This week on the Ether Game Weekly Music Quiz Podcast, we're going solo! We'll be looking at the genre of the concerto this week, in a show we're calling " In The Spotlight"! Can you name this "featured" tune? (The answer is below) Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, July 31st at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra in F minor: I. Allegro moderato
Arnold Jacobs, tuba; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Daniel Barenboim, conductor
The Chicago Principal: First Chair Soloists Play Famous Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon)
We're looking at instruments stepping up into the solo spotlight this week, and the soloist for our podcast is the tuba. Lumbering bass instruments don't often step into the limelight, and that's certainly true for the tuba. The tuba, in fact, didn't catch on as an orchestral instrument until the mid to late 19th century, with the first modern tuba appearing in the late 1830s. Wagner picked up on the instrument right away when he used it in The Flying Dutchman in 1843, and it soon began to spread in Germany—but never as a solo instrument. Instead, a small tuba-like instrument called the euphonium became popular among virtuoso soloists, especially in England. These euphonium virtuoso techniques were later applied to the tuba by people like Philip Catelinet, the principal tubist for the London Symphony Orchestra. So when Vaughan Williams finally created a Tuba Concerto in 1955, Catelinet was more than up to the task.