Solo Competition Adjudication

[russiantuba]

I’m on an adjudication panel for a tuba solo competition this month (none of my students are competing), and as I prepare, I ask myself, why is it all tubists on these panels? If I really want to reach others with tuba solo music, I would like to hear what other musicians think, because it is my goal to reach them musically and emotionally with music.

I remember doing a guest artist recital at my undergrad a few years ago, and afterwards, a talented amateur horn player I went to school with, who is very well versed in classical music came up to me. I did a Vivaldi Flute Sonata I arranged as one of the pieces, and he said “I’ve always hated Vivaldi, and your performance was the first time I can say I have enjoyed his music”. I worked on this piece a lot with my professor (his wife is a professional flautist) on style and musicality. I feel that knowledge I received from someone familiar with the style of the composer and piece was instrumental in that comment.

As someone who truly enjoys tuba solo music, as I get older (and perhaps more jaded or critical), that few tubists play it musically or take chances (and myself included in that). One of my favorite works for tuba is the John Williams Concerto. Many tubists complain about the work not being a good work, however when I hear Roger Bobo perform it, I hear a piece that rivals many cello concerti. I have sent this recording to non tubists, and instead of hearing “I didn’t know tuba could play like this” I hear “what a musical performance, enjoyable work”.

As someone who has submitted for a couple competitions a lifetime ago, looking back, I would have rather had comments from people who perform on other instruments, than tuba players

[bloke]

It’s either tuba players or instrument makers or both, but more and more models of tubas are being designed to sound more more bland. Automatically recommended mouthpieces are often very deep, and with a very large throat size.
I suppose it’s easier to not sound bad on such instruments, but it’s also probably pretty difficult to sound interesting on them, or to produce contrasting types of sounds with them.
Trombones are becoming the same way, and - not meaning any insult in any way - euphoniums have always been that way.
—————
The topic you seem to wish to discuss is literature, but overall sonority (as well as this mono-sonority thing) is part of the issue as well.

[bloke]

It’s either tuba players or instrument makers or both, but more and more models of tubas are being designed to sound more more bland. Automatically recommended mouthpieces are often very deep, and with a very large throat size.
I suppose it’s easier to not sound bad on such instruments, but it’s also probably pretty difficult to sound interesting on them, or to produce contrasting types of sounds with them.
Trombones are becoming the same way, and - not meaning any insult in any way, but just being matter-of-fact - euphoniums have always been that way.
—————
The topic you seem to wish to discuss is literature, but overall sonority (as well as this mono-sonority thing) is part of the issue as well.

[edfirth]

Whatever.

[bloke]

I’ve often pointed towards oboe solo literature.
The technical capability of artist level players only slightly outruns that of the most capable tuba soloists, and their range - from a low B flat to 2-1/2 octaves higher to a F or a G – nearly completely overlaps that of the F tuba, which seems to be the preferred tuba solo Instrument.
I could list a few amazing oboe solo works that are well-suited to the tuba, but others can do their own research.

Of course (and a just previous poster obviously disagrees, and that’s fine) Mr. Bobo utilized instruments which offered a fairly wide range in tonal color, with his most notable recordings having been put on tape with a model 80 Miraphone. I’m certainly not suggesting that the model 80 instrument was the best thing ever, and don’t believe it to be, but I also do believe that most of these F tubas built today naturally tend to produce only one type of sound - with that type of sound being more suited to supplying the bass part in an ensemble, rather than playing solo lines.

Though composers have really only been encouraged to write solo works for this instrument for a scant half century, there are some good tuba solos that have been written - and John Williams’ piece is one of them, though (as James pointed out) it requires someone to deliver it to an audience with the excitement (along with technical brilliance), emotion, and tonal color variations (I’m thinking that he may have used a 1970s-vintage B&S instrument, which I believe to be on the upper brink of models of F tubas which are more easily capable of offering wider range of tonal colors) that Mr. Bobo‘s rendition offers, in order to convince others that it is a good piece…
…and the same goes for all the other good solo works for tuba.

