Name	Tuba
Image capt	Two F-tubas, from c.1900 (left) and 2004 (right)
Background	brass
Hornbostel sachs	423.232
Hornbostel sachs desc	Valved aerophone sounded by lip movement
Inventors	Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Carl Moritz
Developed	1835
Range
Midi	058/059

The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for trumpet or horn. The horn referred to would most likely resemble what is known as a baroque trumpet.

History

Prussian Patent No. 19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Carl Moritz on September 12, 1835 for a "basstuba" in F1. The original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern rotary valve.

The addition of valves made it possible to play low in the harmonic series of the instrument and still have a complete selection of notes. Prior to the invention of valves, brass instruments were limited to notes in the harmonic series, and were thus generally played very high with respect to their fundamental pitch. Harmonics starting three octaves above the fundamental pitch are about a whole step apart, making a useful variety of notes possible.

The ophicleide used a cup-shaped brass instrument mouthpiece but employed keys and tone holes similar to those of a modern saxophone. Another forerunner to the tuba was the serpent, a bass brass instrument that was shaped in a wavy form to make the tone holes accessible to the player. Tone holes changed the pitch by providing an intentional leak in the bugle of the instrument. While this changed the pitch, it also had a pronounced effect on the timbre. By using valves to adjust the length of the bugle the tuba produced a smoother tone that eventually led to its popularity.

Adolphe Sax, like Wieprecht, was interested in marketing systems of instruments from soprano to bass, and developed a series of brass instruments known as saxhorns. The instruments developed by Sax were generally pitched in E-flat and B-flat, while the Wieprecht "basstuba" and the subsequent Cerveny contrabass tuba were pitched in F and C (see below on pitch systems). Sax's instruments gained dominance in France, and later in Britain and America, as a result of the popularity and movements of instrument makers such as Gustave Auguste Besson (who moved from France to Britain) and Henry Distin (who found his way eventually to America).

Roles

An orchestra usually has a single tuba, though an additional tuba may be asked for as well. It is the principal bass instrument in symphonic and military bands, and those ensembles generally have more. It serves as the bass of the brass section and of brass quintets and choirs, as well as reinforcement for the bass voices of the strings and woodwinds, and as a solo instrument.

Well known and influential parts for the tuba include:

Modest Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel) (Pictures at an Exhibition - Bydlo)

Richard Strauss (Also sprach Zarathustra, Eine Alpensinfonie).

Shostakovich (Fifth symphony).

Stravinsky (The Rite of Spring).

Edgard Varèse (Déserts).

Richard Wagner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Ride of the Valkyries).

Sergei Prokofiev (Fifth Symphony).

George Gershwin (An American in Paris)

Silvestre Revueltas (Sensemayá, Noche de los mayas, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca)

Concertos have been written for the tuba by many notable composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Gregson, John Williams, Alexander Arutiunian, Eric Ewazen, James Barnes, Martin Ellerby, Philip Sparke, Kalevi Aho, Arild Plau, James Woodward, Victor Davies, Josef Tal and Bruce Broughton. Joseph Hallman's Concerto for tuba and chamber orchestra was written for and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra's tubist, Carol Jantsch in May 2007. Tubas are also used in concert bands, marching bands, and in drum and bugle (and drum and brass) corps. In British style brass bands, both E-flat and B-flat tubas are used and are normally referred to as basses.

==Types and construction== .]] Tubas are found in various pitches, most commonly in F, E-flat, C, or B-flat. The main tube of a B-flat tuba is approximately 18 feet long, while that of a C tuba is 16 feet, of an E-flat tuba 13 feet, and of an F tuba 12 feet. The instrument has a conical bore, meaning the bore diameter increases as a function of the tubing length from the mouthpiece to the bell. The conical bore causes the instrument to produce a preponderance of even-order harmonics.

A tuba with its tubing wrapped for placing the instrument on the player's lap is usually called a concert tuba or simply a tuba. Tubas with the bell pointing forward (pavillon tournant) instead of upward are often called recording tubas because of their popularity in the early days of recorded music, as their sound could more easily be directed at the recording instrument. When wrapped to surround the body for marching, it is traditionally known as a hélicon. The modern sousaphone, named after American bandmaster John Philip Sousa, resembles a hélicon with the bell pointed up and then curved to point forward. Some ancestors of the tuba, such as the military bombardon, were wrapped so that the bell extended far backwards over the player's shoulder. These instruments were commonly used in military bands during the American Civil War, and are known as "over-the-shoulder saxhorns".

Most music for tuba is written in bass clef in concert pitch, so tuba players must know the correct fingerings for their specific instrument. Traditional British-style brass band parts for the tuba are usually written in treble clef, with the B-flat tuba sounding two octaves and one step below and the E-flat tuba sounding one octave and a major sixth below the written pitch. This allows musicians to change instruments without learning new fingerings for the same written music. Consequently, when its music is written in treble clef, the tuba is a transposing instrument, but not when the music is in bass clef.

