“Do You C What I C?”: An Examination of Solo Literature
for the Contrabass Tuba By David Zerkel
I have really fond memories of owning my first tuba. Everything about it was extraordinary…the sound, the case, the dents, but
most importantly, the fact that (with some help from my parents) it was mine. I was a sophomore at the Peabody Conservatory
studying with David Bragunier of the National Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Bragunier was, and still is, an Alexander man
through and through and this was the direction that he wanted me to take in looking for an instrument. After about a year of
searching, we found an Alex for sale and we bought it. I was on Cloud Nine!
Having been raised smack-dab in the middle of the middle class, I was extremely grateful to my folks for loaning me the
money to buy this instrument, as the money loaned to me made up a healthy percentage of their savings. I cherished my new
acquisition and spent innumerable hours in the practice room, learning anything and everything I could about my new horn. I
also adopted the notion that this would probably be the only horn I’d ever own, so it would be in my best interest to learn
everything in the literature on the CC tuba. Since I was in college before the F tuba boom hit the United States, and since Mr.
Bragunier played everything on his Alex CC, I was reasonably certain that this is how it worked for everyone.
Some time around my junior year, I started to take orchestral auditions, and would find myself being the only guy in the semis
or the finals who only had one instrument. After that point, when my parents would ask me what I wanted for Christmas, my
standard reply was, “World Peace and an F Tuba”. I knew full well that my odds were about even regarding the likelihood of
getting either, so I continued to toil away on my Vaughan Williams, my Berlioz excerpts, and everything else on my trusty
Alex.
Eventually, at the age of 29 years old, I would buy my first F tuba. But I must confess that, even today, when I think of the
tuba, it is always the sound of the CC that I hear in my head.
In my mind, there are several good reasons for that—primarily that the role of the tuba in any kind of ensemble playing is to
provide the Bass voice. In the tuba family, I believe that there is a clear correlation between the instruments and the respective
voices to which they relate; the Euphonium is the Tenor voice, the F or Eb is the Baritone voice, and the CC or BBb is the Bass
voice. While it is true that, as a solo voice, the tenor is about ten times sexier than the Bass, the Bass still needs to be competent
and work twice as hard as the tenor in order to get across the same musical meaning across to the typical listener (whose
comfortable “listening tessitura” is from the bottom of the Bass Staff to just above the top of the Treble Staff). As someone
who plays both the tuba and the euphonium, I’ll readily admit that both the euphonium and the F tuba are more fun to play as
solo instruments. It’s just easier to make the line sing on these instruments as opposed to the big horn. But we play Bass
instruments, and it is imperative that we can communicate effectively in that particular voice.

http://yadi.sk/d/r1xD3KGO3DCxA

Всем привет. Методику можно приобрести у автора. Связаться с ним по любым вопросам можно по е-mail: brass@inbox.ru
Кстати методика была напечатана для всех инструментов медной группы. Так что передайте вашим коллегам, я думаю им будет интересно.