Date of Graduation
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Music (MM)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Music
Advisor/Mentor
Robert Mueller
Committee Member
Kimberly Teal
Second Committee Member
Joon Park
Keywords
Concerto, Tuba
Abstract
Writing the Tuba Concerto in D minor was a long and tedious process that required help and inspiration from many different people. The process began with a suggestion from a friend to write a tuba concerto for him, and soon progressed into a thesis. Since only one tuba concerto exists in the standard repertoire (the concerto by Ralphe Vaughan-Williams), the challenge to create a new concerto was very powerful.
Eleven minutes long, it is much shorter than the average concerto, but only a minute or two behind the Vaughan-Williams concerto. The first movement, the Prelude, is made to sound just like a waltz, both in form and melody. It is a five-part rondo form that begins in D minor and transitions to a different key each time there’s a new section. The second movement is the Sarabande in A minor, a perfect fifth above the original key. Based around the late Johnny Cash’s last recorded song, Hurt, it fits perfectly for the slow movement. The third and final movement is played as a Gigue. It is back in the original key of D minor and is played in the least amount of time of the eleven minutes the tune is performed. It begins with the Tuba alone before everyone else takes over and plays the harmony before the rest of the chamber arrives to the flight of notes.
Citation
Dreggors, E. (2018). Tuba Concerto in D Minor. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2827