The lowest pitched tubas are the contrabass tubas, pitched in C or B-flat; (referred to as CC and BB-flat tubas respectively, based on a traditional distortion of a now-obsolete octave naming convention). The fundamental pitch of a CC tuba is 32 Hz, and for a BB-flat tuba, 29 Hz. The CC tuba is used as an orchestral instrument in the U.S., but BB-flat tubas are the contrabass tuba of choice in German, Austrian, and Russian orchestras. In the United States the BB-flat tuba is the most common in schools (largely due to the use of BBb sousaphones in high school marching bands) and for adult amateurs. Most professionals in the U.S. play CC tubas, with BBb also common, and many train in the use of all four pitches of tubas.

The next smaller tubas are the bass tubas, pitched in F or E-flat (a fourth above the contrabass tubas). The E-flat tuba often plays an octave above the contrabass tubas in brass bands, and the F tuba is commonly used by professional players as a solo instrument and, in America, to play higher parts in the classical repertoire (or parts that were originally written for the F tuba, as is the case with Berlioz). In most of Europe, the F tuba is the standard orchestral instrument, supplemented by the CC or BB-flat only when the extra weight is desired. Wagner, for example, specifically notates the low tuba parts for "Kontrabasstuba," which are played on CC or BB-flat tubas in most regions. In the United Kingdom, the E-flat is the standard orchestral tuba.

The euphonium is sometimes referred to as a tenor tuba and is pitched in B-flat, one octave higher than the BB-flat contrabass tuba. The term "tenor tuba" is often used more specifically to refer to B-flat rotary-valved tubas pitched in the same octave as euphoniums. The "Small French Tuba in C" is a tenor tuba pitched in C, and provided with 6 valves to make the lower notes in the orchestral repertoire possible. The French C tuba was the standard instrument in French orchestras until overtaken by F and C tubas since the Second World War. One popular example of the use of the French C tuba is the Bydło movement in Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, though the rest of the work is scored for this instrument as well.

Larger BBB-flat subcontrabass tubas exist, but are extremely rare (there are at least four known examples). The first two were built by the Gustav Besson in BBB-flat, one octave below the BB-flat Contrabass tuba, on the suggestion of John Philip Sousa. The monster instruments were not completed until just after Sousa's death. Later, in the 1950s, British musician Gerard Hoffnung commissioned the London firm of Paxman to create a subcontrabass tuba in EEE-flat for use in his comedic music festivals. Also, a tuba pitched in FFF was made in Kraslice by Bohland & Fuchs probably during 1910 or 1911 and was destined for the World Exhibition in New York in 1913. Two players are needed; one to operate the valves and one to blow into the mouthpiece.

Size vs. Pitch

In addition to the length of the instrument, which dictates the fundamental pitch, tubas also vary in overall width of the tubing sections. Tuba sizes are usually denoted by a quarter system, with 4/4 designating a normal, full-size tuba. Larger rotary instruments are known as kaisertubas and are often denoted 5/4. Larger piston tubas, particularly those with front action, are sometimes known as grand orchestral tubas (examples: The Conn 36J Orchestra Grand Bass from the 1930s, and the current model Hirsbrunner HB-50 "Grand Orchestral," which is a replica of the large York tubas owned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). Grand orchestral tubas are generally described as 6/4 tubas. Smaller instruments may be described as 3/4 instruments. No standards exist for these designations, and their use is up to manufacturers who usually use them to distinguish among the instruments in their own product line. The size designation is related to the larger outer branches, and not to the bore of the tubing at the valves, though the bore is usually reported in instrument specifications. The quarter system is also not related to bell size, at least across manufacturers.

Valves

Tubas are made with either piston or rotary valves. Rotary valves, invented by Joseph Riedl, are based on a design included in the original valve patents by Friedrich Blühmel and Heinrich Stölzel in 1818. Červeny of Graslitz was the first to use true rotary valves, starting in the 1840s or 1850s. Modern Piston valves were developed by Perinet for the saxhorn family of instruments promoted by Adolphe Sax around the same time. Pistons may either be oriented to point to the top of the instrument (top-action, as pictured in the figure at the top of the article) or out the front of the instrument (front-action or side-action). There are advantages and disadvantages to each valve style, but assertions concerning sound, speed, and clarity are difficult to quantify. German players generally prefer rotary valves while British and American players favor piston valves - the choice of valve type remains up to the performer.

Piston valves require more maintenance than rotary valves — they require daily oiling to keep them freely operating, while rotary valves are sealed and seldom require oiling. Piston valves are easy to disassemble and re-assemble, while rotary valve disassembly and re-assembly is much more difficult and is generally left to qualified instrument repair persons.

Tubas generally have from three to six valves, though some rare exceptions exist. Three-valve tubas are generally the least expensive and are almost exclusively used by beginners and amateurs, and the sousaphone (a marching version of a BB-flat tuba) almost always has three valves. Among advanced players, four and five valve tubas are by far the most common choices, with six-valve tubas being relatively rare except among F tubas, which mostly have five or six valves.

