American Music for Tuba -- Something Old Something New

When I first considered the idea of making a solo CD, a couple of ideas crossed my mind. First, I wanted to make a recording of music that I really enjoyed to play. Secondly, I wanted to record music that has not been previously recorded, or is not available in digital format. Finally, I wanted to record a variety of music that would enable me to perform on all three instruments of the tuba family, the Contrabass Tuba, the Bass Tuba and the Euphonium.

I have chosen literature that is by American composers and was originally written for the tuba. The goal was to record a variety of music that would serve the community of tubists as a reference recording of sorts. The Persichetti Serenade has been a staple of the literature for over three decades, yet no one had recorded the work since Harvey Phillips in the 1960’s. Walter Hartley’s Sonata no. 1 is another important early work which had not been available on record for some time. Recording these works is a way for me to pay homage to a time when the Contrabass Tuba was the primary solo vehicle for the tubist. Since a majority of tuba recordings produced over the past fifteen years have been performed primarily on the more nimble E-flat and F tubas, I thought that it was important to include some literature that was composed with the CC or BB-flat in mind.

David Gillingham’s Diversive Elements is an engaging work for the unique (but very effective) trio of Euphonium, Tuba and Piano. Recording this work allowed me to do a little bit of playing on the euphonium, an instrument that I still love to play, but have the good sense not to record as a solo instrument! For this piece, I first recorded the tuba and piano tracks together and later added in the euphonium voice utilizing multi-track recording technique.

Finally, I have selected two Twenty-first Century works to perform on the F tuba; the Sonata for Tuba and Piano by the champion brass composer John Cheetham and the Tuba Concerto by James Woodward. It is almost a certainty that both of these fine works will find their way into the standard solo repertoire of tubists in the near future.

I hope that you will enjoy the literature that I have selected for this recording. While it is important to press ahead with new literature, it is also important to recognize where we have come from. With this in mind, I hope that you will enjoy the recording.

• Sonata for Tuba and Piano by John Cheetham, movement 1
  [30 sec]
• Serenade no. 12 for Solo Tuba by Vincent Persichetti, Capriccio
  [30 sec]
• Diversive Elements for Euphonium, Tuba and piano by David Gillingham, Caccia
  [30 sec]

Tuba Helper -- Solos for the Developing Tubist

Since I've been teaching, I have consistently used the same pieces when working on solo literature with younger players. I use these pieces not only because they are appropriate for the skill set of developing players, but also because they are good music, fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. When I was thinking about a new CD project, I thought it might be a good idea to record all of these pieces so that a student could find all of these tunes in one place.

I chose to record all of these pieces on my CC tuba for a couple of reasons: First, the players that are most likely to be working on these pieces are likely to be "one tuba" kind of people. They may not have a demonstrated need or financial wherewithal to own an F or E-flat tuba at this point in their development. (I didn't own an F tuba until I was about 30 years old, not because I didn't want one, but because I couldn't afford one!) Secondly, in this era in incredible selection of tuba CDs, there are very few recordings that are all on the big tuba. While it is really cool to listen to what is possible on the more nimble F or E-flat tuba, it is frustratingly difficult to replicate the timbre of those horns if you have a B-flat tuba in your lap. I hope that this recording will provide the listener with a model of solo playing with a characteristic big tuba sound.

• Andante and Rondo by Antonio Capuzzi, Rondo
  [30 sec]
• Sonata no. 1 in F Major by Benedetto Marcello, movement 2
  [30 sec]
• Six Studies in English Folksong by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lovely on the Water
  [30 sec]