Cuts in Vaughn Williams

[toobagrowl]

^Maybe you could play just 2 movements WITH that 6-measure cut? I have not timed this piece in a while, but it seems that 2 movements would come close to filling a 10-minute time frame.

[The Jackson]

Time lengths of six recorded VW concerti that I found by searching online:

Walter Hilgers w/ Frankfurt Brandenburg State Orchestra
1. 4:53
2. 5:18
3. 3:12
Total: 13:23

Floyd Cooley w/ DePaul Wind Ensemble
1. 4:28
2. 5:30
3. 3:10
Total: 13:08

Richard Nahatzki w/ Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra
1. 4:23
2. 4:32
3. 3:09
Total: 12:04

James Gourlay w/ Royal Ballet Sinfonia
1. 4:45
2. 4:59
3. 3:10
Total: 12:54

Patrick Harrild w/ London Symphony Orchestra
1. 4:32
2. 5:18
3. 3:15
Total: 13:05

Peter Whish-Wilson w/ Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
1. 4:42
2. 5:42
3. 3:02
Total: 13:26


Me hopes that helps!

[Z-Tuba Dude]

Wow! With a 10 minute cut off, for a whole concerto, that would also eliminate almost all of the great, post Mozart, violin & piano concertos!

To the original poster: I don't think that there are any "industry standard" cuts for the Vaughan Williams, nor should there be.

[bort]

Play it faster?

[peter birch]

if you must cut something, and by no means do i think you should, how about omitting the cadenzas?

[ckalaher1]

I'd just do the 2nd and 3rd movements. You should be able to do that under 10.

[ckalaher1]

Sorry....didn't read that you had to do all three movements. That'll teach me to skim posts before posting myself.

[Rick Denney]

You have been presented with impossible requirements. I know of no tuba "concertos" that fit within a 10-minute constraint.

There are no commonly accepted cuts for any of the tuba concertos I know about, and this is the first time I've ever seen the question come up in 10 years of participating in Tubenet. Frankly, none of them are long enough or repetitive enough to allow cuts without seeming like amputations.

If the contest will not allow playing only one or two movements, then they must provide some guidance on what they expect. Otherwise, either everyone will break the rules or nobody will show up who plays a instrument invented since Mozart's time.

Rick "thinking you might as well just play the first 40 bars of each movement" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Did you consider other less "weird" alternatives? I think one commenter really nailed when he said that the Vaughan Williams would sound better on a bassoon than on a tuba. He said and I agree that brass music needs a heroic quality.

The Gregson seems to have that quality. I haven't looked at the piano reduction, but I've always liked the writing for this music and it has moments where a the tuba can really sound like a tuba. It might also have better opportunities for making cuts.

It's probably too late to consider alternatives, and maybe the requirement you are perceiving from the judges is that they have to have heard of the composer. If so, that really does impose some limitations on tuba players.

If you think there should be standard cuts, then make some choices and defend them in an article for the ITEA Journal. That's how they would become "standard".

Rick "good luck" Denney