The valves add tubing to the main tube of the instrument, thus lowering its fundamental pitch. The first valve lowers the pitch by a whole step (two semitones), the second valve by a semitone, and the third valve by three semitones. Used in combination, the valves are too short and the resulting pitch tends to be sharp. For example, a BB-flat tuba becomes (in effect) an A-flat tuba when the first valve is depressed. The third valve is long enough to lower the pitch of a BB-flat tuba by three semitones, but it is not long enough to lower the pitch of an A-flat tuba by three semitones. Thus, the first and third valves used in combination lower the pitch by something just short of five semitones, and the first three valves used in combination are nearly a quarter tone sharp.

The fourth valve is used in place of combinations of the first and third valves, and the second and fourth used in combination are used in place of the first three valves in combination. The fourth valve can be tuned to lower the pitch of the main tube accurately by five semitones, and thus its use corrects the main problem of combinations being too sharp. By using the fourth valve by itself to replace the first and third combination, or the fourth and second valves in place of the first, second and third valve combinations, the notes requiring these fingerings are more in tune.

The fifth and sixth valves are used to provide alternative fingering possibilities to improve intonation, and are also used to reach into the low register of the instrument where all the valves will be used in combination to fill the first octave between the fundamental pitch and the next available note on the open tube. The fifth and sixth valves also give the musician the ability to trill more smoothly or to use alternative fingerings for ease of playing.

The bass tuba in F is pitched a fifth above the BB-flat tuba and a fourth above the CC tuba, so it needs additional tubing length beyond that provided by four valves to play securely down to a low F as required in much tuba music. The fifth valve is commonly tuned to a flat whole step, so that when used with the fourth valve, it gives an in-tune low B-flat. The sixth valve is commonly tuned as a flat half step, allowing the F tuba to play low G as 1-4-5-6 and low G-flat as 1-2-4-5-6. In CC tubas with five valves, the fifth valve may be tuned as a flat whole step or as a minor third depending on the instrument.

Resonance and false tones

Some tubas have a strong and useful resonance that is not in the well-known harmonic series. For example, most large B-flat tubas have a strong resonance at low E-flat (E-flat1, 39 Hz), which is between the fundamental and the second harmonic (an octave higher than the fundamental). These alternative resonances are often known as false tones or privileged tones. (William Bell famously referred to them as "underprivileged tones".) Adding the six semitones provided by the three valves, these alternative resonances allow the instrument to be played chromatically down to the fundamental of the open bugle, (which is a 29 Hz B-flat). The addition of valves below that note can lower the instrument a further six semitones to a 20 Hz E0. Thus, even three-valved instruments with good alternative resonances can produce very low sounds in the hands of skilled players; instruments with four valves can play even lower. The lowest note in the widely known repertoire is a 16 Hz double-pedal C in the William Kraft piece Encounters II, which is often played using a timed flutter tongue rather than by buzzing the lips. The fundamental of this pitch borders on infrasound and its overtones define the pitch in the listener's ear.

The most convincing explanation for false-tones is that the horn is acting as a 'third of a pipe' rather than as a half-pipe. The bell remains an anti-node, but there would then be a node 1/3 of the way back to the mouthpiece. If so, it seems that the fundamental would be missing entirely, and would only be inferred from the overtones. However, the node and the anti-node collide in the same spot and cancel out the fundamental.

Some tubas have a compensating system to allow accurate tuning when using several valves in combination, simplifying fingering and removing the need to constantly adjust slide positions. The most popular of the automatic compensation systems was invented by Blaikley (Bevan, 1978) and was patented by Boosey (later, Boosey and Hawkes, which also, later still, produced Besson instruments). The patent on the system limited its application outside of Britain, and to this day tubas with compensating valves are primarily popular in the United Kingdom and countries of the former British Empire. The Blaikley design plumbs the instrument so that if the fourth valve is used, the air is sent back through a second set of branches in the first three valves to compensate for the combination of valves. This does have the disadvantage of making the instrument significantly more 'stuffy' or resistant to air flow when compared to a non-compensating tuba. This is due to the need for the air to flow through the valves twice. It also makes the instrument heavier. But many prefer this approach to additional valves or to manipulation of tuning slides while playing to achieve improved intonation within an ensemble. Most modern professional-grade euphoniums now feature Blaikley-style compensating valves.

Materials and finish

The tuba is generally constructed of brass, which is either unfinished, lacquered or electro-plated with nickel, gold or silver. Unfinished brass will eventually tarnish and thus must be periodically polished to maintain its appearance. There is some belief that the external finish of the tuba can play an important role in the tone production, which has never been scientifically proved. Performers have individual preferences on the finish that they select, and will sometimes have horns in more than one finish for different musical settings.

