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I am doing a little survey to compile a list of the "top 10" orchestral pieces for a tubist to play. They don't have to be "blast-fest" type pieces, just satisfying to play, from the tuba chair.


What would your top 3 choices be?


(if people are interested, I'll generate a master list of the results)

Prokofiev 5th
Mahler 6th
Pictures at an Exhibition

Shostakovich 5
Pictures
Symphonie Fantastique (Havent actually played this one yet)

The Planets
Rite of spring
Mahler 1
Peterloo

Rite of spring especially brings back a lot of memories when I hear it

The one where I count rests for half an hour and then play really loud for 12 measures.

(Wait, that's most of them.)

Brucker - 8th Symphony
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet
Holst - The Planets Suite

The Elgar "Enigma Variations" , commonly an audition piece, is one of my favourites to play. It covers the range of stylistic playing from subtle blending to let er rip lead the charge. You don't even have to count all of the rests and can sit back and enjoy listening.

Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and of course the P.I.T. concerto #4 for tuba and orchestra are good fun too.

Prokofiev- 5th
Wagner- Die Mistersinger
Stravinsky- Rite of Spring
Mahler- 5th
Prokofiev- 7th

Three of my many favorites are as follows:

• Bruckner Symphony #7
  Vaughn-Williams Symphony #1, The Sea
  Strauss Ein Heldenleben

Sibelius 2
Dvorak Cello Concerto and Symphony 8
Les Preludes
Russian Easter
Magic Fire Music/Ride/Gods go to Valhalla

I love it when someone writes characteristically for the instrument.
Particular favorites:
Vaughan Williams - 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7. (But why not 5, damn it?)
Strauss - Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel, Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Rimski-Korsakov - Scheherezade, Russian Easter Overture.
Shostakovich - 5, 7, 9, 10, 13.
Sibelius - 1, 2 (and then what the hell happened?)
John Adams - Short Ride, The Chairman Dances, Harmonielehre.

I don't think Prokofieff did his own orchestrations, but whoever did 5 made me very happy.

John Adams writes extremely well for tuba.

I had a chance to talk to him once, so I asked him why he wrote such great parts, thinking that he must be good friends with or have access to a very good tubist.

His reply?

"That's just what I hear."

Die Meistersinger Overture... the challenges and subtlety
Nutcracker (though I prefer playing bass bone on it, I just love it!)
Shostakovitch 9

Pictures
Bruckner 8

So far so good. Now it gets tough... I love Shosta 9. And Sibelius 2. And Mahler 2. And of course The Planets. Also Shosta 10. And Romeo & Juliet.

I'm playing Poulenc's Babar very soon and I just grabbed the tuba part.. Damn!

I think the most beautiful tuba part ever written is Mahler's 6th.

Casca Grossa wrote:Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds by John Cage

Does that have a tuba part? If so, is it usually played on a CC, or an F?

The John Cage piece IS actually published and copyrighted.

When I was performing a piano inventory at a university, I walked into the composition professor's studio (what a mess!) and found on the music desk of his piano...the Peters Edition of Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds. It had the standard light green Peters cover and the pages within were...blank.

Now back to the Favorite Tuba Orchestral Pieces (these lists are quite interesting)...

1) Tchaikovsky 4
2) Fountains of Rome
3) Shostakovich 5