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We always hear of "moving", "touching", "otherwordly", and "ethereal" solo performances by flute, oboe, english horn, french horn players and the like. Occassionally, an especially pratice-minded keyboard player will also open simian faucets all over the audience.

Thus:

Is the tuba capable of playing such moving melodies as well? Does the natural sound, draught of music, or reputation of the tuba prevent it from becoming as heart-rendingly good at making people cry?

Have you ever cried at a beautiful solo tuba performance?

yes...but thats because i'm a tuba player and I love the sound of my instrument.

In my opinion, the emotion conveyed has very little to do with the instrument, it all has to do with the musician and the expression they are using. I do think that a lot of tuba players (especially me) could pick up things from other intruments, such as vibrato like a euphonium player, that kind of thing. Last weekend at the Rock mountain ITEA conference there was at least one that was truly moving on the tuba side and Adam Frey on his Euphonium, was spectacular, he did make people visibly cry. Well there's my two cents.

Ben Dennis

Let's take the last question and substitute a mature "developed" cousin-instrument:

Have you ever cried at a beautiful solo contrabassoon performance?

My answer is "not even come close to crying". It just isn't in the instrument.

Iintensely emotion-provoking performances on cello are quite common, but no so on the double-bass. Thus, it would seem that we could admit to the euphonium having more potential in that department than the tuba.

A tuba is useful for sounding comical, however--as is the contrabassoon. At least that's something.

Steve Sykes at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago. Just him on stage and a piano, can't remember what the slow quiet piece was, but it ended on something high and soft that went on forever.

Time stood still!

CB

I have never made anyone cry playing the tuba in a solo, concert, or recording situation. Not that I would know that for sure. But I have broken down many a soul playing solo in church on Saturdays. On the tuba.

When I read your subject line I thought I was finally going to be enlightened as to why the Yamaha YEP-201 student rental we have for my son has been dubbed The Spit Magnet around here. Never in my life have I played an instrument that needed to be emptied so often. Happily the YEP 321 we bought can handle its spit and The Spit Magnet goes back today.

Oystein Baadsvik, "Tuba Carnival", suite for Tuba and strings by Swedish composer whose name was, I think, Arild Plau.

Very touching slow movement. Oystein sure has a story to tell here. Didn´t quite cry, but sure get sad when I hear it.

This is composed as a tuba piece in medium to high register, and I figure it is most important, as said earlier in this thread, to have original tuba music rather than transcriptions to really do the job.

3 of my most touching tuba moments- Sotto Voce's Lord's Prayer and Benediction, Pat Sheridan's Ave Maria...

I've heard a few grade school tuba players that made me cry, and made my ears hurt.

I think the tuba has the ability to produce the same type of soulful sounds a cello makes (unlike the contra-bassoon -- a "burping bedpost", as my choir director calls it). To me it seems to have the capacity to be one of the more emoting instruments, and evokes powerful emotional response when played that way.

But beyond its capacity as a solo instrument, the tuba is essential to an evocative brass chorale sound. My son's marching band did a patriotic show this year that had a bit of drama in the middle, as the band played a very soft chorale version of America the Beautiful. The drummers, in WWII era army uniforms, played the part of soldiers returning from war to their girlfriends, played by flag-corps girls. One girl, however, was unable to find her young man, and was instead ultimately met by an officer presenting her with a folded flag. The scene was powerful, but the accompanying music ended with a cadence of three sustained chords with the biggest (not loudest), roundest bass sounds underneath, and they MADE the thing work. Tears? Yeah. I saw it probably 12 times, cried like a baby every time. No way would it have packed the same punch without the tubas (and if anyone is wondering, no, my son wasn't one of them).
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Joe Baker, who think that writers of organ music understand the effect of low notes on the emotions.

I think, as has been sort of said, that its not a fault of the player, its often a fault of the repretoire. Typical tuba players never encounter a phrase in band music, and rarely do in orchestral works. I mean, of course, phrase in the terms of a melodic idea instead of symply phrasing within harmonic and rhythmic support.

We are thrown less phrases every day than the typical ____ player. Almost everyone else gets a shot at playing the melody once in a while.

I have a big gripe with solo pieces. Other than the great, well-known pieces, there isnt much good stuff out there. There is way too much "His Majesty the Tuba" style writing. While this type of writing has its place, I believe that it falls seriously short in the melodic department.

Arrangements of pieces for other instruments occasionally come close to being interesting, but there are way too many out there that seem to be transcribed for tuba simply to fill a gap in a time period, not because of thier intrinsic melodic value.

If we as tuba players continue to limit ourselves and make excuses regarding our equipment, those composers and other musicians will never truly respect us as solo players. It is a great truth that the player makes the phrase, not the instrument. Also, if you stop to think about it, what brass instrument truly is done evolving? What about trombones as an example... the so called F attachment only came into being very recently. Correct me if I am wrong, but double french horns havent been around for that long either.

That is just my two cents.

I have thoroughly enjoyed, mostly intellectually, many solo tuba performances. I can only remember one time, though, when I was emotionally moved by a solo tuba performance - it was a jazz concert by Jim Self (B.Y.U. Octubafest in 1990). I don't even remember what he played - I just remember that the energy he brought to the room went beyond being a tuba player, and created a moving musical experience.

I've been emotionally moved as a performer, but never when playing solo material - only when playing in a full orchestra and when I found the performance and music as a whole, not just my part, to be moving.

On the issue of whether I've ever cried from a musical performance (or tuba performance), well, I'm a tuba player, so I don't talk about that kind of thing . . .

cellobasso wrote: The glory of a cello or violin isn’t so much the sound, but rather the many ways in which the sound can be manipulated to resemble human voices.