Variations

Some tubas are capable of being converted into a marching style, known as "marching tubas". A leadpipe can be manually screwed on next to the valves. The tuba is then usually rested on the left shoulder (although some tubas allow use of the right shoulder), with the bell facing directly in front of the player. Some marching tubas are made only for marching, and cannot be converted into a concert model. Most marching bands opt for the sousaphone, an instrument that is easier to carry and almost always cheaper than a true marching tuba. Drum and bugle corps players, however, generally use marching tubas, which, in this context, are called contras. Standard tubas can also be played whilst standing, with the use of a strap joined to the tuba with two rings. The strap goes over the player's shoulder like a sash, allowing the instrument to be played in the same position as when sitting.

Jazz

The tuba has been used in jazz since the genre's inception. In the earliest years, bands often used a tuba for outdoor playing and a double bass for indoor performances. In this context, the tuba was sometimes called "brass bass", as opposed to the double bass, which was called "string bass"; it was not uncommon for players to double on both instruments.

In modern jazz, the role of the two bass instruments remains similar. Tubas are usually featured in a supporting role, although it is not uncommon for them to take solos. Many jazz bands actually use a sousaphone. New Orleans style Brass Bands like Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band, and Nightcrawlers Brass Band feature a sousaphone as a jazz bass. Miles Davis made use of a tuba, played by Bill Barber, in his album Birth of the Cool, released in June, 1950. One of the most prominent tubists specializing in jazz is the New York City-based Marcus Rojas, who has performed frequently with bandleader Henry Threadgill. Another notable group is the Modern Jazz Tuba Project, founded by R. Winston Morris, which consists entirely of tubas and euphoniums with rhythm section.

The tuba has also played a large role in ragtime music, and in big band music, the tuba (usually bass tuba pitched in E-flat) would provide a walking bass similar to that of a double bass.

Notable tubists

See List of tuba players

See also

Roman tuba

Wagner tuba

Euphonium

Tubachristmas (music event)

Contrabass Bugle

Sousaphone

Brass Instrument Valves

References

External links

The International Tuba-Euphonium Association.

Tuba News, a free monthly online publication for tuba and euphonium players.

International Tuba Day

Tubenet Sean Chisham's popular Tubenet discussion forum.

Brass-Forum.co.uk UK based brass discussion forum.

Brassmusic.Ru — Russian Brass Community

The Wagner tuba

Acoustics of Brass Instruments from Music Acoustics at the University of New South Wales.

Tuba/Sousaphone as blues instruments

More Thoughts on Tuba

Official site for the annual TubaChristmas concerts in the US, Victoria BC and Switzerland

Paul Haugan Historical Tuba Collection

The Four-Valve Compensating System

Category:Brass instruments Category:Contrabass instruments Category:Bass (sound)

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM () (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song which influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, containing many folk song arrangements set as hymn tunes, in addition to several original compositions.

Life

Early years

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born on 12 October 1872 in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, where his father, the Revd Arthur Vaughan Williams (the surname Vaughan Williams is an unhyphenated double-barrelled name), was vicar. Following his father's death in 1875 he was taken by his mother, Margaret Susan née Wedgwood (1843–1937), the great-granddaughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood, to live with her family at Leith Hill Place, a Wedgwood family home in the Surrey Hills. He was also related to the Darwins, Charles Darwin being a great-uncle. Though born into the privileged intellectual upper middle class, Vaughan Williams never took it for granted and worked all his life for the democratic and egalitarian ideals in which he believed.

and Josiah Wedgwood]] As a student he had studied piano, "which I never could play, and the violin, which was my musical salvation." After Charterhouse School he attended the Royal College of Music (RCM) under Charles Villiers Stanford. He read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his friends and contemporaries included the philosophers G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell. He then returned to the RCM and studied composition with Hubert Parry, who became a friend. One of his fellow pupils at the RCM was Leopold Stokowski and during 1896 they both studied organ under Sir Walter Parratt. Stokowski later went on to perform six of Vaughan Williams's symphonies for American audiences, making the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949 with the New York Philharmonic, and giving the U.S. premiere of the Ninth Symphony in Carnegie Hall in 1958.

Another friendship made at the RCM, crucial to Vaughan Williams's development as a composer, was with fellow-student Gustav Holst whom he first met in 1895. From that time onwards they spent several 'field days' reading through and offering constructive criticism on each other's works in progress.

Vaughan Williams's composition developed slowly and it was not until he was 30 that the song "Linden Lea" became his first publication. He mixed composition with conducting, lecturing and editing other music, notably that of Henry Purcell and the English Hymnal. He had further lessons with Max Bruch in Berlin in 1897 and later took a big step forward in his orchestral style when he studied in Paris with Maurice Ravel.

