cce blog

100 tubas!

a few weeks ago my bandmates dan, greg and i came down to NYC to join the 100Tubatet that performed Anthony Braxton's "Composition for 100 Tubas" at the Bang on a Can Marathon and River-to-River festival at the World Financial Center (check out the New York Times' review). it was super fun to play, with lots of opportunity for low-pitched fun for everyone.

the piece comprised 16 lyre-sized pages, each marked A1, A2, etc through D4. Braxton and three assistant conductors each led a group of 20+ tubists (ok, plus a few euphs & baritones), filling an hour by moving slowly from the A's through to the D's. each group performed independently, weaving their way from A4, A1, A3, B2, etc, at their conductor's discretion. after a couple repetitions of a page, the conductor would direct us to hold our note, and then lead us (and our "sonic space") marching through the crowd to another part of the plaza overlooking the Hudson to begin the next section. since each conductor chose the tempo for each page, groups were ending pages and moving around all the time, weaving around and through other groups' sonic environment.

the pitches were almost exclusively long, low notes, notated at very specific intervals, moving through several different time signatures each staff; the effect would probably have been lost on the observer had the conductors not been so meticulous in clearly conducting each bar as it moved from 5/8 to 7/4 to 4/4, etc. more crescendos and "urgency" appeared starting with the Bs, with bracketed spaces for individual improvisation against an aleatoric tuba background appearing in the Cs and Ds. elegantly-notated effects like a lightning-bolt-shaped "sound flash" (quick downward chromatic sforzando effect) and a feather-sheaped "sound sparkle" (non-pitched but rising sounds like fluttered breath, mouthpiece slaps, valve noises) punctuated the long notes in the Cs and Ds.

the music was hand-notated by the composer and very pretty. i'd seen lots of examples of avant-garde scores in, say, my Twentieth Century Music textbook, but never really performed a piece like this before (ok, except for Riley's "In C" as a class exercise once). but certainly not in a 100Tubatet. altogether it was super awesome!

apart from the NYTimes review and Wesleyan article, there are also plenty of pictures on Flickr, DowntownMusic.net, Secret Society. in the picture above i'm the skinny guy in the front, on the right, holding greg's beautiful vintage CCCP baritone.

here's the email i sent the night before:

From: chris erway <chris@erway.org>
Date: Jun 3, 2006 6:59 PM
Subject: 100 tubas!! tomorrow!!! WFC!!

what's up!! err, in case anyone wants to see some ridiculous avant-garde
music i'm participating in, there's something TOMORROW that involves
roughly 100 tubas and the world financial center. it's the kickoff for
the Bang on a Can Marathon (new music organization) and also part of the
River-to-River Festival.

it should be kinda awesome. we just rehearsed today and it's pretty
avant-gardey and forboding and full of aleatory. (plus Braxton is the
nicest guy ever; oh plus Slide Hampton was rehearsing a band in the next
studio!)

so that should be fun. there will be four crews of us roaming the WFC
playing boomy craziness. then i'll sadly have to run right back to
providence afterwards to play for sick kids at the zoo (really!). ok!

-c

Anthony Braxton
Composition #19 - Marching Piece for 100 Tubas

Date: 06/04/2006
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm.

Description: Internationally acclaimed for his seminal role in the
development of late 20th century music, composer, saxophonist, and
MacArthur "genius" Braxton premieres his parade piece for four bands of
twenty-five tubas.

Location: World Financial Center Plaza & Oval Lawn
http://www.rivertorivernyc.com/events/index.php?action=show_details&event_id=37
http://www.bangonacan.org/marathon2006.html