Penderecki Capriccio for Tuba on a Bass Trombone

[BigBadandBass]

Subject header says most of it, what are y'alls thoughts on performing this piece on bass trombone. Would it be worth the effort/do you think it would be a cool recital/audition piece?

[BGuttman]

Most tuba music can be played on a bass trombone (or a cimbasso if that's your preference). I'm not a Penderecki fan, but if it floats your boat, do it!

[fsgazda]

I've played it on bass a few times. It is a challenge, but I enjoyed performing it. Can't say about the audience!

[JimFulkerson]

I know Pendercki's Capriccio fairly well. I think it is a terrific piece - a real "tour de force" and if you play it accordingly, the audience will react accordingly. It's a bit like playing Berio's Sequenza V - even if the language is a bit unknown to a listener, they nearly always respond to the sheer virtuosity of it.

In short, go for it!

[BurckhardtS]

In my undergrad the first page was asked on an ensemble placement audition for bass trombone players. It's likely more common than you think.

[Bassclefstef]

Its doable, but certainly a challenge. It was the required piece for the highest bracket of the ATW bass trombone solo competition a few years back. I've never touched it myself, I should get a copy of it.

[harrisonreed]

Its doable, but certainly a challenge. It was the required piece for the highest bracket of the ATW bass trombone solo competition a few years back. I've never touched it myself, I should get a copy of it.

Somehow, having a piece written for some other instrument as the top tier competition piece in a trombone competition makes me sad. Is that what the aspiration is? "You're so good now that you can finally graduate to the tuba (a completely different instrument with it's own challenges and fine musicians that play it)!"

What does that say about the panel who picked that piece?

[GabrielRice]

My former student Ryan Bisson won that ATW competition with that piece. He had the response in the extreme low range to do it convincingly (I don't), and we worked on being very freely interpretive with the notated rhythms and tempi in order to make phrases that told a story.

It was also the required audition piece for all trombones (!) for a fiasco of a contemporary music festival in Rhode Island that went belly-up almost before it started, owing money to a lot of musicians for services they did. The guy running it clearly had no idea what he was doing, musically or fiscally.

[harrisonreed]

That's cool. I know there are a lot of bass trombonists who play tuba music because "they can", and many sound fantastic doing it. Does the piece say "for tuba or bass trombone" or something? Even if it doesn't, I support artists branching out and playing pieces outside the repertoire because they want to promote or interpret music for the music's sake.

For a trombone competition, other than something like the Tchaikovsky Competition where you must play something written by that composer during the competition and it's more of a competition between musicians of different disciplines, the panel should require music written for the trombone. Playing tuba pieces does not advance our repertoire, and sends the wrong message about where young bass trombonists should be aspiring to be. The orchestra hires a tuba player for those parts. Only a very small niche of people attends a tuba recital, and they expect a tuba player to be playing the music. The same goes for a bass trombone recital. Sure, an avant garde tuba piece may spark the audience to go "oh, interesting. She's even able to play this type of piece on the trombone", but again, if that's the direction where these panels are trying to herd young players I think it's not doing anything for the audience, the repertoire, our instrument, or composers. Commission a new piece, or at least support a recent piece by a composer writing for trombone so that maybe they write more music for us.