An introductory article and videoįor more background on the topic in terms of actually playing one, I have had for years a short introductory article online on the Wagner tuba in Horn Articles Online:Īnd of course I have my book (and E-book) out as well, which I describe in a short video here: The whole article is very nicely written and researched but it is now behind a paywall. And their “husky, rumbling tone,” writes William Melton in his comprehensive history, “The Wagner Tuba,” aptly depicts “the inextinguishable hatred and envy of the Nibelung Alberich.” By contrast, they lend a solemn presence to the funeral music for Siegfried. Highly versatile, their sound has been variously described as “smoky,” “metallic,” “unearthly” and “majestic.” “There’s more clarity than in a horn,” said Jeff Fair, principal horn for the Seattle Opera, whose Stephen Wadsworth “Ring” returns in August, “but more resonance and darker sounds than in the trumpet.” Anne Scharer, fourth horn in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, called the composer’s eponymous instrument “louder and more rustic than orchestral horns, even strident” at times-qualities in evidence, she added, in passages for the crude, menacing Hunding. The Wagner tubas are most closely identified with the regal music for Valhalla, dwelling place of the gods. So this week the readings will start for a change of pace with a quote from “It Takes Brass to Play the Wagner Tuba,” where we read that, Amazingly, just over a week after this article was originally posted in 2013, the Wagner tuba was the topic of a feature article in of all things The Wall Street Journal! Continuing our look at some of the standard works horn players perform often from the nineteenth century our next topic is the Wagner tuba.
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