Recital Report
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Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Plan B and other Reports Graduate Studies 5-1975 Recital Report Robert Steven Call Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Call, Robert Steven, "Recital Report" (1975). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports. 556. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/556 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Plan B and other Reports by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RECITAL REPORT by Robert Steven Call Report of a recital performed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OP MUSIC in ~IUSIC UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 1975 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to expr ess appreciation to my private music teachers, Dr. Alvin Wardle, Professor Glen Fifield, and Mr. Earl Swenson, who through the past twelve years have helped me enormously in developing my musicianship. For professional encouragement and inspiration I would like to thank Dr. Max F. Dalby, Dr. Dean Madsen, and John Talcott. For considerable time and effort spent in preparation of this recital, thanks go to Jay Mauchley, my accompanist. To Elizabeth, my wife, I extend my gratitude for musical suggestions, understanding, and support. I wish to express appreciation to Pam Spencer for the preparation of illustrations and to John Talcott for preparation of musical examp l es. iii UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC 1972 - 73 Graduate Recital R. STEVEN CALL Jay Mauchley, Accompanist Air and Bource . .. ... J.S. Bach Air: Komm, Susser Tod arr. William J. Bell Bouree: from Violin Sonata No. 2 Romanze and Rondo . • . .. W.A. Mozart from Horn Concerto No. 3 Two Moods for Tuba . Donald Swann Elegy Scherzo Performed on the Tuba Toccata ........ Maurice Ravel Jay Mauchley, Piano Concert Piece . Alexandre Guilmant Performed on the Trombone Three Short Pieces . Albert Gower Giocoso Cantabile Allegro Performed on the Baritone Horn Suite for Unaccompanied Tuba . .WalterS. Hartley Intrada Valse Air Galop Chase Fine Arts Center Concert Hall Sunday Afternoon June Twenty-fifth Three O'Clock TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii RECITAL PROGRAM iii LIST OF FIGURES v INTRODUCTION IIISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TUBA 2 The Serpent 2 The Ophicleide . 3 Wieprecht's Tuba 5 Adolphe Sax's Tubas 6 Wagner Tubas . 7 Further Developments 8 Today' s Tubas 9 PROGRAM NOTES AND ANALYSES 12 Air and Bouree .. 12 Romanze and Rondo 13 Two Moods for Tuba 14 Concert Piece 16 Three Short Pieces for Baritone Horn and Piano 18 Suite for Unaccompanied Tuba 20 METHOD OF PROCEDURE . 23 Selection of Literature 23 Preparation . 26 Transfer of Instruments 27 CONCWSION 30 LITERATURE CITED 31 VITA 33 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Range of the French C tuba 10 2. Rhythmic motif in Bouree . 13 3. Melodic and rhythmic variation of Bouree motif 13 4. Melodic line and pulsating eighth notes in Elegy 15 5. Shifting tonalities in Scherzo ..... 15 6. Contrasting articulation in Concert Piece 16 7. Principle theme of Allegro moderato in Guilmant ' s Concert Piece . 17 8. Second theme of Allegro moderato 17 9. Climactic point of Concert Piece 17 10. Interplay between baritone horn and piano in Giocoso of TI1ree Short Pieces 18 11. Unifying motif from Giocoso 19 12. Harmony built on fourths in Cantabile 19 13. Range of baritone horn in Cantabile 19 14. Shifting meters in Allegro from Three Short Pieces 20 15. Cadence points in Intrada from Suite for Unaccompanied Tuba . 21 16. Cadence point in Valse 21 17. Picardy third in Air . 22 18. Hartley's interjection of extra bass-line material in Galop 22 19. Scalular runs in Scherzo 25 20. Difficult technical passage from Concert Piece 26 INTRODUCTION It was the purpose of the recital to afford the performer an opportunity of developing overall musicianship and gaining insight into the teaching of brass instruments through the preparation and performance of several pieces of varied musical styles. The writer elected to perform on trombone, baritone horn, and tuba. Successful performances had been done on trombone and baritone horn prior to the preparation of the master's recital. However, the tuba was a new performance experience because serious study of the instrument had only covered about one year. The writer was specifically concerned with the selection of litera ture suitable to the needs and competencies of the performer, sufficient preparation of the pieces, and transfer problems between tuba, trombone, and baritone horn. Of primary importance was the obtaining of knowledge in all aspects of