Playing a Double Wagner Tuba this Week

I am playing extra horn this week with The Phoenix Symphony, seventh horn and Wagner tuba on The Rite of Spring. It has made this week especially busy but I enjoy briefly playing in orchestra again on these large works.

The one notable experience of the week is this is my first performance in some years on a double Wagner tuba. A little background information: the Wagner tuba is an instrument first used in the Ring cycle of operas of Wagner. He scored for a quartet of instruments, two tenors in B-flat and two basses in F. This instrumentation is standard in basically every significant work that uses Wagner tubas; The Rite of Spring is an exception, calling for two tenor Wagner tubas only.

A double Wagner tuba is in a way a good idea but I find it has one major disadvantage; it is neither a tenor nor a bass. On the whole it is more like a tenor and if I stay on the B-flat side, as I am doing this week, it seems to play the best, with a tone only a little heavier than that of a true tenor. If I were playing a low part such as fourth Wagner tuba on Bruckner 7 I would certainly however want to have a true bass in F, not a double.

I have performed Wagner tuba a number of times professionally, and this summer one project was the expansion of my notes on Wagner tuba into a larger publication; be looking for more details on this publication project soon.

It is always interesting playing with the symphony. The concert should be a good one to hear if you are in the Phoenix area. One note from a performance side would be that while I would like to play really on top of the beat my sense is the conductor does not really want or expect the orchestra to play right on top of the beat he gives. Orchestra members are used to his style; only an outside player would tend to notice. One extra player in another section was singled out for playing a little ahead of his beat today and my reaction was that player was actually playing right on top of his beat like a pro should. Something to think about in relation to the conductors you play with as well.