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...attempting to sell one of my music directors on the idea of a tuba recital...('24 - '25 season).

...and not just a bunch of obligatory F tuba crap (which would be the easy way out)...but (maybe?) a completely (big fat bast...) CONTRABASS tuba recital...

In past years, there were usually four chamber music recitals annually (optional to the patrons, and not included with season tickets).
The new E.D. likes pops concerts, has cancelled the chamber music series, and has been sending a no-regular-orchestra-members rock band out into the community - instead of the chamber series...but maybe (??) I could convince them anyway.

- It would force me to really work up some things to the best I can play them, and put even more thought into phrasing, music, quasi-showmanship, etc.
- (Even though a tuba recital is usually a novelty) a CONTRABASS tuba recital would be EVEN MORE of a novelty.
- It probably shouldn't be terribly long (with most stuff below middle C, and anything around middle C sounding pretty "hooty".
- I'd need them to pay for a particular/remarkable pianist (who lives over an hour from me, and two hours from the city where the orchestra is located).
- The M.D. REALLY likes me, so (???) maybe...

I believe I would put together five (unrelated - from all different suites, but put together to come off as a suite) Bach cello dance movements, Play the opus 94 Schumann Romances, the Walter Hartley Sonata, and (??) maybe one more piece. You know (rather than yet another piece)...and this could be boring or interesting, but I could play some (a handful of...plus requests...?? ) excerpts from orchestral works that they know (as we've all heard contrabass tuba ONLY on all of that mess FOREVER, but they've NEVER heard any of it all by itself) and answer questions ("How heavy is that thing?" "Do you ever wish you'd played the piccolo?" "When you move that tube up there, how much air does it pump into that thing?")...eh?

Hartley Sonata is quirky, tuneful and underrated.

Be sure to live stream it.

Don’t forget the classic modern contrabass tuba piece

Beit dur living shite out da lo registar

From The Shores of the Mighty Pacific

Toby Hanks Sampler was the first tuba CD I owned. Once I heard that track I knew I wanted to play it someday. I did it at the end of my last Graduate recital (after a bunch of F tuba stuff) on a Thor. You couldn’t have paid me to play it on the F.

MShores wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:56 am From The Shores of the Mighty Pacific

Toby Hanks Sampler was the first tuba CD I owned. Once I heard that track I knew I wanted to play it someday. I did it at the end of my last Graduate recital (after a bunch of F tuba stuff) on a Thor. You couldn’t have paid me to play it on the F.

love that one!

I've had a similar thought for a while (me putting on a contrabass tuba (unaccompanied) recital. I promise I don't sit around pondering YOU giving a recital). I think it's a great idea.

YorkNumber3.0 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:13 am So, like, Jolly Farmer, Grumpy Bear, Air and Bouree, close with Yuba?

Encore: Solo Pomposo!

Aren’t you the guy that hates tuba solos?

I hate listening to other people play them, but when I play them I don't have to listen to them 'cuz I'm too busy playing them. I'm thinking that this would be a motivation for stepping up my game, even more than I have been on this B flat stuff.

By the way, you left off this one:

Just brainstorming for a moment…

Most tuba recitals feature that typical F tuba academic stuff that may be fine for college students, but that material isn’t very entertaining for the public. How about a recital featuring mostly non-typical, non-academic solos? Entertainment value might be important, depending on your audience. But you would have to know what balance of headiness vs entertaining of your audience. We can’t know that since we don’t play for them.

Yes, a vote for Asleep in the Deep.

The Carioca is part of the library, but not the same old F tuba standard BS.

Beelzebub

Happy Hippo

Lebedev Conerto in One Movement

Hartley Sonata or the Unaccompanied

Haddad

Louisiana (can your pianist work outside of the ink? That would open up an entirely different world full of choices)

And maybe a heady, academic piece to make it “legit.”

And a “classical” piece that might be recognizable to the audience (Pavane, Rachmaninoff Vocalise, Hummel, Artunian, etc)

And another vote for Solo Pomposo.

Happy farmer goes to town

Haddad suite for tuba

I like that Rachmaninoff Vocalise, but I've performed it a couple of times, and I think that's enough.



One time a (apparently viewed themselves as a) hot-shot organist (wedding gig two hours from Memphis) told each of us in the quintet that (for the wedding), "Each of you just bring a solo piece and piano accompaniment, and I'll (ie. sight-reading) accompany each of you on the organ as an extended prelude to the wedding."

I passed that vocalise up to them at the prelude portion of the wedding (even written out for organ, instead of just treble/bass clef piano music) and - yup - they got lost - several times. At least four times, I had to make up jazz over the chords they were plunking out, and then jump to where they had lost themselves.

Contrabass...pppfffttt...suggest a solo cimbasso recital.

Casca Grossa wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 8:37 pm Contrabass...pppfffttt...suggest a solo cimbasso recital.

I had a friend who did his senior recital entirely on contrabassoon. Cimbasso would be even more obscure, so I love the idea

Concert Sketch #5 - Blazhevich

https://youtu.be/MoIwgLkhI64

If you can't find a tuba version, let me know...

:

Casca Grossa wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 8:37 pm Contrabass...pppfffttt...suggest a solo cimbasso recital.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 9:14 pm

Casca Grossa wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 8:37 pm Contrabass...pppfffttt...suggest a solo cimbasso recital.

I had a friend who did his senior recital entirely on contrabassoon. Cimbasso would be even more obscure, so I love the idea

I played the Tomasi "Être, ou ne pas être" solo part on cimbasso a few years ago...
We actually did a "low brass section recital"...I think we also played Slide Hampton's (??) version of Round Midnight (trombone quartet piece) with a really prominent 4th trombone part...' pretty sure it was this arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybg_i0VtS94
I've also used it several times in quintet recitals (ONLY on Renaissance-era pieces, so my part would NOT sound like "THE BASS PART".)
On a series of quintet recitals, I also played some of the better of David Wilborn's trombone/bass trombone duets (playing the bass trombone parts) with that thing...three or four of these: https://www.warwickmusic.com/p/nvse/ It's truly an easy/fun instrument to play, I enjoy it, and I don't have to "get used to" playing it again (if it sits in its case for a long time)...It doesn't have compensating valves, nor a main slide trigger...so (I suppose) not good enough for school children.

yeah...indoors...If I could talk them into it, probably in a church fellowship hall near the orchestra's regular performance venue.

Something I COULD do (besides play them some orchestral tuba excerpts with which they would be familiar, and answer some questions) would be to TAKE REQUESTS (prior to the program) of jazz standards and torch songs, pick a few of those (or all of them, if only a few) and play them with the pianist...or is that a really dumb idea? (I'm trying to think of stuff that might ACTUALLY be different...and - again - no "F tuba solos" crap.

Gene always seems to start recitals by playing something on the Yamaha (which is really cool) and then he moves over to his F tuba.
I'd just like to see if I could manage to keep people engaged (for an hour, maybe?) only blowing stuff through FatBastard....(??)

Introducing contrabass, bass AND Cimbasso to the audience could be an option.
Maybe you can find suitable solo pieces to feature the strengths and weaknesses of each instrument.
And in case You actually decide on an orchestral excerpt-section and maybe need some time to rest your chops, You might get a chance to chat about gear choices, which, of course, all tubists should be able to spontaneously ad-lib for hours

At least this might provoke some "Gee, I wonder what horns the tuba-guy will bring TODAY"- kinds of reaction on 2-3 consecutive concerts...