Serpents, Bombardons, and the “Wiener” Tuba : Richard Wagner and the Evolution of the Orchestral Contrabass Labrosone

Summary, in English

Through his orchestral experimentation with acoustics and timbre, Richard Wagner is credited with conceptualizing, commissioning, and attempting to integrate several new labrosones into the orchestra. To greater or lesser extents, they all eventually failed to enter mainstream performance practice, but with one notable exception. Today, the contrabass tuba is a compulsory instrument for professional tubists worldwide, often heard exclusively in the first elimination round of orchestral auditions. Wagner’s parts for the instrument in Der Ring des Nibelungen are cornerstones of the orchestral tuba repertoire, but the specific instrument(s) he wrote for or had at his disposal at the time, as well as historical and contemporary usage of the term “contrabass,” are worthy of critical examination. An investigation of the developmental processes surrounding orchestral employment of the tuba family over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly in the German-speaking world, can aid in understanding the contexts in which these instruments manifested, as well as the circumstances that led to contemporary performance practice

• Author: Jack Adler-McKean
• Publishing year: 2022
• Language: English
• Pages: 113-150
• Publication/Series: Historical Brass Society Journal
• Volume: 34
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.2153/0120220011006
• Document type: Journal article
• Topic: Music
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1045-4616