Among the many expressive possibilities of the instrument, this composition utilizes the vast microtonal fingering possibilities of the tuba that are readily available when one does NOT correct the intonation with slides in the usual way (to, say, 12-tone equal temperament). Instead, the performer should find and play precisely against the unique resonances of the given fingerings, thus arriving at an extremely fine range of variation in tone—from a more timbrally experienced colour changes through almost imperceptible tonal steps of only a few cents, continuing all the way to the exciting world of microtonality.

The given (more or less approximate) pitch notation is meant to guide the performer’s ear in this, perhaps more intimate than usual, interaction with the instrument’s resonance, and is based on the composer’s extensive analysis of the work’s commissioner and first performer, Mr. Janne Jakobsson’s F tuba.

Regarding the expressive interpretation of the music: in the composer’s mind, the tuba is an instrument that marvels us with its capability to dive into the lowest possible pitches. This always surprises us with its size and depth—the lowest sounds are so low, in fact, that they start to appear as rhythm. The end of the composition indeed aims to undo the dichotomy between low frequencies and fast repetitions, ie. the distinction between the classical musical parameters known as ‘pitch’ and ‘rhythm’. The form of the piece ‘embodies’ the instrument: it is basically an extension of the tubist warming up by blowing air into the tuba, then beginning to make tones in the middle register before working their way up to a brief visit in the very highest notes before dropping our proverbial jaws by delving into the miraculously deep (huge) waves of sound.

At the same time—and this seems a bit like a paradox—performing on a tuba is closer to singing than any other musical activity (such as plucking, striking or bowing), even though the instrument’s range significantly differs from that what is possible to achieve with human utterance. Unlike in say, woodwind instruments, the sound of a tuba is, in fact, produced outside the instrument, on the player’s lips, and thus any tone produced has to be first ‘heard’ in the mind’s ear. For the composer, the realization that “playing tuba is basically singing” resulted in a composition that is a multidimensionally extensive cantabile line (an aria?) that jets through the expressive landscape of the grandest member of Western wind instruments.

EMBODIED: Tuba Solo is a continuation of the growing EMBODIED series of compositions empathetically investigating the sonically experienced physical coexistence of an instrument and its performer. These extremely instrument-specific works are naturally results of extensive composer-performer collaboration. They study the relationship of intimacy and resonace, or the individual and its surroundings, also in a larger way: these solo pieces are also designed to harmonically work together, simultaneously, producing a different dramaturgy in their each combination. As of writing, EMBODIED: Violin Solo, EMBODIED: Soprano Solo and EMBODIED: Soprano + Violin exists and have been performed, in addition to the newest solo ‘family member’ at hand. Pending the preparation of the respective performance material, the current three solo works thus also enable the following chamber music constellations of the growing EMBODIED ‘ecosystem’: EMBODIED: Soprano + Tuba, EMBODIED: Violin + Tuba, EMBODIED: Soprano + Violin, and EMBODIED: Soprano + Violin + Tuba. This is not, however the whole story, as even more EMBODIED works are in preparation...

© 2021 Jarkko Hartikainen