Bob, Wagner did not use different methods while writing his four operas wagner tuba parts. This is not correct. He wrote them the upper pair (Bb) in Eb and the lower pair in Bb-basso - in the score ONLY, but he wished that the single parts were written out in Bb (tuba 1 & 2) and in F (tuba 3 & 4), occasionally using bass clef old notatin. There is a remark in the Rheingold score (1st page) that the pars must be written out in this way and this should be the rule for all his future operas. Further, mostly not observed: 2 tenor tubas in B-flat, which corresponds in register to the horns in F and thus be played by he first (rem.: high) players of the third & fourth pair of horns, and 2 bass tubas in F, which correspond in register to the low horns in B-flat and thus would be most effectively played by the second players of the horn pairs mentioned.
So it might be wise, to assign the Bb tubas to horn 5/7 and the F tuba parts to horns 6/8, the horn parts 5 to 8 be arranged & be seated accordingly. It does not matter much in Rheingold, as there are just a few more notes left for the horns after the introduction & the rest be just tuba. In Walkuere the horns 5 - 8 play tuba for the acts 1/2 and horn in act 3. Siegfried does not bring conflicts either, as horns 5-8 resp. tubas 1 - 4 have not much to do in the first two acts, but play horn exclusively in act 3. Conflicts occur in Goetterdaemmerung, so the parts must be arranged as said above, so horn 6 is a high player playing tuba 2 in Bb and horn 6, which is a bit lower than usual for this position. Player of horn seven has to play tuba 3 in F, which should be the appropriate range but also playing horn 7 which is a bit higher than the usual range for this position. This should be logical & tradition in Munich & Vienna & elsewhere in Germany. High horns play the Bb tubas & low horns play the F tubas and the players have to arrange themselves, a no problem in the modern horn world. As we used the first (means the parts of the premieres & their copies later) tuba parts evere here in Munich, there were some very practical tricks implemented. The rather low pars were written out in F-basso so to avoid the many ledger lines & remain in trebble clef. Richard Strauss hads his very special methode to avoid too many accidentals in his horn parts: he used transposition. So the horn parts are quite clean & only those notes have accidentals, where must keep "attention". Greetings from unusual cold Munich (5 centigrades mid afternoon) Hans _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
