CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

[Nick Pierce]

Saw a performance of a piece called Circus Maximus that I think falls into that category. Didn't see the part myself, but I'm told that there were numbers above certain places in the music, marking events and such, and the conductor held up his fingers for the group to see, counting off the "events" that happened before the next bar or section. Awesome, epic piece, with musicians all around the balconies, such as a sax quartet with a bassist somewhere behind me playing something jazzy and seductive, a french horn player also in the back imitating a howling wolf (quite effectivley I might add), clarinets making scary animal noises, and a beefy tuba feature about half-way through. And my favorite bit, even more than the tuba feature, as quoted from the program.

"Warning, please be advised that a blank shotgun wil be used during this performanc."

[Charlie Goodman]

Well, I don't know how contemporary you're meaning... we've got the Penderecki Capriccio, which has a little microtonal stuff in there. In terms of minimalism or chance, I'm sure something could be figured out pretty easily. If you're talking about tuba being specifically requested, I'm pretty sure David Cope has a stochastic piece for solo tuba, though I'm not sure how contemporary it sounds.

[Charlie Goodman]

It looks like Reich has at least one work with tuba: Varations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards.

[Nick Pierce]

Did I mention that it's a piece for wind symphony? Here's a link to program notes of that concert if you'd like, and it should help you track down more info. However, no recording can do justice to the live performance, which is an unfortunatley rare event. Hopes this helps.

http://www.cuconcerts.org/programs/circusmaximus.html" target="_blank

[BVD Press]

Try Fnugg. Go here:

http://www.baadsvik.com/shop/" target="_blank

and just search "Fnugg". There are sound and .pdf files to check out. There are many more charts out there, but is definitely one of the more popular currently.

[Jobey Wilson]

Go to http://www.lansingmcloskey.com/" target="_blank and check out the score and MP3 to The Madding Crowd...a brass quintet "concertino" with a movement featuring each Triton...the last mvmt is the tuba solo. I believe the MP3 is our premier performance at Tanglewood last summer...jobey

[PWtuba]

Gunther Schuller writes tuba parts. I've played 7 Studies on the Themes of Paul Klee.

[adam0408]

Schwanter's And the Mountains Rising Nowhere is what I would consider modern music (it definitely has atonal characteristics.) And it has a decidedly challenging tuba part.

[dfear]

Daniel Bukvich's "Voodoo" is for wind ensemble. Every member also has a flashlight part, including a solo flashlight part. The piece is performed in the dark and for better effect, needs to be memorized so as to not impede the flashlights with stand lights. Check here for more details: http://www.bukvichmusic.com/comp/voodoo/index.asp

It's been several years since I've performed this piece so I can't remember all of the details, but it sure was fun to perform!

Mr. Bukvich's "Dinosaurs" is also very contemporary and is accesible to younger bands.

[tubafatness]

cant remember the name, but Dr. Skillen played it at ITEC in austin, it was concert piece by a russian or similar composer, had percussion accompaniment. Minimalistic....long

I'm almost certain the piece you saw performed was Henryck Gorecki's "Aria". It fits the bill, and has a minimalistic flavor. Great piece.

As for the original question, there are a whole bunch of areas of contemporary music which utilize the tuba. There are many solos written for the tuba that fall into the contemporary category, as well as a bunch of players that play said music. In the U.S., there are guys like Joe Exley, Marcus Rojas, Jay Rozen, and many, many other guys who play all kinds of contemporary. There are also guys like Zdzislaw Piernik, Klaus Burger, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Robin Hayward and many other performers overseas who do much the same. Along with the bulk of contemporary solos written for the tuba, there is much music that can be, in a sense, made to fit the tuba. One that comes to mind are the piece contained in Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Aus den Sieben Tagen," which are for anywhere from 1 to multiple players, and entirely consist of text scores. Then there is also the whole world of graphic and non-traditional notation scores, many of which are open in instrumentation. One of the milestones of this type of piece is Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise".

So, all in all, there are many ways for the tuba to be involved in contemporary music. And, in my opinion, that is a great thing for all of us tuba players.

To go off on a tangent, I think that one of the greatest things that tuba players as a whole can do is to commission or otherwise get composers to write pieces for the tuba. I know that there are some big names that are consistently commissioned to write tuba pieces, (cough, cough, Stevens, cough, cough, York....) Those are great pieces and composers, but I think that such a commissioning project should include composers of all walks, not just established names that have already written solos for the tuba. I think, (and there are the keywords, ladies and gentlemen,) that tubists should work towards expanding the role and repertoire of the tuba, in order for our instrument to be considered more as a sincere solo instrument, and not some goofy hunk of metal that tries to act like other instruments poorly. But, I digress...

Aaron

P.S., I have two suggestions for contemporary music solos for the tuba-
Karlheinz Stockhausen-"In Freundschaft"
Luigi Nono-"Post-Prae-Ludium per Donau"

[Charlie Goodman]

cant remember the name, but Dr. Skillen played it at ITEC in austin, it was concert piece by a russian or similar composer, had percussion accompaniment. Minimalistic....long

I'm almost certain the piece you saw performed was Henryck Gorecki's "Aria". It fits the bill, and has a minimalistic flavor. Great piece.

Do you happen to know what the difficulty level of this piece is? I'm putting together ideas for my junior recital next year, and I happen to know a number of talented percussionists I'd love to con into playing on it.

[tubaguy9]

Try Epinicion, in Paulson's arrangement.

It's cool.

Something else to try playing (on the piano, but would be interesting on tuba)
Kage's 4 minutes 53 seconds (correct me if I'm wrong...)

[Charlie Goodman]

Try Epinicion, in Paulson's arrangement.

It's cool.

Something else to try playing (on the piano, but would be interesting on tuba)
Kage's 4 minutes 53 seconds (correct me if I'm wrong...)

Cage's 4'33".

Has anyone heard of the percussion ensemble piece "Be Prepared?" That's worth checking out.

[KevinMadden]

> Nick

interesting... It seems like a stage drama featuring musical instruments. I am going to search on that piece. Thank you.

Played the piece in question with the IC Wind Ensemble this past semester.

Interesting

It is indeed quite strange, much of the music not conducted, but is alleatoric(sp?) in nature. There is a sax quartet, surround trumpets, and a marching band in the audience in addition to the stage W.E. the final note is indeed a shotgun.
It is titled Circus Maximus and is by John Corigliano, there is at least one recording I know of, I forget which college group though.
This was much more fun to perform than to rehearse and all in all I thought it was an enjoyable, though quite different, musical experience