"Elegy" from Tuba Concerto
Andrew McManus
About this work:
Elegy for tuba and piano is the second movement of what will become a three-movement concerto for tuba and orchestra. The movement is a series of disparate musical images, all of which invoke unclear or fuzzy memories. The solo tuba both participates in and reacts to these backdrops, perhaps attempting to make sense of this particular sequence of episodes. At the opening, the tuba emerges from a hazy chromatic backdrop that slowly intensifies. Following this is an acerbic cadenza that eventually relaxes into a quasi-tonal lyricism, but this deteriorates before it can be fully realized. The subsequent episode culminates in frenetic glissandi for the tuba and breakneck sixteenths for the piano, but this sheer intensity does eventually relent. The piano echoes the tuba’s melodic figures in the chorale that follows (a muted horn will play these echoes in the orchestral version). As this lyricism fades away, the tuba descends ever lower, eventually coming to rest on a note below the range of the piano. Out of this note grows electronic playback that sustains a major chord while the tuba melody slowly ascends to the top of its register. Both the chord and the tuba cut off suddenly, leaving nothing but disembodied fragments of processed piano sounds, which peacefully ascend as they fade to nothing.
"Elegy" was written for tubist Andy Smith and is dedicated to the memory of his fiancee, hornist Gretchen Snedeker. It was premiered in March 2009 at the Eastman School of Music.
Version: piano reduction
Year composed: 2009
Duration: 11:00:40
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Keyboard plus One Instrument
Instrumentation: ,1 Tuba soloist(s), 1 Piano