NEC’s Schuller to conduct his piece’s premiere
Mike Roylance of the BSO says a new tuba concerto by Gunther Schuller is “the hardest thing I’ve ever played.’’ (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
By David Weininger Globe Correspondent / February 12, 2011
When Mike Roylance plays a tuba piece — be it a concerto, a sonata, or some other work that places the low-voiced instrument in solo role — he often gets a comment from a listener along the lines of: “I never thought a tuba could do that.’’
Mike Roylance, tuba soloist
Music of Haydn, Schuller,and Brahms
The reaction induces mixed emotions in Roylance, who is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s principal tubist and teaches at New England Conservatory and Boston University. “I guess I’m really glad for everyone that says that,’’ he said during a recent phone conversation. But he’s also somewhat dismayed to be reminded that “the tuba has a lot of preconceived stereotypes that they [used to] kind of box it into the back of the orchestra.’’
Make no mistake: It’s tough out there for the tuba. Half a century of rising playing standards and a concurrent expansion of repertoire have yet to dissipate the instrument’s image as a lumbering, slightly comic entity, best hidden away at the back of the orchestra to pick up the music’s bottom end.
Roylance, though, is doing his part to edge the instrument further into the spotlight. He recently released an album on iTunes containing a recent piece by composer Robert Smith and arrangements of three tangos by Astor Piazzolla. And on Tuesday, he’ll give the first performance of a new tuba concerto by NEC’s Gunther Schuller, who will conduct the Boston University Symphony Orchestra. It is Schuller’s second work for tuba and orchestra, which in and of itself puts him in a rarefied group of composers.
The backstory of the new piece touches on important aspects of the instrument’s recent history. Like Schuller’s first concerto — “Capriccio for Tuba and Orchestra,’’ written in 1969 — the new work owes its existence to Harvey Phillips, who was, by all accounts, one of the instrument’s most important teachers, players, and advocates. According to a New York Times obituary, Phillips, who died last year at the age of 80, commissioned more than 200 new pieces and once remarked, “I’m determined that no great composer is ever again going to live out his life without composing a major work for tuba.’’“His whole life he took on the cause to champion the tuba as a melodic voice, not just an oom-pah voice,’’ said Roylance.
Phillips was also a lifelong friend of Schuller; when the latter became NEC’s president in the late 1960s, Phillips was his vice president of financial affairs. Phillips called Schuller in 2007 to commission the new piece, even though he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and, according to Roylance, knew that he would most likely never get a chance to perform, or even hear it.
Schuller completed the concerto last spring. It hadn’t been written for a particular performer, and Schuller knew Roylance from the composer’s involvement with the BSO. So, said Roylance, Schuller called “out of the blue’’ to ask if he would play it. “Of course I jumped at the chance,’’ he said. “And I got the part and realized it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever played. In many ways I’ve had to relearn how to play my instrument.’’That’s because the solo part covers a range equivalent to “the entire left half of the piano.’’ Though lyrical and expressive in parts, the tempos and dynamics are also pushed to extremes, said Roylance. “He really knows how to write correctly for each instrument’s maximum potential.’’
One technical detail shows Roylance just how complete Schuller’s grasp of the instrument is. He specifies that the piece should be played on a contrabass tuba, the largest in the tuba family. “Traditionally, if you have a piece like this that goes into the higher register, you would opt to play a smaller horn,’’ he explained. “But Gunther knows the specific ranges and the specific colors. It’s a much higher degree of difficulty, but the sound colors will be what he had in mind.’’
Even more Schuller
In an odd bit of synchronicity, Schuller’s first two string quartets are on the bill of an “Early Evening’’ concert by the Borromeo String Quartet at New England Conservatory, also on Tuesday. That concert’s 6 p.m. start time should give Schuller addicts time to get from NEC to BU in time for the new concerto.
David Weininger can be reached at globeclassicalnotes@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
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