In 1904, Vaughan Williams discovered English folk songs and carols, which were fast becoming extinct owing to the oral tradition through which they existed being undermined by the increase of literacy and printed music in rural areas. He travelled the countryside, transcribing and preserving many himself. Later he incorporated some songs and melodies into his own music, being fascinated by the beauty of the music and its anonymous history in the working lives of ordinary people. His efforts did much to raise appreciation of traditional English folk song and melody. Later in his life he served as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), which, in recognition of his early and important work in this field, named its Vaughan Williams Memorial Library after him. During this time he strengthened his links to prominent writers on folk music, including the Reverend George B. Chambers.

In 1905, Vaughan Williams conducted the first concert of the newly founded Leith Hill Music Festival at Dorking which he was to conduct until 1953, when he passed the baton to his successor, William Cole.

In 1909, he composed incidental music for the Cambridge Greek Play, a stage production at Cambridge University of Aristophanes' The Wasps. The next year, he had his first big public successes conducting the premieres of the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral) and his choral symphony A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1). He enjoyed a still greater success with A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2) in 1914, conducted by Geoffrey Toye.

Two World Wars

Vaughan Williams was 41 when World War I began. Though he could have avoided war service entirely, or tried for a commission, he chose to enlist as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. After a gruelling time as a stretcher bearer in France and Salonika, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 24 December 1917. On one occasion, though too ill to stand, he continued to direct his battery while lying on the ground. Prolonged exposure to gunfire began a process of hearing loss which eventually caused severe deafness in old age. having previously declined a knighthood. He was a regular visitor to her home and often attended parties there. Cohen premiered Vaughan Williams's "Hymn Tune Prelude" in 1930, which he dedicated to her. She later introduced the piece throughout Europe during her concert tours. In 1933 she premiered his Piano Concerto in C major, a work which was once again dedicated to her. Cohen was given the exclusive right to play the piece for a period of time. Cohen played and promoted Vaughan Williams's work throughout Europe, the USSR, and the United States.

His music now entered a mature lyrical phase, as in the Five Tudor Portraits; the Serenade to Music (a setting of a scene from act five of The Merchant of Venice, for orchestra and sixteen vocal soloists and composed as a tribute to the conductor Sir Henry Wood); and the Symphony No. 5 in D, which he conducted at the Proms in 1943. As he was now 70, many people considered it a swan song, but he renewed himself again and entered yet another period of exploratory harmony and instrumentation. His very successful Symphony No. 6 of 1946 received a hundred performances in the first year. It surprised both admirers and critics, many of whom suggested that this symphony (especially its last movement) was a grim vision of the aftermath of an atomic war: typically, Vaughan Williams himself refused to recognise any programme behind this work.

Late harvest

Before his death in 1958, he completed three more symphonies. His Seventh, Sinfonia Antartica, which was based on his 1948 film score for Scott of the Antarctic, exhibits his renewed interest in instrumentation and sonority. The Eighth Symphony, first performed in 1956, was followed by the much weightier Symphony No. 9 in E minor of 1956–57. This last symphony was initially given a lukewarm reception after its first performance in May 1958, just three months before his death. But this dark and enigmatic work is now considered by many to be a fitting conclusion to his sequence of symphonic works.

He also completed a range of instrumental and choral works, including a Tuba Concerto, An Oxford Elegy on texts of Matthew Arnold, and the Christmas cantata Hodie. He also wrote an arrangement of The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune for the Coronation Service of Queen Elizabeth II. At his death he left an unfinished Cello Concerto, an opera Thomas the Rhymer and music for a Christmas play, The First Nowell, which was completed by his amanuensis Roy Douglas (b. 1907).

Despite his substantial involvement in church music, and the religious subject-matter of many of his works, he was described by his second wife as "an atheist ... [who] later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism." It is noteworthy that in his opera The Pilgrim's Progress he changed the name of the hero from John Bunyan's Christian to Pilgrim. He also set Bunyan's hymn Who would true valour see to music using the traditional Sussex melody "Monk's Gate". For many church-goers, his most familiar composition may be the hymn tune Sine nomine written for the hymn "For All the Saints" by William Walsham How. The tune he composed for the mediaeval hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine" (Discendi, Amor santo by Bianco of Siena, ca.1434) is entitled "Down Ampney" in honour of his birthplace.

He also worked as a tutor for Birkbeck College.

In the 1950s, the composer supervised recordings of all but his Ninth Symphony by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca. At the end of the sessions for the mysterious Sixth Symphony, Vaughan Williams gave a short speech, thanking Boult and the orchestra for their performance, "most heartily," and Decca later included this on the LP. He was to supervise the first recording of the Ninth Symphony (for Everest Records) with Boult; his death on 26 August 1958 the night before the recording sessions were to begin provoked Boult to announce to the musicians that their performance would be a memorial to the composer. These recordings, including the speeches by the composer and Boult, have all been reissued by Decca on CD.

He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Vaughan Williams is a central figure in British music because of his long career as teacher, lecturer and friend to so many younger composers and conductors. His writings on music remain thought-provoking, particularly his oft-repeated call for all persons to make their own music, however simple, as long as it is truly their own.

