groovlow wrote: ↑Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:36 am
[media]<iframe width="640" height="360" src="
https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrHJTvMfXvw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>/media]
Would Berlioz love a modern tuba?
Absolutely!
Would Berlioz have written differently for a modern tuba?
Absolutely!
The more I listen to period correct instruments the more I enjoy the music.
Like a Time Machine eliminating electric bass and synth sub bass not to mention amplifiers.
Joe "@ the disco" H :)
Berlioz lived in the time of transition when serpents, ophicleides, and tubas were all used. And Berlioz from time to time would either assent to tubas or even rescore for them. "AN ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF THE SAXHORN BASSE (FRENCH TUBA) IN THE MODERN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA," Carl Kleinsteuber, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2017
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67 ... N-2017.pdf
"Although Berlioz used the ophicleide and serpent for musico-dramaturgical effect, he was also enough of a pragmatist to want his music played as well as possible. In the example of Symphonie Fantastique, the autograph score was written for one ophicleide and one serpent in unison almost the entire time, but the first published score was changed to two ophicleide parts. In the end, he finally agreed to the use of tubas as effective substitutes for the ophicleides. In fact, Bevan writes “[music critic Henri] Lavoix mentions that the collection of autograph scores at the Bibliothèque Nationale shows Berlioz’s replacement of ophicleides by tubas in almost every case. Where Berlioz did not make the alteration, his publishers did.” During this period in France, “tuba” of course meant French tuba." pp 18-19. (footnotes omitted)
So Berlioz begrudgingly transitioned from ophicleide to tuba, on the same parts that in manuscript might be for serpent, ophicleide, serpent and ophicleide, or two ophicleides, Id. p 18, although Berlioz thought of the ophicleide as, "The truly barbaric tone of this instrument would be much better suited for the bloody cult of the Druids than for that of the Catholic church...." Id. p 18.
And so no, Berlioz did not write differently for serpent, ophicleide or tuba. He preferred ophicleide for its dramatic effect as much as anything else, but understood where music was going with regard to low brass.
