To C. E Taylor Esq.

TUBA TI-INE in D major, Op. 15

C. S. LANG

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Allegro con brio )'= 126
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f ct. Diaps., Full Sw.

For all Countries. All Rights Reserved.

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Anne Marsden Thomas's Organ Lesson )OO(ll:
C.S. [ang, Ttrba Tune in D Mair
Anne Marsden Thomas gives detailed practical guidance to the
amateur organist on the preparution of a piece from "Sunday by
Sunday."
Reprinted from the September 2005 issue o/ Church Music Quar-
lerly, the journal of the Royal School of Church Music, by permis-
sion of the author and the editor. Adapted by the author forTAO.
INTRODUCTION
This piece is an ideal postlude for happy occasions. Its familiar,
tuneful melody sends the congregation away singing, and the lilt of
its compound meter dances cheerfully, with its bold D-maior tonal-
ity and widely spaced grand sonorities. Best of all, it is not at all dif-
ficult to play.
REQUIREMENTS
Tuba Tune is currently set for Grade 5 (Associated Board of the
Royal Schools of Music). If you can coordinate the right hand, Ieft
hand, and pedals, each with independent articulation, this is an
ideal piece for you. Even ifyou have small hands, you should not
feel deterred; although the chords look large, they can be reduced if
necessary.
Although intended for a large organ with a tuba stop, the piece
sounds delightful on any organ, even an organ with no reed stop.
You only need a minimum of two manuals with at least an octave
and a half of pedals.
EDITIONS
The copyright is held by Cramer Music Ltd., who publishes it
singly. It is also available in both A Graded Anthologlr of Music,
B o ok 5, ard The Organist's W e dding Album fr om the same publisher
or from <www.rscm,com/shop>.
REGISTRATION
There are registration suggestions at the outset but these are in-
complete. The right hand begins on "Tuba" and the left hand begins
on "Gt. Diaps., Full Sw." There is no regishation indicated for the
Pedal. On a large organ this registration scheme probably means:
R.H. Solo manual: Tuba uncoupled.
L.H. Open Diapason 8'; Stopped Diapason 8'; Principal 4'; Flute 4'
on Swell and Great plus Swell Reeds 16', B', and +'. Swell to
Great,
Pedal Open Diapason 16'; Bourdon 16'; Principal 8'; Flute 8'; Swell
to Pedal, Great to Pedal.
On a smaller organ find a loud registration in which the "tuba" is
consistently louder than the accompanying manual, and in which
the Pedal balances the accompanying manual.
As the swell pedal opens on page three, it may be best to begin
with the swell pedal closed. Alternatively, you could close the swell
in the rest at the end of m. 13.
LEARMNGTHENOTES
Begin with the Pedal. Lang's articulation marks suggest slurs plus
two t5rpes of non-legato: staccato (indicated by dots), and not-quite-
legato (unmarked notes). The gaps between the staccato and not-
quite-legato notes allow the same toe to take consecutive notes, even
when those consecutive notes leap, as in the first measure.
Ex. 1: m. 1, Pedal
Practice leaps like this with a relaxed leg, maintaining your toe's
contact with the pedalboard as you travel. Thus your toe will re-
member the precise distance traveled.
Example 1 shows you how a brief silence between two consecu-
tive notes allows the same foot to play both of these notes. Example
2, which gives my suggested pedaling scheme for the whole piece,
shows many more examples of this. You may also notice that my
scheme limits the pivoting of the lower body, and promotes antici-
pation of foot positions. Don't forget to operate the swell pedal in
mm. 20 and 21a. Your right foot should move to the swell pedal au-
tomatically after playing Bt in m. 19.
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Ex.2: Pedal part (complete)
Sometimes students are nervous of playing bottom D (mm. 8, 9,
73, 17-19,21). Certainly a misfire on this bottom D sounds catas-
trophic in the finished performance. Here are the best methods to se-
cure an elusive note. Use m. 13 as your model and practice all these
metlods in succession. Although in performance the successful per-
former uses all three methods simultaneously, you may find it help-
ful to choose one on which to concentrate while you play:
1. The left toe's journey
Play mm. 12 and 13, but only the notes played by Ieft toe. Main-
tain contact with the pedalboard throughout. Thus you train the
Ieft toe to regard bottom D in context- one note lower tlan Eb,
and a fourth down from G.
2. The interval between the feet
Play the last note of m. 12 (right toe A), then m. 13 (D, with left
toe). Check that your knees are together, and your leg muscles re-
laxed. Thus you Iearn the angle ofyour lower legs that ensures the
interval of a fifth.
3. A point in space
Regard bottom D as a point in space. Using any location method,
find and play D with your left toe. Check your position by sliding
your toe forward to make contact with the two black keys, C{ and
D*. Continue to sustain D, checking that your leg and your lower
body are in the most comfortable position possible. Close your
