The Wagner Tubas: A Supplement to Orchestration Textbooks

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The Wagner Tubas:A Supplement for Orchestration Textbooks

Introduction

This book supplement is intended for composers and arrangers. However,at this point, I need horn players who have played Wagner tuba to give

me their advice so that this supplement can guide composers in writing

idiomatic and enjoyable parts for these noble instruments.The horn gets an entire chapter in The Technique of Orchestration by

Kent Kennan Wheeler. The trumpet, trombone and tuba share the

following chapter. The Wagner tubas get a medium-sized paragraph inthe chapter on “infrequently used instruments.”

Under the economy of the assembly line, this made sense. Of all the

composers and arrangers who wrote for orchestra in the 20

th

Century,how many of them had a practical need to write for the Wagner tuba?Authors of orchestration textbooks nevertheless felt it necessary to at

least mention the Wagner tubas, because their students would likely see

them in the scores of at least two major composers (Wagner himself, of course, and Bruckner).

We haven’t yet gotten to the economy of the replicator foreseen inStar Trek : horn players who want to try out a Wagner tuba can’t just walk up to a replicator, ask for a Wagner tuba and watch it materialize in front

of them. It must be ordered, and the builder needs a few months to make

the thing (though one or two make it a point to keep a few extra ones

lying around in stock, and might even make appointments for people totry them out). But when it comes to things like books, the Internet

enables any interested composer to get an electronic book on

orchestration delivered to their hands anywhere in the world there iswireless reception. And if they want the book to say something about the

Wagner tubas, the only prerequisite is that the book has been written in

the first place.This is where I come in. In 2011, when Ray Barnes, a Canadian

accountant and a big fan of the music of Anton Bruckner, became the

first person ever to commission a Concerto over the Internet,



commissioning me to write a Horn Concerto in B-flat major, I saw an

opportunity to write for Wagner tubas. The concerto soloist of course

only plays horn, but the four horn players double on Wagner tubas. I

needed advice on how to write for Wagner tubas. John Orzel, a horn player who has also played Wagner tuba in Bruckner’s music, has given

me lots of valuable advice. I also needed advice on writing virtuosically

for the horn, and Gunther Schuller’s book was of great help in thatdepartment. The Horn Concerto is for the most part complete now, but

other composers will come along, wanting to write for Wagner tuba yet

finding little by way of guidance. Hence this book supplement.There is much to say about the horn, and in fact it is appropriate here

to very quickly recapitulate what the orchestration textbooks say about

the horn, in order to see what we can extrapolate about the Wagner tuba.

The modern horn with valves did not gain acceptance until about the1850s, and some traditions from the days of horns with crooks inform the

use of the modern horn. Today’s players take their ability to transpose

from any key as a point of pride; only the greenest novice needs thevarious old parts for horns in D, E, G,1 etc., re-notated in F, though F is

considered the ‘home key’ of the instrument. Some players use horns

with B-flat triggers that help with certain notes, but the composer should just the same write the part in F.

Another holdover from the old days is that horns are generally written

without key signatures. For example, in a piece in E-flat major, horn in Fwould be written in the key of B-flat major but without the 2-flat key

signature. Therefore, each written instance of B-flat and E-flat

(corresponding to the sounding E-flat and A-flat, respectively), would

need an accidental, and there is the possibility that you might not needaccidentals for some B-naturals and E-naturals (whereas you would need

them for the E-naturals and A-naturals occurring in the parts of non-

transposing instrument, and instruments that transpose by octaves). KentKennan suggests that it would be a good idea for modern composers to

use a key signature “in scoring music of a diatonic nature.” Also,

computer notation software by default gives horns the appropriatelytransposed key signature and it takes a little more effort to suppress it and

then review the use of accidentals to add them in where necessary.

But players still prefer the accidentals to the key signatures, though

they should be understanding of composers who don’t know how to setthat up in the notation software.2 In writing music with both horns and

Wagner tubas there is another good reason not to use key signatures for

the horns: to differentiate them from the Wagner tubas.