Marriages

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Adeline Fisher (daughter of the historian Herbert William Fisher) in 1896. Adeline was related to Ruth Fisher de Ropp, who was the mother of Robert S de Ropp. Robert's father, a semi-destitute European nobleman, was unable to pay for his son's post-secondary education. Consequently, Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams paid for Robert’s education at the Royal College of Science, in South Kensington, where he eventually specialized in biology and earned a PhD. De Ropp went on to be a successful research scientist and well-known author of books on human potentials. Adeline Fisher Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after many years of suffering from crippling arthritis.

In 1953 he married the poet Ursula Wood (1911–2007). At this time they moved from Dorking, Surrey, back to London and occupied a house at 10 Hanover Terrace, Regents Park. She had met Vaughan Williams in 1938 and they had begun an affair while still married to their respective spouses. After her first husband's death, Wood continued her relationship with Vaughan Williams, apparently with the tacit approval of Adeline. Ursula became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant, writing the libretto to his choral work The Sons of Light, and contributing to that of The Pilgrim's Progress and Hodie. There were no children by either marriage.

Style

Vaughan Williams's music has often been said to be characteristically English, in the same way as that of Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, George Butterworth and William Walton. In Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, Peter Ackroyd writes, "If that Englishness in music can be encapsulated in words at all, those words would probably be: ostensibly familiar and commonplace, yet deep and mystical as well as lyrical, melodic, melancholic, and nostalgic yet timeless." Ackroyd quotes music critic John Alexander Fuller Maitland, whose distinctions included editing the second edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in the years just before 1911, as having observed that in Vaughan Williams's style "one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new."

His style expresses a deep regard for and fascination with folk tunes, the variations upon which can convey the listener from the down-to-earth (which he always tried to remain in his daily life) to the ethereal. Simultaneously the music shows patriotism toward England in the subtlest form, engendered by a feeling for ancient landscapes and a person's small yet not entirely insignificant place within them.

Ballets

Old King Cole (1923)

On Christmas Night (1926)

(1930)

The Running Set (1933)

The Bridal Day (1938–39)

Orchestral

Symphonies

*A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1), a choral symphony on texts by Whitman (1903–1909)

*A London Symphony (Symphony No. 2) (1913)

*A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3) (1921)

*Symphony No. 4 in F minor (1931–34)

*Symphony No. 5 in D (1938–43)

*Symphony No. 6 in E minor (1944–47, rev. 1950)

*Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7) (1949–52) (partly based on his music for the film Scott of the Antarctic)

*Symphony No. 8 in D minor (1953–55)

*Symphony No. 9 in E minor (1956–57)

In the Fen Country, for orchestra (1904)

Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1 (1906, rev. 1914)

The Wasps, an Aristophanic suite (1909; see Incidental music above)

Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910, rev. 1913 and 1919)

Fantasia on "Greensleeves" (1934)

Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939)

Concerto Grosso, for three parts of strings requiring different levels of technical skill (1950)

Concerti

Piano

* Piano Concerto in C (1926–31)

*Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (c. 1946; a reworking of Piano Concerto in C)

Violin

*The Lark Ascending for violin and orchestra (1914)

*Concerto Accademico for violin and orchestra (1924–25)

Viola

*Flos Campi for viola, wordless chorus and small orchestra (1925)

*Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra (1934)

*Romance for viola and piano (1925-1934 circa)

Oboe Concerto in A minor, for oboe and strings (1944)

Fantasia (quasi variazione) on the Old 104th Psalm Tune for piano, chorus, and orchestra (1949)

Romance in D-flat for harmonica and orchestra (1951) (written for Larry Adler)

Tuba Concerto in F minor (1954)

Choral

Toward the Unknown Region, song for chorus and orchestra, setting of Walt Whitman (1906)

Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus and orchestra, settings of George Herbert (1911)

Fantasia on Christmas Carols for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1912; arranged also for reduced orchestra of organ, strings, percussion)

Mass in G Minor for unaccompanied choir (1922)

Sancta Civitas (The Holy City) oratorio, text mainly from the Book of Revelation (1923–25)

Te Deum in G (1928)

Benedicite for soprano, chorus, and orchestra (1929)

In Windsor Forest, adapted from the opera Sir John in Love (1929)

Three Choral Hymns (1929)

Magnificat for contralto, women's chorus, and orchestra (1932)

Five Tudor Portraits for contralto, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1935)

Dona nobis pacem, text by Walt Whitman and other sources (1936)

Festival Te Deum for chorus and orchestra or organ (1937)

Serenade to Music for sixteen solo voices and orchestra, a setting of Shakespeare, dedicated to Sir Henry Joseph Wood on the occasion of his Jubilee (1938)

"Six Choral Songs To Be Sung In Time Of War" (1940)

A Song of Thanksgiving (originally Thanksgiving for Victory) for narrator, soprano solo, children's chorus, mixed chorus, and orchestra (1944)

An Oxford Elegy for narrator, mixed chorus and small orchestra (1949)

Three Shakespeare Songs for SATB unaccompanied, composed for The British Federation of Music Festivals National Competitive Festival (1951)

Oh Taste and See, a motet setting of Psalm 34:8. The original SATB version was composed for the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 1953. (1953)

Hodie, a Christmas oratorio (1954)

Folk songs of the Four Seasons A Cantata for Women's Voices with Orchestra or pianoforte accompaniment (1950).

