Christmas music for the tuba

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:17 pm

Does it need to be an Advent piece? A religious piece? If religious, liturgically oriented or more southern gospel?

To get some idea of the level of complexity you seek: Where would a transcription of Felix Mendelssohn's "If With All Your Hearts" fit? It covers a range of an octave + 1 note from e to f.

Thomas Maurice Booth · Sat Dec 08, 2007 12:43 pm

Open up the hymnal and pick one of your favorites.

TMB

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:13 pm

If you are looking for more of a challenge, and something Christmas oriented, and liturgical, I can scan you a transcription for keyboard and alto recorder of Buxtehude's chorale prelude for organ "Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich". You can see the original organ music here on page 12.
http://www.bh2000.net/score/orgbuxte/buxorg05.pdf
You would be playing the top line. The transcription moves this up a 4th (or down a 5th) to the key of C. You would be reading treble clef.
You can hear what it sounds like on organ here. I don't think you would need to play this fast and choppy.
http://tinyurl.com/2lnulk

For something easier, I have here an arrangement of Away In a Manger (tune: Flow Gently Sweet Afton) for tbone and piano.

And, I think the Siciliano from Bach's flute sonata in E-flat would work well on tuba and not be too difficult.

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:21 pm

You can hear another, less frenetic interpretation of the chorale prelude here:
http://tinyurl.com/36798k
Scroll down to the 5th CD.

I have this comlete set of Buxtehude performed by Harald Vogel. I like it a lot.

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:52 pm

There is the Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Greensleeves. But that would not be nice to hand to the keyboard player. I have it arranged for alto recorder; covers about two octaves between F's which is a good range for euphonium and BB-flat tuba. It sould sound wonderful if well played on euphonium but might be a little out of place on BB-flat tuba.

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:23 pm

There is the Werner Icking music site with a ton of free music, but not easily searched by instrument.
http://icking-music-archive.org/ByComposer.php
Just about anything for alto recorder will fit nicely on euphonium or tuba if you can read treble clef. I mention alto recorder because a bunch of free music comes from the Rennaisance and Baroque (no copyright) when the alto recorder was an important solo instrument.

The Sibelius music site. One never knows what will be found there. Most of it is unremarkable ... or less.
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:35 pm

I can scan you the baritone solo from Bach canata 142. It's #3 at the following link. 142 is a Christmas canata. Not an easy piece for the keyboard player. You might check to see if he/she has a concealed carry permit before suggesting this.
http://tinyurl.com/2n8uqs

... somebody stop me

TonyZ · Post by **TonyZ** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:46 pm

Get the Canadian Brass book of Christmas Tuba Solos. Lot's of very useable stuff!

SplatterTone · Post by **SplatterTone** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:47 pm

Here it is. This should get the attention of the Woodward, OK crowd. Almost two years ago, somebody posted some demos they had made. I failed to note who the person was when I saved the demos. I don't think it was one of the regular TubeNet bar flies. The "orchestra" is synthesized.
http://t-recs.net/mpegs/tubenet/why_nations.mp3

tofu · Post by **tofu** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 10:22 pm

TonyZ · Post by **TonyZ** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:56 pm

tofu wrote:
TonyZ wrote:Get the Canadian Brass book of Christmas Tuba Solos. Lot's of very useable stuff!
How hard are the piano parts? I noticed there are both an Intermediate and Beginner versions, but I assume those designations refer to the tuba part. I was thinking this might be something I could do with my young niece so I'm not concerned about the tuba difficulty but the piano part.

This is the only version I'm aware of. Piano parts are straight ahead. I believe that the tuba part is listed as medium difficulty. You should have fun with these, and so should your niece!

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/a/item.ht ... em=3190081

TZ