Kennan dismisses the old custom of transposing horn parts in the bassclef in the opposite direction as a “pointless” custom dying a natural

1 As someone who has transcribed horn parts from the Baroque and Classical periods, I have to say that horn in G is the

most confusing and error-prone to deal with. Such parts occur not only in Symphonies in G major and E minor, but even

a few C major works: for his landmark Symphony in C major of 1788 (the one that inspired Mozart’s “Jupiter”),

Michael Haydn used not only horns in C but also horns in G as well as one horn in E and another in D. I did not mind

the horn in D, having gotten used to it from various Symphonies in D major that I’ve worked on. Haydn’s clever use of

various horn crooks demonstrates that the time was ripe for the invention of the valve horn.2 If you are using Finale 2010, look up my book Finale 2010: The Misplaced Handbook . The advice given therein

pertaining to the horns applies to some earlier and later versions of the program.



death. (For example, horn in D in the treble clef is written a minor

seventh up from the desired pitch, but in the bass clef it’s written a major

second down). Gunther Schuller, a renowned composer and horn player,

defends this tradition, and thus I consider Kennan overruled on this particular matter.

The tone of the horn blends very well with woodwinds, and indeed we

find the horn in chamber music far more often than the other brassinstruments: the wind quintet consisting of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon

and horn is almost as standard as the string quartet consisting of two

violins, viola and cello.The low register of the horn is much more effective for sustained

tones and ‘punctuation’ than for melodies; almost the whole top octave is

too strained and shrill for most purposes, and in any case those notes are

better given to the trumpet or clarinet. It is in the upper middle register that the horn really shines, with a warm, bright, noble tone.

Although the best horn players today claim it is no problem to come in

on a high note, it is probably still a good idea to heed the old advice of not writing initial notes for the horn above a certain threshold, especially

if the horn is expected to play softly and only sparsely accompanied. The

threshold is just a little higher than concert middle C.Older authors of orchestration textbooks teach the tradition of the two

pairs of horns “interlock[ing] on paper” and the consequent “division of

labor” that caused the second and fourth horns to become more adept atthe low notes. However, as the 20th Century progressed, composers

expected all horns to play higher and higher. Already in the 19 th Century

we saw Robert Schumann taking the horns rather high, and Bruckner,

when using 4 or 8 horns, wrote them high to low, not interlocking.Kennan did acknowledge unison passages that take the second and fourth

horns rather high, and the rare odd passage that takes first and third very

low.One shouldn’t write 32nd notes (demisemiquavers) for the horn, at

least not at a fast tempo, even if those notes are in the same harmonic

series. That was the only objection one horn player had with the firstdraft of my Horn Concerto in B-flat major. “Flight of the Bumblebee” is

definitely not a solo horn piece. As the horn is a wind instrument, it

should go without saying that horn parts should have plenty of rests.

Horns are often used on harmony parts, particularly alto and tenor harmony parts. (It should be kept in mind that the horn can’t articulate

repeated notes as clearly as the trumpet). But this is not their only use.

Horn solos can be heroic or poignant as called for, and a pair (or all 4 or

all 8) can be put in unison on a single melodic line (these often involvesome kind of arpeggio).

Brass instruments in general are quite loud, though still not as capableof the broad range of dynamics of the percussion. However, the horn is

not quite as loud as the rest of the brass. Kennan writes: “An accepted

axiom in scoring for brass is this: if the dynamic marking is mf or louder,two horns are needed to balance one trumpet or one trombone.” Kennan

also recommends spacing horns and trumpets close, and the trombones

open (e.g., in fifths and octaves) unless they are used higher in their



range.

In addition to embouchure (how the mouth is put on the mouthpiece)

and fingering of the valves, pitch and tone on the horn are also controlled

by the player’s hand in the bell, something that you just can’t do on thetrumpet or tuba, much less the trombone. Muting of the horn is more

often done by sticking the hand further in than by using a mute (though

the player may very well choose to use an actual mute). Muted notes below written middle C are not recommended, though very skilled

players can pull them off.

Stopped, ‘brassy’ and stopped ‘brassy’ notes are some other specialeffects unique to the horn, as well as lontano effects (the horn sounds like

it’s far, far away). Asking the players to put the bells in the air puts the

horn on some more common ground with the Wagner tuba. Kennan’s

words on this matter are quite telling: “Inasmuch as the hand cannot beused in the bell here, the tone is completely open and lacking in any

subtlety of coloring.”