I suppose to capture the imagination of an audience or to impress an adjudicator, there are three factors:
(beyond all of the high school judging “tone, technique, time, etc.” stuff)
- the artistic imagination of the player
- the musical potential of the pieces chosen
- the width of the tonal pallet of a given instrument
========
As a huge postscript, I believe that – though our instruments are large and do attract visual attention – when we play them, we must remain fairly still, physically. Only our fingers tend to move, and - if we bob round too much - we will mis-attack pitches (as our huge instruments are far more difficult to move with our bodies than is something like a violin or a trumpet). Live music is visual. A violinist is very visual, due to all of the movement required to play their instrument, and the fact that they can move other parts of their body without detrimentally affecting their playing.

[russiantuba]

@bloke you mentioned tone, which made me think further in this. I whole-heartedly agree, as tone is a major component of musicality. A top tuba soloist made an article several years ago about how tone wasn’t important and I disagreed.

I chose the Gronitz F, and eventually your mouthpiece, because I wanted the comfort of playing a piston tuba while maintaining the sound. I had an old 1980s era perantucci model F tuba that had ergonomic issues and some custom work I would want to get done but had a beautiful sound. I’m getting closer to that sound.

Dave Werden posted some recordings of Mel Culbertson. What happened to this style of sound and musicianship. One of my professors, who I value what he said more and more as I get older, told me to never be a technician, to be an artist in the sea of technicians. It makes more and more sense

[bloke]

I studied with a person for approximately a year. I really don't believe that they offered me very much guidance - nor much inspiration, but one thing that they did point out to me is that we (ourselves) are just about as capable of doing transcriptions (particularly as simple as transcribing solo works) as most anyone, and that referring to the original composition (rather than trying to patch up someone's else mediocre transcription) tends to work out best.

example:
With Bach, one might reference a particular piece found in his complete works - which are not cluttered with either articulations nor phrase markings - editing marks which were put there to someone's else liking, and - certainly - which litter transcriptions.

contests:
In order to "win", we must appeal to the panel of judges. We've all flipped past those reality shows where no-talents - for whatever reasons (and - likely - pre-chosen by the shows' producers) - appealed to the panel of judges. As a specific example, were the Vaughan Williams Concerto (and it never is, but whatever) to be one of the listed contest pieces - and someone were to remove all of the edited-in bad phrasing, bad articulations, and wrong pitches, they would likely be marked way down - by judges who (as most tuba players seem to do) embrace the published editions. Finally...What is the purpose of such competitions?
- bragging rights?
- a few hundred bucks or a mouthpiece?
- an opportunity to engage in a serious endeavor, and to receive a set of critiques - regarding that endeavor?

[jtm]

The first year I ushered at the Texas state solo & ensemble contest (for high school kids who did well in their local contests), I worked a room (clarinet quartets, maybe?) where the judge did not teach the same instrument. I asked about that (as also a high school kid), and he said he was not there to judge weather they were great clarinet players, he was there to judge if they made great music.

[tubanh84]

I’ve often pointed towards oboe solo literature.
The technical capability of artist level players only slightly outruns that of the most capable tuba soloists, and their range - from a low B flat to 2-1/2 octaves higher to a F or a G – nearly completely overlaps that of the F tuba, which seems to be the preferred tuba solo Instrument.
I could list a few amazing oboe solo works that are well-suited to the tuba, but others can do their own research.

I have performed the Mozart Oboe Concerto a number of times. It works amazingly well on F tuba. Some of the trills need to be modified or changed to a different ornament, as trills on the oboe are significantly different than the tuba, and trying to execute them on tuba does get in the way of making music.

I also did a coaching on it years ago with a professional oboe player. It was a great experience. He was entirely supportive of me performing it on tuba, but he also didn't let me get away with "doing a tuba version" of the piece, and worked me like he would an oboe player. The biggest area of work was articulation. He demanded very nuanced articulation throughout the piece. I have never had a tuba teacher work on articulations like that with me, and it has always stuck with me.

But to the original point of having other instrumentalists on a panel - I think we need it. They don't know the technical limitations of the instrument, so they'll just comment on the music. And there is a lot of nuance available on the tuba that, to date, I've only ever heard Roger Bobo execute on a consistent basis.

[bloke]

yes to all.
===========================
tuba artiste:
"Do you want it louder or softer, ' cause I can't play any softer nor - for that matter - any louder."
"Do you want "TOOOO" or "WOOOO" ?
"huh...?? My A-natural is PERFECTLY in tune at home...It must be the rest of the orchestra."
in general: "Well...What do you expect...?!?!"