Posted by Klaus on May 27, 2003 at 14:37:48:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ok, I've got an F, what do I do now?? posted by Rick Denney on May 27, 2003 at 13:16:30:
That brings me into another aspect of the usage of high tuba lines:
The almost pre-1.0.1 of making musical settings within any sort of "Western" traditions is, that the bass line shall represent the lowest note vertically seen/heard. There are exceptions, some of them style-bound.
One of them, found with Berlioz, Verdi, and in exactly some "German" band settings: the bass line is doubled in the upper octave with a harmony line in between. The latter often, but not consequently, playing the fifth of the chord.
That implies, that if a smaller outfit omits the lower bassline (BBb tuba), but keeps the lower inner harmony lines (2nd/3rd trombones and Tenorhorns plus Bariton), then chords often will presented in the wrong inversion. To the ears of many people, that is a great musical "offence". Especially if the fifth of the chord un-intendedly ends up as the lowest note.
This fact actually limits the options of making obvious re-arrangements of tenor and baritone solos with the contrabass tuba as soloist.
A TubeNet contributor some years ago sent me a MIDI-version (sound + visual music) of an early 19th century tenor solo reset for contrabass and full string ensemble.
The idea was obvious and sounded as if the choice of the contrabass tuba as soloist was a good one.
Only the cadenza areas sounded wrong and completely out of style. An analysis of the score revealed, that the characteristic bass line had become a less characteristic inner line.
If one analyses vocal basso solos from the baroque era one will see that they most often are identical to the accompanying bass line (give or take figurations and embellishments).
Klaus