The horn is capable of some glissandos, but besides The Rite of Spring

by Stravinsky, the only other example I can think of is in the finale of

Robert Ward’s Symphony No. 2.

And so we have barely scratched the surface of all there is to sayabout the horn, even after trying to limit ourselves to what is relevant for

composers. There is also a lot to say about the Wagner tuba. In the

paragraph in Kennan’s book, there isn’t even an attempt to describe howthe Wagner tuba sounds. This supplement is an attempt to fill that gap.

I assume that Readers of this supplement are quite familiar with the

concept of transposition. They may occasionally need to refer to the

textbook for the transposition interval and direction of a specificinstrument, but once they know it they can easily transpose a melody by

hand, or they know how to set up their favorite computer notation

software to do it automatically for them.In this book supplement, to distinguish between passages for horns

and Wagner tubas written at actual pitch from those with various

transpositions, the passages written at actual pitch will use tenor clef evenif this requires many ledger lines above or below. Also, actual pitch

passages will show the screen-only color coding of the Finale notation

software.3

In Kennan’s book, the possible ranges of instruments are given in‘open’ notes, while practical ranges are given in ‘closed’ notes. However,

for the Wagner tubas, Kennan does not give any practical ranges at all!

The practical ranges of the Wagner tubas given in this supplement are for

the most part my own conjecture, and I need the advice of players tocorrect them.

Most of the musical excerpts in this book come from Bruckner’s lastthree Symphonies. As far as the Wagner tubas are concerned, any edition

of any version will do (Haas, Nowak, Orel, Redlich, Wöss, even the

inauthentic Schalk), since they will all present the various issues of confusing transposition changes. From modern composers, I only have

3 Finale can of course be set up to print at concert pitch, but that’s beyond the scope of this book and it is in any case

unnecessary.



permission for the Horn Concerto that I wrote.

The term “French horn” is mentioned here only because it has become

so prevalent even among professional musicians. In this book

supplement, the horn will mostly be referred to as such, and occasionallyas “regular horn” to distinguish it from the Wagner tuba, which is a

“modified horn.”

Lastly, the male third person pronouns when not referring to a specificman are used generically: the composer, conductor or player could just as

easily be a woman. I personally know quite a few women who play horn,

though I have yet to meet one who also plays Wagner tuba.



Chapter: The Wagner Tubas

Tenor

in B-flat, sounding

a major 2nd lower

Bass

in F, sounding a

perfect 5th lower

OR

in B-flat, sounding

a major 9th lower

OR

in B-flat,

sounding a

perfect 12th lower

These practical ranges may be too narrow. The possible ranges are exactly as given in Kennan's book.Bruckner is one of the greatest composers of all time, very much worthy

of emulation. Harmonies, melodies, structures, etc. But don’t imitate his

quirks of notation. For example, your cellos should not becometransposing instruments when written in the treble clef. And, whichever

way you choose to transpose the Wagner tubas, stick to it throughout the

entire piece. Don’t start one way, then change to the other way and then back.

In regards to terminology, there is no point in insisting that the Wagner

tubas should be called something else. The name has stuck and it’s not

going to change however much sense it would make to call them“Wagner horns” instead. The Wagner tubas do have it in common with

the regular tubas that the player can’t insert his hand in the bell; this is a

crucial difference from the regular horn. But horn players are generally

the ones who play Wagner tuba when the score calls for them, and nottubists. In the score, the term “Wagner tubas” is not actually used, instead

we see “tenor tubas” and “bass tubas” (or, in German, “tenor Tuben” and“baß Tuben”). These are the terms that will be used in this book when

there is a need to distinguish between them, otherwise, they will be

referred to as “Wagner tubas.”

Just as there is the ‘double’ horn, there is the ‘double’ Wagner tuba,which can switch from tenor in B-flat to bass in F by means of a “change

valve just like a double horn,” according to HornGuys.com. A further

distinction among double Wagner tubas is that some such instruments are“full double” and some are “compensating double,” the latter apparently

being more trouble than they’re worth. If you can afford to buy your orchestra a quartet of instruments, it might be better to order all four singles, two just tenor and two just bass.

