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TUBA TI-INE in D major, Op. 15 C. S. LANG
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Copyright 1929.
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Anne Marsden Thomas's Organ Lesson )OO(ll: C.S. [ang, Ttrba Tune in D Mair Anne Marsden Thomas gives detailed practical guidance to the amateur organist on the preparution of a piece from "Sunday by Sunday."
Ex.2: Pedal part (complete)
Reprinted from the September 2005 issue o/ Church Music Quarlerly, the journal of the Royal School of Church Music, by permission of the author and the editor. Adapted by the author forTAO. INTRODUCTION This piece is an ideal postlude for happy occasions. Its familiar, tuneful melody sends the congregation away singing, and the lilt of its compound meter dances cheerfully, with its bold D-maior tonality and widely spaced grand sonorities. Best of all, it is not at all difficult to play. REQUIREMENTS Tuba Tune is currently set for Grade 5 (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music). If you can coordinate the right hand, Ieft hand, and pedals, each with independent articulation, this is an ideal piece for you. Even ifyou have small hands, you should not feel deterred; although the chords look large, they can be reduced if necessary.
Although intended for a large organ with a tuba stop, the piece sounds delightful on any organ, even an organ with no reed stop. You only need a minimum of two manuals with at least an octave and a half of pedals. EDITIONS
The copyright is held by Cramer Music Ltd., who publishes it singly. It is also available in both A Graded Anthologlr of Music, B o ok 5, ard The Organist's W e dding Album fr om the same publisher or from . REGISTRATION There are registration suggestions at the outset but these are incomplete. The right hand begins on "Tuba" and the left hand begins on "Gt. Diaps., Full Sw." There is no regishation indicated for the Pedal. On a large organ this registration scheme probably means:
R.H.
L.H.
Solo manual: Tuba uncoupled. Open Diapason 8'; Stopped Diapason 8'; Principal 4'; Flute 4' on Swell and Great plus Swell Reeds 16', B', and +'. Swell to Great,
Pedal Open Diapason 16'; Bourdon 16'; Principal 8'; Flute 8'; Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal.
On a smaller organ find a loud registration in which the "tuba" is consistently louder than the accompanying manual, and in which the Pedal balances the accompanying manual. As the swell pedal opens on page three, it may be best to begin with the swell pedal closed. Alternatively, you could close the swell in the rest at the end of m. 13.
LEARMNGTHENOTES Begin with the Pedal. Lang's articulation marks suggest slurs plus two t5rpes of non-legato: staccato (indicated by dots), and not-quitelegato (unmarked notes). The gaps between the staccato and notquite-legato notes allow the same toe to take consecutive notes, even when those consecutive notes leap, as in the first measure. Ex. 1: m. 1, Pedal
Practice leaps like this with a relaxed leg, maintaining your toe's contact with the pedalboard as you travel. Thus your toe will remember the precise distance traveled. Example 1 shows you how a brief silence between two consecutive notes allows the same foot to play both of these notes. Example 2, which gives my suggested pedaling scheme for the whole piece, shows many more examples of this. You may also notice that my scheme limits the pivoting of the lower body, and promotes anticipation of foot positions. Don't forget to operate the swell pedal in mm. 20 and 21a. Your right foot should move to the swell pedal automatically after playing Bt in m. 19. 64
Sometimes students are nervous of playing bottom D (mm. 8, 9, 73, 17-19,21). Certainly a misfire on this bottom D sounds catastrophic in the finished performance. Here are the best methods to secure an elusive note. Use m. 13 as your model and practice all these metlods in succession. Although in performance the successful performer uses all three methods simultaneously, you may find it helpful to choose one on which to concentrate while you play:
left toe's journey Play mm. 12 and 13, but only the notes played by Ieft toe. Maintain contact with the pedalboard throughout. Thus you train the Ieft toe to regard bottom D in context- one note lower tlan Eb, and a fourth down from G.
1. The
2. The interval between the feet
Play the last note of m. 12 (right toe A), then m. 13 (D, with left toe). Check that your knees are together, and your leg muscles relaxed. Thus you Iearn the angle ofyour lower legs that ensures the
interval of a fifth. 3. A point in space Regard bottom D as a point in space. Using any location method, find and play D with your left toe. Check your position by sliding your toe forward to make contact with the two black keys, C{ and D*. Continue to sustain D, checking that your leg and your lower
body are in the most comfortable position possible. Close your eyes, listen carefully to the sustained note, and associate the sound with the position of your body; convince yourself that D is the natural home of your left toe. Now release D, and, using both feet, play t}rough mm. 11 and 12, always feeling that you are traveling home to D.