eyes, listen carefully to the sustained note, and associate the
sound with the position of your body; convince yourself that D is
the natural home of your left toe. Now release D, and, using both
feet, play t}rough mm. 11 and 12, always feeling that you are trav-
eling home to D.
Now we will explore the manual parts. Here, too, the slurs and
other articulation marks are important, but their implementation
may be less obvious. Slurs applied to a single voice, for example,
right hand mm. 1 to 9, should be applied precisely. But the left
hand's part looks alarmingly stretchy: full of three- and four-note
chords, joined by slurs, which no normal human hand could hope
to interpret literally. A quick survey of other Bnglish organ compo-
sitions from this era confirms that Lang and his English contempo-
raries habitually used slurs to indicate phrasing or accents, and that
such phrasing and accents do not necessatily imply legato. You may
ask, "How do I know when a slur means legato?" The answer is: use
your own judgment, experimenting with legato touch, and assessing
its practical application. For example, in mm. !4 to 77 ,left hand, a
quick experiment confirms that legato is impossible; you cannot
move smoothly from one three- or four-note chord to another with
only five fingers!
Tur Ar'ltpnrcnru Oneerust
Ex. 3: mm. 14-17, left hand
So we may assume that, when the composer used slurs in this
way, he intended an illusion of legato. You can create this illusion
by slurring the pedal but making tiny convenient breaks in the hand.
Ex. 4: mm. 1rt-17, left hard and Pedal
With small breaks between the left-hand chords, your Ieft hand
should always be able to maintain a comfortable position, often with
the thumb on the top note of the chord. However, very small hands
may need to delete a note sometimes. When selecting which note to
delete, Iisten experimentally to find t}le note whose disappearance
is least noticeable.
The composer's detailed articulation marks on the Tuba melody
Iine (right hand throughout, except in mm. 10 to 13 where the left
hand takes over the melody) demand very close observation. For ex-
ample, in m. e, right hand, Lang presents three different articulation
patterns within the first nine eighth notes. What character this
brings to an otherwise predictable line of notes!
Ex. 5: m. a, right hand
Take care that you do not gather speed when playing staccato (it
is often tempting to try and close up the gaps between the notes);
think of the staccato notes as sharp, sparkling little diamonds. Note
how the melody twice invades the alto voice in m. 16. Generous
breaks (invited by Lang's slurs) in the lower voices remove any pos-
sible collision, and allow access to an easy fingering pattern:
Ex. 6: m. 16, right hand
In m. 11 (third beat), too, the soprano melody invades the alto's D.
I suggest the following interpretation, which includes a tie to pre-
vent an interruption of the top voice's slur.
Ex. 7: m. 113-a, right hand
SrpreMsen 2006
Take a pencil and insert a little fingering, so that you play the
piece accurately from the first day. Where there is a sequence, it is
usually helpful to use sequential fingering.
Ex, 8: m. 2-3, right hand
Tied notes suggest a hand position that encompasses all the
chords involved:
Ex. 9a: m. 17, left hand
Ex. 9b: m. 19, left hand
In mm. 10 and 11 the unslurred right hand can step the same fin-
gers from chord to chord.
Ex. 10i mm. 10-11, right hand
Now that you have tackled so many fragments in detail, I recom-
mend you put them together. Register the piece as you will perform
it and practice the manual changes at the same time. First, Iearn each
hand separately; as soon as each hand is absolutely fluent and
steady, although at a slow tempo, combine the Ieft hand and Pedal,
right hand and Pedal, and right hand and left hand. Then combine
all tllree staves in two- or tlree-bar segments, gradually increasing
the length of ttre segments until the piece is complete.
TOWARDS THE PERTORMANCE
A common error is to rush from one phrase to the next in mm. 13,
75, t7 , 1.9, ard 27; the music needs to breathe here! Feel the impact
of the fourth beat of the measure, insert a generous human-sized
breattr between the phrases, and perhaps use your metronome to
double-check your rhythm.
I believe that Lang's tempo of .1.= 126 is much too fast for almost
all situations. Try.J.= 100 instead. The piece even sounds effective
at a much slower tempo, for example J.= 80. More important than
the metronome mark is the mood direction, Allegro con brio (lively,
with a bright mood). Even at this slower tempo your careful work on
articulation and the confidence you have gained through methodi-
cal note-learning will guarantee a performance brimming with life
and brilliance!
Exftacts printed by kind permission of Cramer Music Ltd., 23 Gar-
rick Street, London, England WC2E 9RY.
Anne Marsden Thomas, BMUs, FRCo, FRscM, ARAM, is director of St. Giles In-
ternational Organ School based in London, U.K.; <www.organschool.com>.
She is also a concert organist, author of several books for the student organist,
and director of music at St. Giles Cripplegate Church, London.
65