Jan Bach's Concert Variations: Observations, insights and suggestions for its performance by Jan Bach his summer, | enjoyed the opportunity to renew I acquaintance with old friends and meet new ones at the 1995 Tuba-Euphonium Conference in Evanston, Ilinois. 1 do regret, however, that a mixup in communications prevented me from presenting the few comments I had prepared © take place right before Roger Behyend’s performance of my Concert Variations. This was the third presentation of my work in as many days, and was understandably flattered that Concert Variations would be chosen for “triple treatment” by three world-class euphonium artists. This is an interesting innovation for the Tuba-Euphonium conference, one that 1 hope will be repeated at Future conventions featuring other lower-brass ‘compositions by other composers. I also feel that, if possible, it would be nice to reserve time for the performers to explain how tach arrived at their own interpretation of the work and, if the composer is present, For each 10 give their own suggestions for the work's performance. Walter Hartley, Gunther Schuller, and Martin Mailman are three composer friends of TUBA who come tomind Concert Variations was written as a commission from TUBA. in the spring of 1977. At thar time, I felt I could not accept the assignment until [had actually composed a few bars of music for teuphoniam and piano; I had to assure myself that I was up to the task of writing & solo Work for an instrument with a lower range than any for which I had previously written, My writing for Ccuphonium hed been limited to the symphonic band, where 1 treated the instrument primarily as a “tuba helper,” using it © double that instrument in octaves and/or extending its range into the upper register Twas dimly aware that there was a literature for the euphonium, bat knew it only from my many summers playing, first horn in the DeKalb, Illinois, Summer Park Band. The rare euphonium soloist playing with the band would, with few ‘exceptions, play a set of variations on a once-popular tune, Similar to the literature played by the famous tur-of-the-century ‘comet soiciss, But all of these works were sectional variations, in which the tune usually maintained its original length through various metamorphoses realized primarily by added-nowe figurations; | was unaware of any works for euphonium based on developmental or symphonic variation technique, in which a ‘ifferent fragment of the original tune is used as the basis for ‘each variation | did, however. know of a few cases in the comet literature; Robert Russell Bennett's Rose Variations comes 0 mind as one such example. So I determined to give ‘euphoniumists a set of symphonic variations as the form of my 46 Fal, 1995 proposed work, As atrial balloon, just to be sure I was up to the task, [selected 2 short fragment from a set of variations 1 had written nearly 10 years earlier; my Burgundy Variations for orchestra, This particular variation, writen for the entice string section doubled with horns and clarinets, was stated as: By lowering this material an octave, changing its mode to major and siretching its intial archlike gesture, [achieved the opening Statement of Concert Variations, only one of many distinct figurations that would be sirung together to make up the theme of my work: It was not my intention {© use this “recycled” music as the basis for the final work, only as the basis for the exercise it would give me. But as the piece gradually took shape, I found that this inital phrase—and the motives that followed—had a lot to offer as the basis for further musical development. So my llkimate decision to stick with the music I had already written was an intentional one. ‘There was another reason for using this “recycled” music as the basis for my variations. My biggest stumbling block to ‘composition has been how cach new piece will begin. And, 1 never want to begin two of my pieces the same way. So, for the last several years, [ have begun each new pice with a fragment ‘of one recently completed, much like starting each new batch of sourdough bread with “starter” dough saved from the previous batch. In other words, this particular set of variations looks backwards and forwards to other pieces of mine written on either side of i "After the theme was completed, it remained for me only to determine the motives drawn from it on which each of the variations would be based, and the order of succession that ‘Would give each variation a freshness in comparison to the one just heard, While writing the piece, [also conferred with several friends familiar with the euphonium. Principal among these was Bill Rogers, who played tuba in the Rockford (Illinois) ‘Symphony and euphonium in the DeKalb Summer Park. Rogerspreferred to play an old, beautifully maintained double-belled cuphonium, and it was the image of this insirument I kept in ‘mind while writing my piece. It is not my intention in this anicle to analyze exhaustively — and probably exhaustingly. for the casual reader—each note of Concert Variations. Those interested in the work's basis modality, the derivation of each variation, the various key centers, the succession of tempos, etc, are directed to Kenneth Earl Shrum's 1989 doctoral dissertation, An Analytical Commentary on the Euphonium and Tuba Music of Jan Bach (Arizona State University). Rather, I would like to give a few comments about the piece from my point of view, and the ways I ‘would approach its performance if I were a euphoniumist. T would not dare to pick one of the Uhree performances of Concert Variations at the 1995 