back to Bach

[bloke]

For home practice, I continue to circle back to Bach cello suite movements...

They challenge my age, the operation - by an old man - of this huge BB-flat tuba, the required brisk movement of these large rotary valves, and all that jazz...sure: in addition to constantly reminding me that I'm SUPPOSED to be making MUSIC.

Check out this really superb cellist (particularly playing the FIRST of the pair of Gavottes - the one in duple meter).

One thing I need to do is to lose the caffeine , and play at HIS tempo (which makes a helluva lot more sense - in the mid-50's bpm - rather than up in the mid-60's...even though I tend to think of gavottes at-or-near the faster previously-mentioned tempo range).

The OTHER thing that I need to do (...how many of you are old guitar players, and learn tuba music the same way?) is to learn all the CHORDS to first Gavotte - as they pass so very quickly (mostly: a new chord for every half beat - ie. pair of eighth notes).

I like it. I don't yet 100% understand it (harmonically...LOTS of implied 7th chords)...and I'm going to pull out my (actual) cello edition (setting this trombone book aside), cheat, and just LOOK at the chords that BACH wrote (double and triple stops). I'm going to quit playing "at it", and stop on each half beat (pair of 8th notes) figure out the chords, run each chord's arpeggio (maybe even WRITE IN the changes), and then go back and work on this dance movement based on an actual understanding of it.

The second gavotte (triple meter) is much easier. The "notes" are faster, but the CHORDS move MUCH more slowly and are much more obvious - even though there are very few double/triple stops.

As should seem obvious, I'm hitting movements which I previously (over the last fifty-something years of playing) tended to skip past.

[russiantuba]

I have debated for years about the appropriate tuba to play these on, 8vb on the contrabass, or use the Sauer edition (transposed) on bass, where it fits perfectly.

There are rewards to both options as well as challenges to work past. I am still debating this before printing off a set to explore.

(Possible edits to this post after Saturday after 4pm...it is a bit challenging to go an entire week without typing an entire letter... )

[bloke]

I'm not sure if it's really appropriate to play these in front of other people, no matter how well they are mastered. I might put four or five movements together for a special recital if (??) I thought people were really interested in hearing how the big tuba - that they see on stage all the time - actually sounds and what it can do.

[martyneilan]

Doug Yeo has editions of some of the cello suites for bass trombone that lay well on F tuba.
https://www.yeodoug.com/resources/faq/f ... uites.html
Roger Bobo put out a book for Bach on tuba that works well on bass or contrabass tuba from what I can remember.
https://www.grothmusic.com/p-129196-bac ... anied.aspx
I have played bits and pieces out of these but would NOT want to do an entire recital of only this.
A couple of years ago during the covid lockdown, Yo-Yo Ma played through all the cello suites back-to-back live on public radio for about two and a half hours. I caught the last half hour and you could tell he was exhausted at the end.

[peterbas]

Pieter Wispelwey made 3 recordings, in 1990, 1998 and 2012.
He plays on a baroque cello and in 2012 he tuned to 392.

[bloke]

Much less romantic, likely much more authentic, and not just the pitch level. Percussive playing like that lends itself much more to dancing. I tend to believe that every era at its own versions of "rock".

I'm glad someone isn't just another Casals knockoff.

[donn]

Having a listen to that video, the cut that jumps out at me is V courante at 40:32.

For folks who have any doubts about the pronunciation dogma - you're right, that gargle is pretty much BS. It's true that in German, that CH is pronounced somewhat like that, but it's just a sound like our F and TH - it isn't labored over like that. It's good to know how foreign proper names would sound and adjust your pronunciation in that direction, but it's silly to make a production out of it.

[bloke]

I view it as instructive and important to consider how baroque era music was originally interpreted and performed. As a 21st century working musician, I don't see much harm in using it as etudes at home and interpreting it in casals-ish ways to aid myself in interpreting most music encountered.
Something that's probably not of much use would be to not interpret it at all, and just play the notes.

[Casca Grossa]

I have debated for years about the appropriate tuba to play these on, 8vb on the contrabass, or use the Sauer edition (transposed) on bass, where it fits perfectly.

There are rewards to both options as well as challenges to work past. I am still debating this before printing off a set to explore.

(Possible edits to this post after Saturday after 4pm...it is a bit challenging to go an entire week without typing an entire letter... )

Andrew Miller had a nice recording of the Sauer version posted on YouTube. Not sure if it is back up. I believe he played that on a 6/4 Nirschl.