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My community band has started to rehearse John Krance's band transcription of Carmina Burana for our spring concert.

Scanning the tuba part I noticed that it calls for a range from pedal C to high E above the bass clef staff - nearly 3 1/2 octaves if my math is correct. It got me to wondering - excluding solo or avant garde pieces, what is the widest range called for a tuba part within a single work that you've encountered?

If you include Bydlo, then Pictures at an Exhibition.

I have not played, but hearing the piece thought Strauss Electra may be a candidate

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that most composers/arrangers who write ungodly high and low stuff for tubas have never played one!

But supposedly they have a friend or at least know some tuba virtuoso that is capable of playing at least five octaves, a lot of 128th notes in intervals over a couple of octaves in a quick tempo, slured and tongued, everything perfectly in tune without even one missed note for about ten minutes without a rest.

TubaTinker wrote:I've pretty much come to the conclusion that most composers/arrangers who write ungodly high and low stuff for tubas have never played one!

I had a conversation with John Adams once, and asked him how he came to write what he does for tuba, figuring that he MUST be friends with a Hollywood-studio-type tubist.

His resonse was just, "Oh, I don't know. That's just what I hear!"...

Lingon wrote:But supposedly they have a friend or at least know some tuba virtuoso that is capable of playing at least five octaves, a lot of 128th notes in intervals over a couple of octaves in a quick tempo, slured and tongued, everything perfectly in tune without even one missed note for about ten minutes without a rest.

You must mean John Finale and his cousin, Bob Sibelius.