Recommendations for a composer for concerto

[AHynds]

Small list:

Hans Abrahamsen
Toshio Hosokawa
Chaya Czernowin
Enno Poppe
Aaron Cassidy
Liza Lim


There are some other composers I'd like to write for tuba, but I'm already working to commission them!

Aaron H.

[Lee Stofer]

I'd like to see a tuba concerto by Sonny Kompanek, David Holsinger, or James Barnes.

[Roger Lewis]

Jeff Beal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfQv0KtIVSo" target="_blank" target="_blank

Roger

[THE TUBA]

James Barnes.

James Barnes wrote a concerto for tuba + band. Pat Sheridan recorded it on his Storyteller CD.

[barry grrr-ero]

Jennifer Higdon, hands down. She can write a real tune and she's a fabulous orchestrator

[J.c. Sherman]

I got mine already from Victor Davies. Most anyone else I'd want is deceased... but I hear occasional surprises from time to time

I may try one for me... but most modern palettes (or palates!) don't interest me much. Lady Gaga?

[tubacorbin]

I'll throw my vote in for Christopher Rouse. I've really dug his oboe and flute concertos. Who knows, since he's a composer in residence with the NYPO maybe he can write something for Alan Baer to premier.

[MTFULRUTUBA]

Johan De Meij
Karl Jenkins
John Adams
Joseph Curiale
Rolf Rudin
David Maslanka
Mark O'Connor
Joel McNeely

Very grateful that we now have works for us by Donald Grantham and Michael Daugherty

[hbcrandy]

Postby mctuba1 » Tue Dec 09, 2014 4:30 pm

I would ask a composer to write something for voice then once finished tell him to now transpose it for tuba. This way it may actually be a piece enjoyable to listen to instead of something that is written for effect. John Stevens would be on top of my list as he already has written some great pieces.


John Stevens 1+

[davidgilbreath]

I'd like to see a tuba concerto by Sonny Kompanek, David Holsinger, or James Barnes.

Ditto

[WangZhiXian]

Apologies for resurrecting what appears a dead thread, but come on, a chance to add to tuba literature in a significant way? Worth it.

So, Tuben, did you have a chance to get in touch with the aforementioned composers in this thread or not?

[Billy M.]

Jennifer Higdon, hands down. She can write a real tune and she's a fabulous orchestrator

I totally agree. Really enjoy her works.

[timayer]

+1 for David Maslanka.

We had an opportunity to perform his trombone concerto and some other chamber works here last year. He came up for the last few rehearsals and the performances. He is an incredible artist and is someone who could be trusted to write music for the tuba, not a tuba piece.

As an aside, I cannot recommend his trombone concerto enough.

[ppalan]

Jay Krush

[imperialbari]

I would ask a composer to write something for voice then once finished tell him to now transpose it for tuba. This way it may actually be a piece enjoyable to listen to instead of something that is written for effect. John Stevens would be on top of my list as he already has written some great pieces.

Maybe not entirely fair to quote from an old thread, but I didn’t see it until now.

I don’t agree with the idea of writing for voice and then transposing, downwards I assume, for tuba.

The beauty of the tuba is that it is a bass instrument, the same factor is also the problem with writing soloistically in the tuba’s middle and low ranges. The tuba’s solo line will either clash with the bass line or be perceived as the bass line.

One tuba player liked a tenor aria from the early 19th century and transposed it down. I was sent the arrangement either as a midi or as a Finale file and was asked for my opinion.

Which sadly was that the arrangement sounded all wrong. Not that I knew the said tenor solo, but I knew the characteristic chord progressions by this composer, and the way he supported the progression by an equally characteristic bass line.

The transposed down solo line criscrossed with that bass line enough to blurr the progression, so the music lost its direction.

The baroque composers solved the problem by writing bass solos that were basically embellished versions of their bass lines.

Mozart touches 3 approaches to bass soloing alone in Sarastros 2nd aria in the Magic Flute.

Keeping the solo high enough to keep it out of harming the bass line.

Moving independently in the bass line range, which leads to clashing major seconds on two consecutive eights, which gives no effect of tension-release, but rather sounds like an error.

Lets the soloist, almost, follow the bass line. The one deviation is a fifth above the bass line, which is about the only non-muddy interval, aside from the octave, in the low range.

Very formalistic considerations you may say, but they still go within much more modern music also.

If we want clarity and beauty in a tuba solo operating in the low range, the music must be thought as a tuba solo already in the writing process. The only arangement options being to and from solos for instruments like the contrabassoon or the double bass. The romantic solo tradition for the latter more was that of a fat cello: stringing one whole step up and mostly playing far down the board, very often closer to the bridge that to the nut.

Old man ranting.

[pecktime]

I have no knowledge of classical or orchestral tuba music, but I assume it's like a double bass solo in jazz:

A good chance for the other band members to go to the bar and talk to their mates...

[windshieldbug]

'Drums stop. It always bad when drums stop."
"What's it mean?"
'Bass solo."

[ohrlund]

Kevin Puts hasn't written a tuba solo yet. I really enjoy what I have been hearing of his.

[WangZhiXian]

Whew, thank goodness I was right that this thread still had life in it!

This was something 'created' during some of the darkest days of my struggle with depression and I'll admit compiling data and subsequently dropping the ball. Let me see what I can find, if anything, in the way of notes from then.

The important thing here is that in the interim you have been able to find the help you needed.