This touches on what I was going to say; as a long-time violinist, I really do feel my violin (as opposed to "the violin") has a voice. Its voice, not my voice; I entice it to sing, I cajole it to sing, I flirt with it. After three years with the tuba, I recognize its voice too. It is a male voice, like a baritone singer or a bass singer. I can, at times, also entice it to sing...and it will. I think my background on violin has helped me immensely with the brass instruments in terms of musicality. That Jewish/Italian culture that is behind the violin music, can be applied to any instrument and any music. The tuba can sing!! And it has a fantastically beautiful voice.

MA

MaryAnn wrote: This touches on what I was going to say; as a long-time violinist, I really do feel my violin (as opposed to "the violin") has a voice. Its voice, not my voice; I entice it to sing, I cajole it to sing, I flirt with it. After three years with the tuba, I recognize its voice too. It is a male voice, like a baritone singer or a bass singer. I can, at times, also entice it to sing...and it will. I think my background on violin has helped me immensely with the brass instruments in terms of musicality. That Jewish/Italian culture that is behind the violin music, can be applied to any instrument and any music. The tuba can sing!! And it has a fantastically beautiful voice.

And so, Mary Ann, you think the Barber Adagio can evoke more emotions when played by a tuba quartet than by a string quartet. That Chopin is better played on a tuba than on a piano?

Check out Patrick Sheridan's rendition of "Danny Boy." The only better version is by John McDermont, and these are the only ones that activate the waterworks for me.

Mary Ann's comaprison to a good baritone singer is excellent.

I also agree with the posts about phrasing and musical ideas. Very few tuba players can come close to Mr. Sheridan's skill in this area. I would definitley call him the "standard" for this type of playing.

I can't say I have ever been moved to tears by any instrumental performance. I have been moved to tears by a very very few vocal performances. This is not to say that I haven't been moved but to say that the ability to move an audience is controlled by a number of things 1.) the nature of the piece played, 2.) the sound of the "voice" expressing the music and 3.) the musicallity and pssion of the musician playing or singing the music.

I think that just about any instrument can move an audience. Every instrument has a unique voice and personality. Therefore every instrument has different roles in ensemble playing. Every instrument also has a different range of "thoughts" and emotions it is more suited for espressing. The contrabassoon is often quite humorous. The flute is lyrical. And on and on. I think that the tuba is capable of an extremely huge range of emotion when played well. The tuba's voice is not that of a cello nor is it quite as similar to the human voice but one of the great strengths of the tuba ( when manipulated by an EXCELLENT player) is it's ability to imitate many many many different styles. Although it will sound different a Bahc cello suite can be just as soulful and beautiful on tuba. I won't go so far as to say anything sounds better on tuba( ok well I AM a tuba player so I think alot of things sound pretty great on tuba but... being as unbiased as I can be). The tuba CAN SING.
It is nice to play beautiful melodies that make audiences cry but you know its just as important and at least as much fun( if not more) to make an audience laugh and we ample opportunity to do that so we should take those opportunities and make the most of them. And to get a good chuckle requires just as much finnesse and power as getting tears its jsut different.
It has been said before but one of the reasons people don't cry at tuba music is what we play. A lot of times we play funny or bombastic music so...
The tuba is a relatively young instrument there are fewer players with the skill of great oboists or fluatists or pianists or... But we are getting there and My unbiased opinion as a tuba player is that the tuba is the best and most versatile instrument. We can go from omm pah omm pah to beautifully lyrical solos we can make our audiences laugh and I think with enough skill we can make our audiences cry.
Amy

I have cried from intense laughing, while listening to some things, but that is usually not in public!

Chuck(G) wrote:

MaryAnn wrote: This touches on what I was going to say; as a long-time violinist, I really do feel my violin (as opposed to "the violin") has a voice. Its voice, not my voice; I entice it to sing, I cajole it to sing, I flirt with it. After three years with the tuba, I recognize its voice too. It is a male voice, like a baritone singer or a bass singer. I can, at times, also entice it to sing...and it will. I think my background on violin has helped me immensely with the brass instruments in terms of musicality. That Jewish/Italian culture that is behind the violin music, can be applied to any instrument and any music. The tuba can sing!! And it has a fantastically beautiful voice.

And so, Mary Ann, you think the Barber Adagio can evoke more emotions when played by a tuba quartet than by a string quartet. That Chopin is better played on a tuba than on a piano?

I think you missed my point. I wasn't aware we were having a contest here.
MA

Ames0325 wrote: It is nice to play beautiful melodies that make audiences cry but you know its just as important and at least as much fun( if not more) to make an audience laugh and we ample opportunity to do that so we should take those opportunities and make the most of them. And to get a good chuckle requires just as much finnesse and power as getting tears its just different.

I would say I mostly agree with you, here. I believe the ideal is when we are able to convey the full range of emotions. Certainly crying and laughter are among those. A musician must know what emotions he/she is attempting to convey from the music to the listener. Once this is determined, the musician must then use the acquired skills to manipulate the instrument in such a way as to achieve this. This is where many, many aspiring musicians get stuck. This may be especially true with the tuba. From this standpoint, the tuba is a bit awkward.

I have heard this put in terms similar to this. Using a tuba to perform some types/styles, etc. is akin to using a dump truck at the Indy 500. I suppose it would be possible to win that race with a dump truck. I don't think it would be easy. So, even though I have always attempted to play a broad spectrum of emotions, and with as much finesse as possible. This is not usually where the tuba is at its best. We are more likely to win our Academy Award for "Best Supporting Actor," as opposed to the Oscar for the "Best Actor." Let's face it. We may not usually have the starring role, but we make the stars LOOK GOOD!