Your orchestration textbook might have mentioned that although the

horn with valves was pretty much standard by the time Wagner wrote

most of the music he’s known for today, he kept writing the horns indifferent transpositions as if he expected the players to change crooks.

And he carried this over to the Wagner tubas, even though they were

horns with valves from the get-go. Thus we find tubas in E-flat in the



Ring . Bruckner limited himself to F and B-flat, but even in his oeuvre

there are quite a few discrepancies of notation, consistent even across all

the different versions and editions of Bruckner’s last three Symphonies.

Ignoring Wagner’s own notation, there are essentially two ways totranspose the tenor tuba and two ways to transpose the bass tuba, though

the former seems to inspire more dilemmas of reading than the latter. The

tenor tuba can be written in the treble clef, up a major second from thesounding pitch, just like the trumpet in B-flat. Or it can be written up a

major ninth from sounding pitch (also in treble clef), like the tenor

saxophone in B-flat.It makes sense to write the bass tuba in the bass clef, but the problem

is that given its F transposition, a lot of the notes require some ledger

lines over the bass clef. Writing them in the treble clef still presents the

issue of ledger lines, especially if you want to take advantage of thelower notes of the bass tuba. What you can do then is write them in treble

clef up a perfect twelfth (that is a perfect octave plus a perfect fifth) from

the desired pitches.To better understand the various trade-offs of the different

transposition methods, let’s look at an actual musical excerpt transposed

a few different ways. For this purpose, I’ve chosen the first four bars of the Adagio of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E major, the first time

Bruckner ever used Wagner tubas. Here is the excerpt at concert pitch:

Taking tenors up a major second and basses up a perfect fifth is

exactly what Kennan prescribes, though he says nothing of whether or

not to use bass clef for the bass tubas.



But if you want to write your tenor tubas low like Bruckner does here,

this transposition requires not too many ledger lines but almost every

note is on ledger lines! The lines on the staff are essentially being wasted.

So we can try applying tenor saxophone transposition to the tenor tubas(the interval of transposition is then a major ninth):

This is much better for the tenor tubas but with the bass tubas there is

the potential problem that those playing bass tuba may think they are

expected to transpose a fourth up instead of a fifth down. Remember, if not from the orchestration book then from the recapitulation in the

introduction, that horns in the old days were expected to transpose in the

opposite direction when written in the bass clef. So let’s add an octave on

top of the fifth for the bass tubas:

If you look in the Redlich or Wöss edition, this is pretty much what

you will see. The slurs have been carefully finessed there, of course,whereas they have not been here, and the abbreviations “cresc.” and

“sempre dim.” are used instead of the hairpins, but the notation is

otherwise exactly the same. The transposition for the bass tuba is now upa perfect twelfth (perfect octave plus perfect fifth), eliminating the

problem of potential misunderstanding with opposite direction

transposition.



Transpositions of a major second, major ninth and perfect fifth are all

readily available as ‘presets’ in Finale. For the perfect twelfth, however,

you will be exposed to the fact that Finale internally uses a slightly

different arithmetic for musical intervals: a perfect fifth is 4 in theInterval field, and a perfect twelfth is 11.4 This still holds true for Finale

2010, though they might have come up with something more musically

intuitive in Finale 2011 or later.The potential for misunderstanding the transposition as being just a

perfect fifth down, rather than fifth and octave, is rather slim, and it

should be quickly dispelled at a sectional rehearsal when the playersrealize this puts the basses over the tenors right off the bat.

The issue of transposition gets really confusing in the Eighth

Symphony, with the abundance of 8va bassa, 8va bassa sempre and loco

indications, as well as passages with no such indication. Furthermore,Bruckner uses both treble and bass clef for the bass tuba, and the choice

doesn’t seem to be governed by the avoidance of ledger lines at all. The

net result is that at any given point where Wagner tubas are used in theEighth Symphony you really have to do a kind of logic puzzle and quite a

bit of backtracking to determine how the tubas should transpose.

Switching methods in the middle of your compositions will causeconfusion even if the doctrine of “computer notation approval” applies to

you. Under this doctrine, most parameter changes occur only when

explicitly notated. For example, you write a pianissimo note for thetrumpets, then they are silent for some twenty-odd measures. When they

come back in with no dynamics marking, they should still be pianissimo.