tuba playing and tuba literature. It is for this reason that the writer researched the history and literature of the tuba and not the trombone. Because the baritone horn is a member of the tuba family, its history coincides with that of the tuba. 2 HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TUBA The Serpent The earl iest bass member of the brass family was the serpent. It was invented by a French churchman, Guillaume of Auxerre, in 1590. The serpent was about eight feet long and had "a shape that suggested a snake" (Schwartz, 1938). This strange shape made the instrument easy to hold and play. Some people took advantage of the serpent's novel shape and painted it so that it also had the unmistakable appearance of a snake. Guillaume' s invention, which had a cup- shaped mouthpiece and was made of wood covered with leather, was really just an addition to the large family of cornettos and zinken. These instruments came about in Europe in the fourteenth century. The Eng lish called them cornettos, and the Germans called them zinken. All members of this family were construct ed of wood covered with leather and had finger holes (Schwartz , 1938). Sc hw artz says that their tone was said to be "colorless, coarse, and windy" (p. 233) . Guillaume apparently i nvented the serpent as a l arger and better zinken or cornetto (Schwartz, 1938, Fennell, 1954) . The serpent was used mo stly in church music to double and/or reinforce the bass voices. It continued to be used in church music after other instruments were developed which would have done a better job (Bobo, 1961). In Theodore Front ' s (1948) translation of Berlioz Strauss ' s Treatise on Instrumentation, Berlioz gives his opinion of the serpent . The truly barbaric tone of this i nstrument would be much better 3 suited for the bloody cult of the Druids than for that of the Catholic Church where it is still in use (p. 348). Serpent The Ophicleide Near the close of the eighteenth century, the serpent began to take on the shape of the bassoon with its tubing in two lines parallel to each other. With this change of shape, it soon came to be called the serpent horn or military serpent. Early in the nineteenth century 4 a metal serpent horn appeared . It ~<as known more generally as the serpentcleide, or ophicleide (Schwartz, 1938). The ophicleide was an improvement on the serpent because it " ... was made of metal, contained keys instead of open finger holes, and ... was related to the keyed bugle family" (Fennell, 1954, p. 21). Although these instruments were capable of playing notes in the range of the modern bass tuba, they lacked a bass quality. Fennell says they were "inadequate as bass instruments" (p. 21). Ophicleide 5 Wieprecht's Tuba The tuba with valves was invented by Wilhelm Wieprecht (1802-1872), a Prussian bandmaster, in about 1828. He abandoned the use of the keyed bugle family in favor of the recently i nvented piston valve. Wieprecht's family of valved brass instruments "consisted of a small Eb cornet, an Eb trumpet, a Bb tenor, and a Bb baritone"(Schwartz, 1938, p. 237). Later Wieprecht made the baritone bore larger and it became known as the euphonium in England and the bass tuba in other countries . It was in the key of Bb, not BBb as many of today's tubas are. Bass tubas were built in other keys also. The F bass tuba became the most widely used (Schwartz, 1938, Fennell, 1954). In Fennell's book on the history of wind instruments, he says of Wieprecht: His extensive experiments in the application of Blumel's piston valve led him to the successful development of the tuba, without which instrument it would not have been possible for any kind of band as we know it today to evolve (p. 21) . Adolphe Sax's Tubas There were so many different variations of brass instruments being used around the middle of the nineteenth century that a composer could not be sure on which instrument a brass part would be played. Because of all the assorted keys and bore sizes, there was a need for some kind of organization and culling. Adolphe Sax (1814-1897) accordingly intro- duced his family of saxhorns to meet this demand (Schwartz, 1938). The saxhorns were conical-bored instruments with an improved valve that provided better intonation and permitted better technique . Schwartz 6 discusses nine different members of the saxhorn family consisting of a smal l Eb soprano, similar to our high Eb cornet; a Bb soprano, similar to our Bb cornet; an Eb alto; a Bb tenor; a Bb bass; and a contra~bass in BBb (p. 239) . John Burnau (1969) states that With the invention of the saxhorn family the miscellaneous serpents, ophicleides, bombardons and other odd tenor, baritone and bass instruments faded out of the picture (p. 430).