.

That must be really interesting!

The more extended story (and this is reasonably authoritative) was that RVW had difficulty composing the Romance for Harmonica in such a way that it pleased the commissionee, who was Adler. After a couple of revisions, RVW was ready to be done, and told friends that if this latest revision wasn't acceptable to Adler, he would just rescore the whole thing for bass tuba. But Adler was happy and that didn't happen.

The Tuba Concerto was always intended to be the Tuba Concerto. The note that the Romanza can be played by other instruments was probably put there by a publisher hoping to expand the market for the work.

(James, get Kennedy's biography of RVW if you want to explore this composer more fully.)

Yes, there is real humor in the piece, if the performer is prepared to giggle a bit. And the piece makes a lot more sense when that happens. Honest appraisal: Catelinet's technique was not up to the challenge and his performance (as recorded the day following the premiere) told no story. Bell's American Premiere performance with the Little Orchestra from the next year had the humor and told the story, despite some technical flaws. The subsequent recorded performances (including those usually listed as the reference recordings of the work) lacked the humor, despite in a couple of cases (Fletcher and Lind) being beautiful and flawless, until Hans Nickel undertook it a few years ago. It's much easier to listen to when the tuba player is having a good time and not taking the music or himself too seriously.

Saying it is RVW's "worst" work could also mean that he picked the "worst" solo instrument in the orchestra to compose for. The remaining literature is not exactly replete with examples of tuneful, orchestra-accompanied concerti for tuba. If RVW missed the mark, he's in good company.

Rick "noting that string basses and contrabassoons don't have much solo lit either" Denney

other composers wrote concertos for the harmonica, and I don't believe them to be comic pieces.

As tuba players we all play fast and loose with pieces written for other instruments, and we all say "just because he didn't write tuba on the score..." so we play bassoon and horn concertos by mozart, the cello suites of bach, songs by schubert and so on and on, so if another instrumentalist wants to play the romance from the tuba concerto, I say let them do it (even the euphonium players ).

A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals.

They must be some real "bad ***" players!

TubaBobH wrote:

A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals.

They must be some real "bad ***" players!

Here at OSU, pretty much at least one bass trombone student a year performs the RVW (at least for the last three years). Doing the piece as an accompanist with them has been my first opportunities to play a piece I had performed several times on tuba. It's always a strange experience to play piano for a piece that you're very familiar with as a soloist. The RVW piano part is wicked hard, and it's simply impossible to play everything notated in the piano part. It is one of the worst orchestral reductions ever put to paper...at least some of them have the decency to put unplayable notes in a smaller font!

And yes, it is generally the best players in the studio that attempt this piece on bass trombone, particularly the outer movements. One student actually won the Crescendo Competition in Tulsa last year using RVW as one of his pieces. This year he went easier...he's doing the John Williams Tuba Concerto, Bozza's New Orleans (very similar to much of the Concertino for Tuba), the David Gillingham Sonata, the Lantier Introduction, Romance, and Allegro, Sachse (of course), the Lebedev Concerto in One Movement, and a couple of Galliard Sonatas (complete). A pretty big mouthful, but I'm still hoping he'll work up the Schnyder Bass Trombone Concerto (subZero). That thing is fun to play!

TubaBobH wrote:

A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals.

They must be some real "bad ***" players!

I would think so -- no doubt many probing questions and lots of analysis associated with preparation for the aforementioned examinations ...

Kevin Hendrick wrote:

TubaBobH wrote:

A lot of bass trombone players use the VW on rectals.

They must be some real "bad ***" players!

I would think so -- no doubt many probing questions and lots of analysis associated with preparation for the aforementioned examinations ...

At this rate, we will soon be very deep into this subject.