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Hello, I am researching professional level trios/quartets etc. for contrabass tubas (CC/BBb).
Early experiments scoring ‘for tubas only’ were carried out by the New York Tuba Quartet and the Los Angeles Tuba Quartet. Gunther Schuller’s ‘Five Moods’ is still one of the best examples in this idiom.
This was an interesting time, when tuba players weren’t always asking euphonium players to bail them out. The omission of euphoniums in a tuba group indeed limits the range, but also requires the composer to be very creative.
Thanks for any repertoire suggestions.
K.

The Payne quartet was originally played on 4 contrabass tubas to my knowledge, later stating that euphonium would work better for the first part.

I did that at the SERTRC professors’ choir a couple years back on the top part. My lips still hurt from that.

Isn't there some sort of federal law addressing where these are allowed to be played?

Gunter Kochen's „Sieben Miniaturen für vier Tuben“

As a guy who does a lot of quartets, this would be hard to listen to. Even bone quartets sound bad if there are more than 2 voices below the middle of the bass clef. Maybe add a cimbasso or a viola to brighten the mood.

Bassboner wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2026 1:46 pm As a guy who does a lot of quartets, this would be hard to listen to. Even bone quartets sound bad if there are more than 2 voices below the middle of the bass clef. Maybe add a cimbasso or a viola to brighten the mood.

There's an excellent trombone quartet on youtube, the Bruckner Quartet, that uses a lot of alto and contra. One interesting combination is 3 tenors and 1 contra, basically a normal quartet with an upsized 4th horn. TTBC would be fun to play but could be pretty chunky. I suppose the equivalent here would be three euphs and one contrabass tuba (there's a French tuba group that does something similar with saxhorns).

an amendment:
I am researching professional level trios & quartets etc. for:
a) contrabass tubas (CC/BBb) only
b) quartets for 2 F/Eb; 2 CC/BBb
Early experiments scoring ‘for tubas only’ were carried out by the New York Tuba Quartet and the Los Angeles Tuba Quartet. Gunther Schuller’s ‘Five Moods’ is still one of the best examples in this idiom.
This was an interesting time, when tuba players weren’t always asking euphonium players to bail them out. The omission of euphoniums in a tuba group indeed limits the range, but also requires the composer to be very creative.
Thanks for any repertoire suggestions.
K.

The Frank Payne Quartet is indeed that. I would take a look at other works from Connie Weldon’s time at University of Miami. I believe that work was commissioned in a group.

I did it in a mass tuba ensemble at a conference a few years back, on the top part.