I played on the bass part of the fourth movement of Brahsm 1 with a youth orchestra a couple of seasons ago. I guess they thought that I would poop my pants and run crying to mommy if I didn't get to play the tuba on every single piece the orchestra played, so I was handed the string bass part to play. I wasn't about to complain, though.
We only did the fourth movement of the symphony. We did have a couple of string bassists, so I omitted a few sections that were very soft pizzicati and I wouldn't really fit in well. It was a blast, though, in performing a piece of music where I was actually playing all the time. I hope I get to do it more often.
I once got hired to play the bass parts to Beethoven 9 on a church orchestra job. That was one of the craziest jobs I have ever done. The trombone section laughed their tails off as I hung on for dear life in some of the more challenging sections. However the dough good and the conductor loved it so all was well.
Scott Roeder, DMA
Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Our community band had the tuba section absent for a concert last year and I was pressed into service on tuba, though I had been playing all the music on euph. We came up with about half the tuba parts for me to play and for the other half (unbeknownst to the conductor) I just played the euph part (mostly down the octave). In the debriefing after the concert he said he had never heard Black Horse Troop sounding better. Great euph part - even better on tuba. Wish all tuba parts had the meat of the average euphonium part.
Wouldn't this be a good application for a Tenor Tuba like mine (Mirapone 56A)? I have been thinking about whether I should still use it and where it might be useful. Seems it would be applicable to the higher range of the Bass parts. Might be impossible in the lower ranges... But in some of the orchestral arrangements it certainly would offer a better selection of parts.
On a similar note - back many years ago in high school I used to get bored with some of the less-creative tuba parts in concert band and, with my superior distant vision and several years of trumpet experience, I would read over the shoulder of the first trumpet part. It was the same fingerings and transposing was very easy. It took the band director a few days to catch on and he and I still laugh about it today.
I play in a church group without basses. If we have a song that needs a bass I read it an octave lower and combine it with the tuba part. It worked well.
I occasionally get to play the bass part with a local community orchestra. Have played such works as Beethoven 1, Schubert Unfinished Symphony, Fingals Cave and William Tell - some fun!
I got quite good at transposing down an octave on Eb, but am now having to relearn on CC.
Collectors of vintage recordings know that in the very early days of "acoustic" recordings (such as "78s") orchestras often abandoned the use of string basses and used multiple tubas instead - hence the rise of the "recording" tuba, in order to get the bass sound into the recording horns - there are numerous recordings of the Philadelphia Orchestra done this way, for instance.
Unfortunately, improved microphone technology and the vacuum tube made it possible to hear string basses, and a lot of tuba players were out of a job. And really, has any recording of Tchaik 4 been as good since then?
Ben seems to have enjoyed the foray into double bass parts.
Last Saturday I sight read bass bone and tenor bone parts (on F tuba) for a 40s big band ensemble rehearsal. I went home kind of light-headed--but refreshed--from playing those great rhythms for the first time and getting some practice at transposing down an octave.
On Monday I read double bass at an orchestral sight reading session, noticing that transposing down the octave was getting easier--even those runs containing pesky D sharps that amateurs such as I rarely see in our diets of band music.
What next? I've been thinking of finding a brass band, but don't know how easy it would be to read the transposing tuba parts.
Dean E
[S]tudy politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy . . . in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry [and] music. . . . John Adams (1780)
I remember your baritone years Ben! Those were some good times.
I had a similar experience with Tchaikovsky 4 a few years back. 3rd movement was a ton of fun playing runny parts with pizz strings. Seems very doable on a solid orchestral F. I think would prefer to play the bass parts on 4 and 5 from now on I think.
My youth orchestra conductor kept me busy in this manner, and it was a very formative experience. After playing all night on compositions with no tuba part, one's sense of the possible gets expanded.