The reasoning behind this assumption is that you listened to the computer

playback, and, while keeping in mind the various caveats on the manylimitations of computer playback, you had no problem with the trumpets

sounding pianissimo after their long rest. If you had wanted them to

come in at a louder dynamic, the playback would have sounded wrong toyou and you would have added the dynamic marking you wanted.

Likewise with writing the Wagner tubas ‘alto’ or ‘basso.’ If you don’t

cancel an 8va bassa marking, the player will assume that you heard thelower pitch in the computer playback for the unmarked passage and you

had no problem with it. The doctrine of computer notation approval of

course does not apply to Wagner, Bruckner, or for that matter Elisabeth

Lutyens. But these composers are no longer here to tell us what thecorrect octaves are for whatever passages we may be confused about, and

indeed there have been disagreements between players and conductors on

issues of this sort. Indeed it is possible that in this book I have incorrectly

transposed quoted passages from these composers.In the score, the Wagner tubas should be placed below the horns but

above the trumpets. This is what Bruckner does in the Eighth and NinthSymphonies, because he has them double on fifth to eighth horns. In the

Seventh Symphony, he places them above the regular tuba (which is then

called “kontrabaß Tuba”), which makes sense for that particular work asthe horn players who play the Wagner tubas don’t also play regular horns.

4 Either way, enter 1 in the Key Alter field, telling Finale to add one sharp to the key signature (which works out to

subtracting a flat in keys with flats.



The Wagner tubas have a very dark sound compared to the horns,

especially as a quartet accompanied by the lower strings in minor key

music. This is not to say that the horn can’t be made to sound dark, but

that dark sound comes from the Wagner tubas by design. Generallyspeaking, the only good place to have both horns and Wagner tubas

playing at the same time is in an orchestral tutti, or when there is not

enough time for the players to change over to regular horns Whathappens is that the brightness of horns mostly nullifies the darkness of

the Wagner tubas. But it can still be effective to have the quartet of

Wagner tubas accompanying the first horn, as happens a few times inBruckner’s Eighth.

In its lower register, the tenor tuba is capable of a very brooding

darkness. In the middle register, the tone is somewhat brighter but

nowhere near as bright as the regular horn. Still, this register is good for noble, cautiously optimistic music, such as what we find in the finale of

Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony.

I admit it is harder for me to differentiate the registers of the bass tuba,and for the most part my basis for recommending against the use of its

high register is based on the idea that such notes ought to be reassigned to

the tenor tubas, if the tenor tubas are not otherwise occupied. In general,the tone of the bass tuba is dark and powerful but without any of the

heaviness of the trombones or the “contrabass” tuba.

Plenty of rests should be allowed between changes of horn, muchmore than for a trumpeter to take out or put in a mute. This is akin to the

time Haydn and his contemporaries allowed players to change crooks on

their valveless horns. If the four measures Bruckner gives at some spots

in the Eighth Symphony seem insufficient to you, players agree with you.Had I already mentioned that the Wagner tuba uses a regular horn

mouthpiece? Some players will remove the mouthpiece from their horn

and put it on the Wagner tuba, and when they’re ready to go back to theregular horn, put the mouthpiece back on it. Other players will keep

separate mouthpieces ready on both instruments. Whichever way they

accomplish the switch, you’ve got to give players enough time, morethan four measures at Allegro moderato.

Given the option, players will execute fewer changes of horn than

indicated by the composer. For example, in my Horn Concerto in B-flat

major, after the minuet, the orchestral horn players switch back to tubasfor the rondo finale. When a restatement of the rondo B theme is

expected, the horn soloist instead quotes a theme from Wagner’sSiegfried .5 The principal horn player responds by playing the actual B

theme, as if trying to usurp the soloist’s position. But which horn getsthat point across better: the regular horn or the tenor tuba? I leave the

option to the player, the part is notated in B-flat alto but transpositionshould be no problem for the player whatever his choice.

