Posted by TubaRay on February 21, 2003 at 11:13:55:
In Reply to: Re: 8va heros posted by Rick Denney on February 21, 2003 at 10:39:40:
I believe Rick is right again. There are also numerous good thoughts in other parts of this thread. I believe it is seldom good to take an entire line down an octave. There are individual notes where taking it down makes for a more organ-like sound. I believe we as tuba players need to be very discriminating, musically, in determining whether or not to go for it. Simply playing it because we can is not a good enough reason. It should serve the best interests of the music. I have found the octave transposition to work better more often when the chord is at mf or less. When the dynamic is louder, it is extremely difficult to get the proper balance and tone quality to actually contribute to the sound. The regular octave tends to cancel out what you are playing, with the exception of the part of the sound which does not contribute. At least that's the way I have experienced it.
I know I have enjoyed seeing the conductor smile when I take a note down. I choose the situations carefully. They are not especially frequent. I have even had (non-tuba player) conductors comment positively about what it added to the texture.
On an offshoot of this, I have played under a conductor who, on really thick chords, asked one member of the tuba section to play a perfect fifth above the root of the chord that everyone else was playing. I believe Rick will remember who this was--a very well-known Texan.
Ray Grim
The TubaMeisters