Now we will explore the manual parts. Here, too, the slurs and other articulation marks are important, but their implementation may be less obvious. Slurs applied to a single voice, for example, right hand mm. 1 to 9, should be applied precisely. But the left hand's part looks alarmingly stretchy: full of three- and four-note chords, joined by slurs, which no normal human hand could hope to interpret literally. A quick survey of other Bnglish organ compositions from this era confirms that Lang and his English contemporaries habitually used slurs to indicate phrasing or accents, and that such phrasing and accents do not necessatily imply legato. You may ask, "How do I know when a slur means legato?" The answer is: use your own judgment, experimenting with legato touch, and assessing its practical application. For example, in mm. !4 to 77 ,left hand, a quick experiment confirms that legato is impossible; you cannot move smoothly from one three- or four-note chord to another with only five fingers! Tur Ar'ltpnrcnru Oneerust
Take a pencil and insert a little fingering, so that you play the piece accurately from the first day. Where there is a sequence, it is usually helpful to use sequential fingering.
Ex. 3: mm. 14-17, left hand
Ex, 8: m. 2-3, right hand
So we may assume that, when the composer used slurs in this way, he intended an illusion of legato. You can create this illusion by slurring the pedal but making tiny convenient breaks in the hand. Ex. 4: mm. 1rt-17, left
hard and Pedal
Tied notes suggest a hand position that encompasses chords involved:
all the
Ex. 9a: m. 17, left hand
Ex. 9b: m. 19, left hand
With small breaks between the left-hand chords, your Ieft hand should always be able to maintain a comfortable position, often with the thumb on the top note of the chord. However, very small hands may need to delete a note sometimes. When selecting which note to delete, Iisten experimentally to find t}le note whose disappearance is least noticeable. The composer's detailed articulation marks on the Tuba melody Iine (right hand throughout, except in mm. 10 to 13 where the left hand takes over the melody) demand very close observation. For example, in m. e, right hand, Lang presents three different articulation
In mm. 10 and 11 the unslurred right hand can step the same gers from chord to chord.
fin-
Ex. 10i mm. 10-11, right hand
patterns within the first nine eighth notes. What character this brings to an otherwise predictable line of notes! Ex. 5: m. a, right hand
Take care that you do not gather speed when playing staccato (it is often tempting to try and close up the gaps between the notes);
think of the staccato notes as sharp, sparkling little diamonds. Note how the melody twice invades the alto voice in m. 16. Generous breaks (invited by Lang's slurs) in the lower voices remove any possible collision, and allow access to an easy fingering pattern: Ex. 6: m. 16, right hand
In m. 11 (third beat), too, the soprano melody invades the alto's D.
I suggest the following interpretation, which includes vent an interruption of the top voice's slur. Ex. 7: m. 113-a, right hand
a
tie to pre-
Now that you have tackled so many fragments in detail, I recommend you put them together. Register the piece as you will perform it and practice the manual changes at the same time. First, Iearn each hand separately; as soon as each hand is absolutely fluent and steady, although at a slow tempo, combine the Ieft hand and Pedal, right hand and Pedal, and right hand and left hand. Then combine all tllree staves in two- or tlree-bar segments, gradually increasing the length of ttre segments until the piece is complete. TOWARDS THE PERTORMANCE A common error is to rush from one phrase to the next in mm. 13, 75, t7 , 1.9, ard 27; the music needs to breathe here! Feel the impact of the fourth beat of the measure, insert a generous human-sized breattr between the phrases, and perhaps use your metronome to double-check your rhythm. I believe that Lang's tempo of .1.= 126 is much too fast for almost all situations. Try.J.= 100 instead. The piece even sounds effective at a much slower tempo, for example J.= 80. More important than the metronome mark is the mood direction, Allegro con brio (lively, with a bright mood). Even at this slower tempo your careful work on articulation and the confidence you have gained through methodical note-learning will guarantee a performance brimming with life and brilliance!
Exftacts printed by kind permission of Cramer Music Ltd., 23 Garrick Street, London, England WC2E 9RY. Anne Marsden Thomas, BMUs, FRCo, FRscM, ARAM, is director of St. Giles International Organ School based in London, U.K.; . She is also a concert organist, author of several books for the student organist, and director of music at St. Giles Cripplegate Church, London.
SrpreMsen 2006
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