Good composers today are generally hesitant to admit how useful

computer playback is, despite its many drawbacks. Many wrong notescan be detected just by listening to the computer playback, wrong notes

that could easily escape a visual inspection of the score. Mediocre5 The only Wagner quotation in the entire piece, by the way.



composers not only rely on computer playback for this purpose but also

allow it to dictate matters of articulation and dynamics, and in some cases

even durations of notes in arpeggios. The tell-tale sign of a mediocre

composer in computer-notated music for woodwinds or strings is anabundance of staccato dots and a complete absence of slurs: this is

because computer playback tends to be legato when there are no marks to

indicate staccato playing. (Though a complete absence of slurs and dotscould indicate an otherwise competent composer who just doesn’t know

how to use the program).

A good composer who doesn’t have Wagner tuba samples he can usewith his notation program (I recommend the Vienna Symphonic Library,6

by the way) can cope with the assignment of another instrument for

playback, such as piano in a case of extreme necessity. But if he has horn

samples, that’s what should be used for this purpose, in my opinion (theGarritan Personal Orchestra for Finale 2010 comes with horn samples).

The range of the horn encompasses the range of both the tenor and bass

tubas.One of the caveats on computer playback that any good composer

should be aware of is that the computer can execute passages that are

difficult if not impossible on the actual instrument. This includes thingslike double stops involving pitches available only on the lowest string of

the violin, and trombones trilling low notes in seventh position. In both

of these examples, for the computer it is a simple matter of retrieving theappropriate sound sample file and playing it.

The horn is by nature not an agile instrument, as the orchestration

textbook should have already said; this was hinted at in the introduction

to this supplement. Intonation on the horn is not easy, and it can be positively difficult on the Wagner tuba. As a rule of thumb, regard the

tenor tuba as being slightly less agile than the regular horn, and the bass

tuba as much less so. This passage from my Horn Concerto in B-flat for bass tuba is playable but somewhat difficult:

(It’s actually a quotation of the Te Deum by Antonio Caldara, but

recast to 6/8 time).7

I decided to keep it as it is. However, later on in the piece (at rehearsal

mark DC) I greatly simplified the bass tuba parts because the whole

6 I don’t have the VSL Wagner tubas, but I did use their Chamber Strings package for a 2006 research project that tested

whether listeners could differentiate human performances from computer performances of music. The result was thatyes, they can, about 75% of the time. However, I suspect that if I had used wind instruments instead, the result would

have been closer to 100%. Even the best wind samples have various ‘tells’ that give them away as computer-controlled

performance. Still, given the choice between a complete VSL orchestral package and a Garritan package, the VSL is the

better choice.7 Part of the concept for the Horn Concerto is that it would attempt to answer the question of how Bruckner would have

written a Concerto. Not everyone will agree that it does, but I hope at least they think it’s nice music. One thing that I’m

sure of is that Bruckner would have quoted his own sacred music. Since I haven’t written any church music myself, I

quote church music written by others.



orchestra is playing a deliberate cacophony and the Audience would not

be able to appreciate the difficulty of the bass tuba part. I am confident

that the bassoons will adequately provide the murky bass effect that I was

going for.If I had decided to change the passage at rehearsal mark C1 (and an

analogous passage at C3), here’s what I could have done: transpose the

Caldara quotation up an octave and reassign it to the tenor tubas, tradingfor the bass tubas the sustained concert E-flats (written F). Then it would

have been necessary to write the tenor tubas in B-flat basso, and not B-

flat alto like I had written them in the slow movement.

Suggested Assignments

1. Choose two Bach chorale harmonizations, one in a major key and the other in a minor key, andarrange both for Wagner tuba quartet. Be sure to indicate which transpositions you’re using at the start

and don’t deviate from them.

2. Rewrite the horn and Wagner tuba parts in the first movement of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony

so that no octave indications (other than at the very beginning) are needed.3. Rescore the scene in Star Wars aboard the Death Star in which Darth Vader fights Obi-Wan

Kenobi so that a) the Imperial March theme is heard, and b) so that the orchestra includes a quartet of

Wagner tubas (which could perhaps be used for the Obi-Wan's theme).

Suggested Listening

• Bach, Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582, orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski.

• Bruckner, Symphony No. 8 in C minor, preferably the 1890 version, I. Allegro moderato and

III. Feierlich langsam.

• Holst, The Planets, recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic.

• Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Primtemps.

Documents

The Wagner Tubas: A Supplement to Orchestration Textbooks