The Hindemith?

[passion4tuba]

Before solo and ensamble, by band director recommended i play the hindemith...i heard it's INSANLEY hard ...anyone have a recording..or expierence playing it to give me some insight?

[Tubaguyry]

The NOTES in the tuba part aren't hard to play, and making the piece musical isn't too hard. The hardest part about the piece is finding a pianist who can/will play it with you.

[chevy68chv]

The NOTES in the tuba part aren't hard to play, and making the piece musical isn't too hard. The hardest part about the piece is finding a pianist who can/will play it with you.

Isn't that the truth. I've played it with DMA students accompanying me and some of them still fumble through it for the first few rehearsals. Its a great piece, might be hard to pull off in high school because of the piano. You might want to look maybe at Capuzzi Andante and Rondo or the Lebedev concerto.

[TubaRay]

The hardest part about the piece is finding a pianist who can/will play it with you.

This is the absolute truth!!!

[quinterbourne]

It isn't difficult is the sense that the Vaughn Williams is.

It is rhythmically challenging. The first movement sets the tuba in 6/4 time against the piano in 2/2 time. The piano part may very easily mess you up (especially if you don't have a stunning pianist).

The second movement is difficult to co-ordinate. A fast 2/2 with rhythmic displacement. Again, tricky to co-ordinate with the pianist.

The third movement is a killer for the piano player. It has running 16th notes (VERY FAST) in the piano part, in no apparent pattern. Accidentals are everywhere, insanely difficult. The piano accompanist at our school accompanies all brass and celli, and she says the Hindemith Tuba Sonata is the most difficult of anything she has to play. She gets quite upset whenever a tuba student is learning it.

But yeah, the tuba part isn't really that hard. It doesn't go above middle C and doesn't go very low either. Rumour has it that Hindemith could play the solo parts for all the brass sonatas he wrote, that's why it isn't that extremely difficult (except for his piano virtuoso friends).

[Tom]

The Hindemith Tuba Sonata is not a piece to be taken lightly.

As others have said, a near virtuoso level pianist is needed to do the piano part any justice. Along the same lines, the piano part and the tuba part are very independent of one another, so "help" from the pianist will be minimal.

The piece is very difficult to play well because of the tremendous musical demands placed on the tuba player in terms of interpretation and just how rigid your counting can be (the rhythms are tricky) in the middle of a bunch of seemingly random notes and a piano part that totally off the wall. In other words, your "ensemble" skills will be pushed big time when you play this piece.

[quinterbourne]

Yeah, there is one super nasty lick right at the end of the 2nd movement. Watch out!

[passion4tuba]

sooo..ne one have any clips that have the song..?

[Tom]

sooo..ne one have any clips that have the song..?

As played by Don Little of the University of North Texas:

http://www.music.unt.edu/instrumental/tuba/little.htm

[passion4tuba]

Sweet, thanks Tom!
So helpful..


Zach "remembering why he loves tubenet" Nunn

[THE TUBA]

Depending on where you are located, you may or may not have access to a good enough pianist, or someone crazy enough to do it. I would suggest looking at this site: http://www.smartmusic.com/. SmartMusic is (I believe) a program that has a midi version of accompaniment parts, and can plays them while you practice. I think you can hook up a mic and it will actually follow your tempo, or something... Regardless, it is a great practice tool.