Wagner Tuba Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
As he worked on his epic Ring Cycle of operas, Richard Wagner wanted a sound with a relationship to the Nordic gods and heroes of Germany’s mythical past. His quest for that new sound only started around 1853. Wagner knew that horns were important in Norse mythology: Heimdall, god of light and guardian of the rainbow bridge to Valhalla, carried the Giallar Horn whose sound would be heard through all the worlds, calling gods and men to the final battle at the world’s ending. The horn was also symbolic of the moon, which in turn symbolised the eye Wotan sacrificed to gain knowledge.
So Wagner cast around for an instrument that would be a kind of godlike super-horn, a sound to represent lost world of Norse myth.
For years he consulted with various instrument makers and horn-players to achieve the grave yet luminous sound he’d imagined. Around 1874 a Munich instrument maker, Georg Ottensteiner, finally fulfilled Wagner’s requirements. In the process he created a mongrel instrument so unplayable that for many years most orchestras tended to fire the horn-players using them after the first rehearsal, replacing them with band musicians playing band instruments. But when they did work, they were glorious.
Sometimes playing the Wagner tuba is a bit like wrestling with alligators. There’s a sense that things might just slip horribly out of control at any moment. Wagner’s own Bayreuth tubists used to rush to the pub after each performance, blaming their unslakeable thirst on Wagner!
Music Details:
BRUCKNER: Symphony No 7 - Pentatone PTC 5186 051
T GOSS (NZ): Seven Deadly Sins of a Dog - Private CD
MCCARTHY: Star Trek, Deep Space 9 - Telarc CD 80383
WAGNER: Gotterdammerung, Death of Siegfried - EMI CDH 7 63044
WAGNER: Rheingold - Philips 412 475
WAGNER: Siegfried’s Funeral March - Decca 421 313
BRUCKNER: Symphony No 8 - DG 459 678
STRAUSS: Elektra - Decca 417 345
STRAVINSKY: Rite of Spring - Naxos 8.557501
JANACEK: Sinfonietta - Decca 410 138
RAUTAVAARA: Symphony No 3 - Naxos 8.554147
SALONEN: Insomnia - DG 477 5375
MASON WILLIAMS: Classical Gas - Connoisseur Wone CD 23
MIKE POST: The Rockford Files - Polydor 45rpm 815 096-7
GOLDSMITH: Air Force One - Telarc CD 80535
WILDER: Nonet for Brass - The Modern Wagner Tuba
BRUCKNER: Symphony No 7 - Pentatone PTC 5186 051
WAGNER: Das Rheingold, Entry of the gods - Philips 412 475
