Tips On the Vaughan Williams Concerto

[nimrod480]

Hi!
I recieved an invatation from the Israel philharmonic to play with them a concerto, i chose the Vaughan williams concerto and i need some tips on everything about the concerto, everything you can say about it will be great..

Thanks alot!

[Rommel72]

Please find a different concerto..........

[EQueg]

Congratulations thats quite an honor. Many players never get the oportunity to play such a great piece with an orchestra. First you should check out the John Fletcher recording if you can get a copy. Also what type of horn are you playing it on? I would certainly suggest an F or Eb if you have the availability. It has been done on bigger horns but is much more well suited to a smaller instrument both for quality of sound in the upper reg. and flexibility most esp. in the last mvmnt. Good luck and have fun!

[nimrod480]

I play a boosey and hawkes Eb im 18 years old.

[UDELBR]

Should you have the opportunity, urge the conductor to encourage the string players to have a look at their parts. Of course they'll sneer that it's 'only a tuba accompaniment', but I've yet to hear a string section play the parts to any real degree of accuracy.

FYI...

[Rick Denney]

Hi!
I recieved an invatation from the Israel philharmonic to play with them a concerto, i chose the Vaughan williams concerto and i need some tips on everything about the concerto, everything you can say about it will be great..

Thanks alot!

Don't forget that RVW didn't take this work too seriously. The recording by Hans Nickel reveals a little humor and playfulness that seems to fit with the character of the composer. I find those elements lacking in the Fletcher and Lind versions, both of which sound just too pretty to my ears. If you take it too seriously, it will lose the playful bounce and just get heavy and dense. Inject a little bassoon sensibility into your playing.

Do a llittle "ear research" of Vaughan Williams's music, not just the concerto. He composed the concerto late in a long career, and having a bit of familiarity with his overall ouvre will help you understand the modal sound of those outer movements. The Oboe Concerto, for example, is a good one to put on the listening list.

Don't over-reach on the cadenza. William Bell didn't play the highest notes in the cadenza, and to my ear it lost nothing as a result. Remember that tuba players impress by playing low, not high, because high on the tuba sounds high only to tuba players. Make a powerful close to the first movement, so that your F-Eb-F final notes are clear above the orchestra, and you'll make a bigger impression.

Rick "who would rather be able to play the Gregson well" Denney

[UDELBR]

having a bit of familiarity with his overall ouvre will help you understand the modal sound of those outer movements.

Could you possibly mean "oeuvre"?

Uncle "temporarily assuming the mantle of 'spelling Nazi'" Beer

[BVD Press]

Something I wonder about the Concerto:

Would it be completely inappropriate for someone to write their own cadenzas for this work?

Most of us are kind of sick of hearing the piece and I wonder if it would generate some interest if it was changed up a bit!

I am now ready for my beating,

[Wyvern]

Most of us are kind of sick of hearing the piece and I wonder if it would generate some interest if it was changed up a bit!

Surely it only gets boring to tuba players! Other musicians have rarely heard it.

I would suggest listening to a few different recordings to get ideas (you will find some suggestions looking through the archives).

Jonathan "who still enjoys it himself"

[Dylan King]

Go for it man! Good idea. Although I like the one that's there. It would be difficult to measure-up to what the composer orginally intended.

I don't agree about the endings falling short in music and orchestration. I think they are quite appropriate for the story Vaughn Williams was painting using the tuba as the main instrument. I like how it piddles-off at the end of the first movement and the quick orchestral flurry at the end of the third. Vaughn Williams just "got" the tuba, and that is why we all like it so much.

Yes, there could have been more to the endings of those two movements, but it's not like we play the violin. Ending with the tuba's strength and main-stay (long and low) is the only way I'd want to end a tuba concerto that was truly expressing our instrument. After all, that's what we do most in orchestral music.

The piece just wouldn't be the same without those elements.

-MSM

[Chuck(G)]

Surely it only gets boring to tuba players! Other musicians have rarely heard it.

I think RVW was probably running out of instruments.

A few years earlier, he'd composed his romance for harmonica; at about the same time, he stuck a vibraphone in his eighth symphony. I suspect if he'd lived long enough, he'd have done a concerto for banjo.

At the risk of sounding like a spoilsport, I rather prefer his earlier works. Our band recently performed both his Variations for Brass Band and Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes and neither seems to be as well received as his Overture to Henry V.

[Wyvern]

Although I like Vaughan Williams early works, the London Symphony being my favourite - I do not go with the notion that his ideas were paling in his later years.

A couple of years ago I performed his 9th Symphony and that is really original and worth a listen. Some nice tuba solo bits and surprisingly a low loud passage which was one of the few times I could not deliver the necessary volume for the conductor using my old Besson EEb (surprising because presumably the work would have been performed using F tuba originally). It was partly through this passage that convinced me that it would be worth me getting a CC BAT. Who would have thought Vaughan Williams would show up that need?

[Biggs]

1. The modal "flavor" of the two outer movements makes the Romanza seem like it was planned for another work

Only because it was! The Romanza is an adapted version of VW's romance for harmonica.

[Rick Denney]

Only because it was! The Romanza is an adapted version of VW's romance for harmonica.

Maybe you've heard a different Romance for Harmonica than I have. I don't hear any connection at all.

RVW did make several revisions to the Harmonica work, with the famous quote that if the commissionee didn't like it, he would rearrange it for bass tuba. Apparently, the threat was sufficient to prevent the need.

Rick "thinking the harmonica player in question was Adler" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Although I like Vaughan Williams early works, the London Symphony being my favourite - I do not go with the notion that his ideas were paling in his later years.

I find things to like from all his periods. I do prefer his works following his time with Ravel, because his orchestration lightened up considerably after that, revealing more of the structure of his music.

The 2nd is one of my favorites, too. I really like the 8th, and the melody in the first movement of the 6th is truly haunting, as is the ending of that work. But his middle works from the late 20's and 30's had the most single-minded focus, particularly Sancta Civitas; Job, a Masque for Dancing; and the Symphony in F minor (#4). His later works were a bit more expansive, just as was the London, with lots of good stuff to listen to but without the same commitment to a single idea.

I think it's fair to say that the Tuba Concerto was a toss-off, and lots of tuba players dismiss it. But I agree with Bevan's assessment that there must be something to it because it's still the go-to piece for tuba players who get the opportunity to play a concerto.

Rick "who still prefers the Gregson" Denney

[ASTuba]

I'll give you the best tip of all: listen to all these recordings, then throw them away. Sit down, and make it YOUR version of the VW. This is a once and a lifetime opportunity, congrats!!