Evanston conference over the other two as the definitive performance. One reason would be that, regretably, I was unable (© hear a single note of Steven Mead’s performance, and—because of a rather elastic conference schedule—heard only the second half of the other two performances by Tim Myers and Roger Behrend, The other reason is that [am stil very much an enthusiastic supporter of live performances at a time when even some composer friends prefer listening to CDs in the quiet of their rooms, away from ‘increasingly rude and talkative concert audiences. So long as the performers are careful to play the pitches I have written, with tempos, dynamies, and durations approximately those I have written, Twill accept a variety of interpretations; like Picasso's famous cubist guitar, seen simultaneously from several different angles in one painting, cach new and/or different interpretation of a piece reveals relationships and proportions discovered for the first time ‘Toward this end [ am first concerned, a Pablo Casals was in playing another Bach, that every note of my music must be ‘meiodic. Even the piano's grace notes ofthe fist variation must be played as something longer than “chirps,” with melodic significance like short appoggiaturas. This is wiy [always insist that my grace notes be played before the beat. In the same manner, the flurries of sixteenth-note nuns for the euphonium throughout the piece must always be played slowly enough for cach note to be heard clearly and functionally; I allow only the “flutiered-valve” runs occasionally to be played in a bravura ‘manner, and then only ifthey clearly connect those notes at either end of the runs, Notes with no articulations must be played as long as possible, in the manner of a sting player playing these “unadorned” notes-—listen to the brass players in our best easter. Eropean orchestras forthe style I prefer. | abhor virtuosity fr its own sake; while music may—and should—dazzle ics audiences cecasionally, iis gestures must come from the substance of the musical ideas, not simply be imposed on it. Finally, as I ‘mentioned in the previous paragraph, | insist on the performer playing the correct pitches, each of which usually resulted from tan agonizing search for just the right note during the work's composition. This is one reason why T often add more “reminder” ‘accidentals fo my musical passages than they actually need. Everyihing else in my music is relative. Tempos will change somewhat with each performance, just as our sensitivity to tempo will change with the time of day and the state of our emotional health. Tempos, dynamics. articulations—and occasionally tone quality—will be modified somewhat depending on the acoustic of the performance space. Pitch will ‘change depending on the temperature of the room. the climate of the siage arca, and its height above sea level. But correct pitches, proportional relationships, and melodie playing of everything must be maintained. And, of course, as any keyboard player will tell you, the piano here és not simply an accompaniment but an equal partner with the euphonium in the performance; both instruments have challenging materials to play ‘Theme. This section is of primary importance in revealing the ‘materials of the variations that follow. This particular theme's primary characteristics are of urgeney and repose. The forte- piano of the Very first note includes within its articulation both kinetic and potential energy, and reminds the euphoniumist 9 get out of the way quickly so that the pianists opening descent can be clearly heard. The urgency is expressed by several rhythmic figures that are almost like writien accelerandi, regardiess of their actual notation. So if the opening gesture is illustrated as graphed durations rather than musical notation, the following design is revealed: ap ph eh ___igy Within these two measures, the pianist has also revealed important building blocks of this piece: the arpeggio in the first full measure and the Scottish Snap figure appearing against the euphonium’ held B The descent from this B? peak. beginning in the third full measure of the pices, introduces an important grace-note figure, and then expresses this feeling of urgency with yet another *wnittensont”accelerando: ‘The intensely melodie phrases of the euphonium, which begin in the cantabile section after the E-flat - D portamento, combine to describe another arch of gradually shortening durations; this Jeads eventually to G-fla*, after which a written-out accelerando of high Ds continues the urgency described earlier. Afi this the motive of measure four reappears, on C4 this time, and the theme, after appearances of the humming motive and a rhythmically weakened return of the opening figure, concludes withthe grace-note figure. Var. I: Capriceio. This is really the pianist’s variation; the sgruce-note figure ending the theme is used here to begin new expressions of urgency as each new entrance of the pianist TUBA Joumal 47initiates a rhythmic arch through acceleration and ritardation. Although the euphoniam plays a dotted-raythm version of the theme's opening motive, its function is really that of conimentary on the pianist's phrases; even when it oceasionally erupts into a flurry of sixteenth notes, itis the pianist who controls the pieve. The trading off of the grace-note figure between the two instruments further underscores the ‘cuphonium's subservience to the piano here, Yar. I: Siciliano, As the pianists lazy harmonic and rhythmic ostinato would indicate, this movement begins as the euphonium’ variation. The only melodic piano materials