Tsar Bomba (tuba quintet and bass drum)

Just finished another piece of music. This time it's for tubas! 

This work for tuba quartet and bass drum aims to capture the sheer ferocity and horror of the Tsar Bomba, the world's largest nuclear bomb dropped by the Soviets in 1961. The explosion was a truly nightmarish event creating a fireball 8 kilometers wide and a shockwave that circled the globe three times. The tubas sing out a section of the Russian Orthodox Kyrie Elaison (Lord Have Mercy) moved to a minor key while the bass drum builds underneath, finally overtaking the hymn sounding like the rumbling shockwave of the blast.

I had some mic issues (clicking, I need a new mic) but this was fun to put together. Parts 1 and 2 were played on my Wessex Champion Eb while parts 3-5 were on my Meinl Weston Thor CC.

This is best listened to with headphones. Lot of deep chords in the basement...

https://youtu.be/g9o74NP-EAU

Intriguing source material to say the least. It's always fun to see how different composers are inspired! I'm sure you have made 5 tuba players somewhere very happy. It doesn't seem like they get much solo material, and here they have 4 minutes of uninterrupted bliss.

(NOTE: If you could be ever so kind as to post a PDF of the score so reviewers don't have to follow along on YT (such a pain to navigate back to when writing reviews), that would be much appreciated!!)

Now, let's talk about the music.

The aleatoric sections that bookend the piece are a risky choice and not one that adds much value to the listener's/reviewer's experience in my opinion. I feel that such a choice requires justification, as the rest of the piece flows in a more traditional manner. If it's just to "shake things up," that's well and good; there are other ways of doing that without a clashing of musical styles.

We also should consider the enjoyment of tubas 4 and 5, who are relegated to playing repetitive quarter notes with rare departures to other note species. I find myself asking if removing them from the piece would significantly alter the message, and I feel the answer is "no." The bass drum provides us with a driving rhythm (and will probably drown out their parts, anyway), and even when these lower tuba parts don't echo the drum's rhythm, they copy a higher tuba's part in octave. I suppose my point is that you could likely achieve the same—or nearly the same—effect by completely removing those 2 parts.

I did enjoy the minor rendition of Kyrie Elaison, especially the contrary harmonic motion between the 1st tuba and the others. Counterpoint was sparse but it was there, so kudos for that! The articulations, however, were overdone. I think the piece would've sounded roughly the same if even 75% of the written articulations were omitted. Also problematic is the passage beginning at M79, where you have the tubas play, in unison, a D1 at a dynamic of ffff. And have them hold it for a whole note. With an accented articulation. In tubas 4 and 5, this is followed shortly after by a series of low, loud, and long dotted half notes. I'm not doubting the physical possibility of this, just that of your players. And why risk it? If you want loudness (or the illlusion of loudness, which is often just as effective), try breaking that unisoned D up into a chord (a nondiatonic one for extra points). The sound is spread out over a wider range of frequencies and the assault on the eardrums more pronounced.

All in all, I think this piece has great promise. I enjoy the choice of instrumentation and find the source material unique. If you wanted to sink some extra time into this work to clean up the articulations and "fatten" out the partwriting, this piece would really shine!

Best,
Jörfi

I've never heard of a tuba quintet and it's refreshing to listen to this!

What Jörfi had reviewed is already very detailed and I don't really have many things to add to his very constructive review! I think for the styles you can focus on fewer styles, or develop them for longer passages, since overchanging of styles will cancel each other out. I enjoy the marching section, the brassy section with the great use of the drum, and the counterpoint sections with the medieval sound of parallels. I think it will achieve great effect by imitating the parallel organum!

Thanks for sharing!

Henry

I have to say that I lie this kind of music and the people who dare with challenging ensembles. I also love the tuba sound.

I think the ensemble works quite well in the free parts. Because close intervals when harmonizing or whatever at such a deep register can result in a confusing sound. I'm sure it would be much clearer not through the speakers.