Music Finland Core

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Tuba has, due to its low register, adjusted to 12-tone equal temperament with several valves and tuning slides. Without manual fine tuning with the slides, the different valve combinations reveal a vast but largely unused microtonal space of resonances that we studied, recorded and tabulated meticulously with tuba player Janne Jakobsson at the Basel Musikerwohnhaus as well as in Paris. Formed on the lips of the performer, the tuba’s sound in each instance adapts to the really fine resonance differences of valved tube lengths. With them, it seems possible to bridge the gap between timbre and pitch. From the perspective of its physicality, playing on a tuba is however closer to singing than virtuosic finger dexterity, which inspired the long line of the piece to reveal multidimensional life not only in the pitch domain but also in the colorful timbral variety and sensitivity in sound-production. While step-by-step descending to the lowest register of the instrument, we also notice the possibility of bridging the gap between pitch and pulsation. The empathetic way of listening to the physical reality induced by the works in the EMBODIED series experiences perhaps its strongest moments in this piece during the few surprisingly long tones that use the full capacity of the performer’s lungs. Ⓒ 2021 Jarkko Hartikainen

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EMBODIED: Tuba Solo