in this section are the apostrophes that emerge from the Keyboard texture to punctuate each ‘euphonium phrase: X/4 measure, the euphoniumist would have enough time to adjust the thd valve slide to match both alternate fingerings of the F-sharp and the E with their in-tone counterparts. There may be other fingerings, particularly with today's four valve instruments, that may make intonation less of a problem. I leave this problem's solution to the player, but with the gentle reminder that when I wrote the passage I was aiming for a timbrel distinction between the notes of the same pitch. Yar. I: Ripresa, As its ttle indicates, this variation revisits the opening of the work, with the pianist playing virtually all the material originally given to the euphonium and, insofar as a melodie instrament can imitate a harmonic one. vice versa. Here I confess that the old hhom player in me prompted the “fluter Halfway through, however, the pianist takes over the melodic materials completely as the euphonium tries, in vain, to become the accompanying instrument, playing widespread and all- but-impossible arpeggios throughout the limit of its range. Is it any wonder, then, that the euphoniumist mast eventually abandon this role, and return to the ‘melodic material—now a fourth lower— that began the movement? The senza misura section appearing in this Variation’s last five measures, while recalling a motive not heard since the theme, functions here, primarily, as transition; note, aso, its association with the Scottish Snap that will furnish much of the euphonium’s melodic material in Variation III, My biggest concer with this repeated-note motive is not so much its rhythmic difficulty as the problems that arise in attempting to mect my compositional intention of a timbre! ‘oscillation rather than one of pitcit. This motive, when it appears, is @ constant reminder of the wotk’s origins as a piece foc double-belled euphonium—the figure isn’t easy for an instrument with one bell! ‘The fact that the third valve figures prominently in both appearances of this motive makes me wonder if , during the short rest four measures before the first 46 Fall, 1995, rr —— valve” effect, which is so much easier on rotaty valves than the piston valves with which most euphoniums are equipped. 1 will settle here for a certain amount of “ghosting” of the flutter-valve notes it these passages, provided that the top and bottom notes of each figure are heard clearly. Apparently this “flutter valve’ effect is not as widely known to lower brass players as itis to hornists. Toru Miura told me that several Japanese players thought that the direction was a ‘misprint, and that I might want the tongue to be fltered. For years, hornists have used this flutter-valve effect to “help along” the slurred, ascending, trumpeting hharmonic-series arpeggios passages so idiomatic ofthe instrament. Var. IV. Scherzo. 1 sincerely wish I knew of a simple trick to avoid getting lost in this movement. It certainly helps if the pianist can watch the euphonium part like a hawk and be poised, at a momeat’s notive, to jump ahead a bar or 0 to cover ‘any mistake in the soloist’s entrance. It may help the euphoniumist to know that ‘most of the grace-note figures appearing in the piano after the euphonium has begun holding a long note are allowed to end—usually on 2 low, accented, harmonic fifth—before the euphonium begins the next phrase, but that is not always the ease. It may also help, atleast in the middle section of this variation, to know that the pianists ostinato, beginning in the second measure of page 15 of the full score, can be thought of as a series of 4/4 bars, with each 6/8 measure constituting one heat of each bar: Beethoven used the direction “battuto in 4" (conduct four measures as one four- beat pattern) during the Scherzo of his Ninth Symphony, in which each 3/4 measure goes by so guickly itis heard as ‘one pulse. The difficult effect of the 18th measure from the end of this variation — in which the pianist continues to play the right hand repeated notes at the same, unverying tempo while the left hand slows down—may be somewhat easier with a litle intentional blurring of those repeated notes with the sustaining pedal Var. V: Recitative begins the slow winding down of the piece, which yp to now has reached its greatest urgency in the Scherzo movement. Built on several earlier ideas but only two primary ones— the repetitious figure in the euphonium, the arpeggiated figure in the piano—this variation calls for a laid-back quality despite its rhythms. Note that, near this movement’s end, the urgent, written-out accelerandi are followed by written-out ritardandi in both piano and euphonium. Yar. VI: Coro. This movement ‘continues the gradual rhythmic weakening of the previous variation, although one cean see that each phrase of the pianist’s part contains distinctive writien-out accelerandi in each hand, with any interest the passages may have being derived from the cross-acecents between ‘ight and left hand. The euphonium part is ‘quite subdued in this movement, 2s weil it ‘must in order to allow the performer the time to think about beginning the vocslization of each note to be played through the instrument. In this regard, ‘male performers hum the middle note of each chord in order 10 create the resultant pitches heard above. Female performers, however, should hum the higher, parenthetical notes in order to create the desirable resultant notes in the middle range, Both effects work well provided the singing note is tuned perfectly with the played, | think of the eruption of the