NOT 4th trombone

[Steve Marcus]

Some composers recognize and embrace the timbre of the tuba’s conical shape and exploit it in their works. Sometimes they use the tuba independently of the brass section, sometimes as the foundation of the brass (or more instruments).

The antithesis of this is the manner of treating the tuba no differently than other cylindrical brass instruments in the methods of voicing, phrasing, and ensemble grouping. An extreme of this treatment would be Verdi who supposedly stated that he hated the sound of the tuba. The cimbasso is sometimes played to accommodate these composers’ intentions.

As an example, consider the brass chorale in Mahler 2 that begins on a D-flat major chord. Imagine how the overall character of the passage would change if contrabass trombone or cimbasso were substituted for the tuba on the bass line.

With this in mind, what orchestral compositions truly feature the warm, broad sound of a tuba, particularly but not limited to contrabass tuba? For discussion’s sake, let’s not restrict the list to pieces that specifically include a tuba solo (although they could certainly be included). One of the most obvious examples for this list would be Prokofiev 5.

[hbcrandy]

A few of my suggestions are as follows:

- Entry of the Gods into Valhalla
- Fountains of Rome
- Prokofiev 7
- La Mer
- Tchaikowsky 5
- Mahler 5

[Ben]

Add Sibelius 1 & 2 to the list...

[iiipopes]

Didn't Brahms, upon hearing a tuba for the first time, re-orchestrate his works to tuba from ophicleide? That would seem to be a preference for the rounder tone of a tuba, albeit in a different context.