Epithalamion for baritone solo, chorus, flute, piano, and strings (1957)

A Choral Flourish for unaccompanied SATB chorus, composed for a large choral event in the Royal Albert Hall at the invitation of (and dedicated to) Alan Kirby (c. 1952)

Arrangements of Christian Hymns

Vaughan Williams was the musical editor of the English Hymnal of 1906, and the co-editor with Martin Shaw of Songs of Praise of 1925 and the Oxford Book of Carols of 1928, all in collaboration with Percy Dearmer. A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing

All Creatures of Our God and King

Alleluia, Sing to Jesus

Amid the Thronging Worshippers

At the Name of Jesus

"Come Down, O Love Divine" original hymnody by Bianco of Siena (1434)"Discendi, Amor santo"and entitled "Down Ampney" in honour of Vaughan Williams's birthplace

Come, Let Us with Our Lord Arise an Easter anthem

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus a carol for the season of Advent

For All the Saints harmonized from "Sine Nomine"

God Be With You Till We Meet Again

I Love You Lord, My Strength, My Rock

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

Jesus, Lord, Redeemer

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence", text of the Cherubic hymn of Liturgy of St James, harmonized to the French folk tune Picardy (1906)

Make Room Within My Heart, O God

a lament for Good Friday services during Passiontide

O Come to Me, the Master Said

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" a popular Christmas Carol penned by the American Phillips Brooks adapted to the English tune "Forest Green"

O Sing a Song of Bethlehem

On Christmas Night All Christians Sing

When the Church of Jesus

Vocal

"Linden Lea", song (1901)

The House of Life, six sonnets by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, set to music (1904)

Songs of Travel (1904)

"The Sky Above The Roof" (1908)

On Wenlock Edge, song cycle for tenor, piano and string quartet (1909)

Along the Field, for tenor and violin

Three Poems by Walt Whitman for baritone and piano (1920)

Four Poems by Fredegond Shove: for baritone and piano (1922)

Four Hymns (1914)

Merciless Beauty for tenor, two violins, and cello

Four Last Songs to poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams

Ten Blake songs, song cycle for high voice and oboe (1957)

Chamber and Instrumental

String Quartet in C minor (1897) (early composition)

String Quartet No. 1 in G minor (1908)

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor ("For Jean, on her birthday," 1942–44)

Phantasy Quintet for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello (1912)

Piano Quintet in C minor for violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano (1903)

Sonata in A minor for violin and piano (1952)

Romance for Viola and Piano (undated)

Six Studies in English Folk Song, for violoncello and piano (1926)

Organ

Three Preludes on Welsh Hymn Tunes (Bryn Calfaria, Rhosymedre, Hyfrydol) (1920)

Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1921)

A Wedding Tune for Ann (1943)

The Old One Hundredth Psalm Tune, harmonization and arrangement (1953)

Two Organ Preludes (The White Rock, St. David's Day) (1956)

Film, radio, and TV scores

49th Parallel, 1940, his first, talked into it by Muir Mathieson to assuage his guilt at being able to do nothing for the war effort

Coastal Command, 1942

BBC adaptation of The Pilgrim's Progress, 1942

The People's Land, 1943

The Story of a Flemish Farm, 1943

Stricken Peninsula, 1945

The Loves of Joanna Godden, 1946

Scott of the Antarctic, 1948, partially reused for his Sinfonia antartica (Symphony No. 7)

The England of Elizabeth

Band

English Folk Song Suite for military band (1923)

Sea Songs (1923)

Toccata Marziale for military band (1924)

Overture: Henry V for brass band (1933/34)

Flourish for Wind Band (1939)

Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes arranged from the organ piece for brass band (1955) and published by Salvationist Publishing and Supplies

Variations for brass band (1957)

Recordings

Vaughan Williams enjoys an extensive recorded legacy. Early recordings of individual symphonies made by Henry Wood (London), John Barbirolli (Fifth), Adrian Boult and Leopold Stokowski (both in the Sixth), and the composer's own recording of the Fourth, preceded several complete cycles. Stokowski's 1943 NBC Symphony broadcast of the Fourth Symphony has also been issued on CD, as has his 1964 Proms performance of the 8th with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sir Eugene Goossens recorded the 1920 edition of A London Symphony with the Cincinnati Orchestra for RCA Victor in 1941, the only recording of that version of the score ever made. Boult taped the first cycle (Symphonies 1 - 8) for Decca in the early 1950s, completing it with No. 9 for the Everest label in 1958; he re-recorded all nine for EMI between 1967 and 1972. Other cycles have followed from André Previn, Bernard Haitink, Bryden Thomson, Vernon Handley, Leonard Slatkin and Richard Hickox.

