| Although the tuba was invented and patented by Wilhelm Wieprecht and Johann Moritz on September 12, 1835, there was no significant work written for the instrument until Vaughan Williams wrote the first concerto for the instrument, which was more than hundred years later! Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the concerto for tuba and orchestra in 1954 in respond to the Jubilee Celebrations of the London Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the work was given by the orchestra on 13 June 1954 at the Royal Albert Hall, London, under the baton of Sir John Barbirolli and the soloist was Philip Catelinet, for whom the concerto was written. In many respects, the work reflects the musical style of the composer that includes the use of folk materials, modes, pentatonic scales, motives, and interchanging duple and triple rhythms. This dissertation will examine all these characteristics with examples. Besides these characteristics, some sources have also mentioned quotations have been found between the concerto and the composer's Eighth Symphony. But they only talked about it in brevity and did not provide examples to further support the fact. Therefore in the dissertation, I will provide examples and detailed analysis to show how exactly Vaughan Williams borrows materials between the two works. Vaughan Williams clams that the form of the concerto is close to the Bach's form, but certain ideas of the classical-romantic concertos can still be found in the concerto. For example, the use of sonata form in the first movement and the style of the rondo form used in the last movement are much related to the classical concerto than the baroque concerto. Finally this dissertation will provide the background of Philip Catelinet and Vaughan Williams's association with brass music. |