Several other foreign conductors have also recorded individual Vaughan Williams symphonies: Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein both recorded the Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic, the same orchestra with which Leopold Stokowski had made the first recording of the Sixth Symphony in 1949. This work was also recorded by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony in 1966. Paavo Berglund also recorded the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies and, among other CD releases, the Portuguese premiere of the Ninth Symphony, with Pedro de Freitas Branco conducting the National Symphony Orchestra of Portugal, has also been issued. Similarly, the US premiere of the Ninth Symphony, given by Leopold Stokowski in Carnegie Hall in 1958 'In Memoriam Vaughan Williams' has also been released on CD by Cala Records.

A first official release of the Symphony No. 5 conducted by the composer in 1952 was recently issued in the U.K. by Somm Recordings.

David Willcocks recorded much of the choral output for EMI in the 1960s and 1970s. Award-winning performances of the string quartets have followed on Naxos, which along with the Hyperion and Chandos labels have recorded much neglected material, including works for brass band and the rarely performed operas.

EMI Classics has issued a budget 30-CD set (34+ hours) with virtually all of Vaughan Williams's works, including alternative settings.

See also

International Council for Traditional Music

Notes

References

Vaughan Williams on Music, Ralph Vaughan Williams & David Manning. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-518239-2

Heirs & Rebels, Ralph Vaughan Williams & Gustav Holst; ed. Ursula Vaughan Williams & Imogen Holst. London, Oxford University Press, 1959.

Vaughan Williams, Simon Heffer. Northeastern; First American edition (March 1, 2001). ISBN 978-1-55553-472-1.

External links

1956 audio interview with Vaughan Williams on his editing of the English Hymnal (from the BBC)

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet Soundbites and discussion of work

(on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer's death)

"Famous names in the First World War—Ralph Vaughan Williams" from The National Archives, includes extracts from his army service record, and his 1901 Census return.

Category:1872 births Category:1958 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Ballet composers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Darwin-Wedgwood family Category:Deaf musicians Category:Decca Records artists Category:English agnostics Category:English composers Category:English folk-song collectors Category:English humanists Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English socialists Category:Members of the Order of Merit Category:Old Carthusians Category:Opera composers Category:People from Cotswold (district) Category:People of the Edwardian era Category:People of the Victorian era Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists

Edward Scott McMichael (March 15, 1955–November 3, 2008), also known as the Tuba Man, was an American tubist who became well known in Seattle for busking outside of the city's various sports and performing arts venues during the 1990s and 2000s. McMichael played outside the Kingdome, KeyArena, McCaw Hall, Safeco Field, and Qwest Field, among other venues. His regular presence at these venues made him a city sports icon.

McMichael was known for playing songs appropriate for the climate of the venue where he was playing, such as "Happy Days Are Here Again" during the Seattle Mariners' successful 1995 season; for adapting mainstream rock and roll songs to the tuba; and for wearing funny, often colorful hats while he played.

McMichael graduated in the mid-1970s from King's Garden High School. He played in the band at North Seattle Community College, and in the Seattle Youth Symphony. He also played in the Bellevue Philharmonic, Everett Symphony and Cascade Symphony. A Seattle Youth Symphony scholarship will be established in McMichael's name.

Death

According to police, on October 25, 2008, a group of black youths had beaten and robbed McMichael in a holdup near Seattle Center just after midnight. They punched and kicked McMichael as he lay on the ground in the fetal position. He was treated at a hospital, but died November 3, probably the result of "homicidal violence."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert Jamieson wrote a front page story about McMichael's life and death, while KOMO 1000 commentators Ken Schram and John Carlson interrupted 2008 election coverage to organize a memorial fund for McMichael. Seattle Seahawks officials helped to organize a November 12, 2008 public memorial at Qwest Field Events Center that was attended by 1,500 people.

Three teenagers—Kenneth Kelly, Billy Chambers, and Ja'Mari Jones—have been sentenced to detention in connection with the death of McMichael. The two other suspects have not been found and their whereabouts are unknown. In regard to the two at-large suspects, the Seattle Police Department's morning press release stated: "Unfortunately, the only description that we have is that the suspects were black males in their mid-teens."

The webmaster of The Tuba Man website (www.TerryHenderson.com) created and maintains this site in honor of McMichael's memory. It celebrates the legacy of his music, and also has links to related local events. Terry Henderson, local organizer of the April 14, 2009 2:00pm Safeco Field event, offered locals an opportunity to get involved.

References

External links

"Violence takes iconic Tuba Man" Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 4, 2008.

"A people's tribute to a beloved Tuba Man" Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 7, 2008.

www.TerryHenderson.com Official web site

Category:Culture of Seattle, Washington Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:1955 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American tubists Category:American buskers Category:American murder victims Category:People murdered in Washington (U.S. state)