Book Reviews
(She does mention Adolphe Appia, but not
whether Brecht would have been familiar
with his work.) She concludes, in character-
istically postmodern fashion, with her own
experiences as a spectator at two non-literal
opera productions in Berlin, both from
2005. She is a keen observer, and the result
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The Wagner Tuba: A History. By William Melton. Aachen, Germany:
Edition Ebenos, 2008. [198 p. ISBN: 9783980837910. i24.] Illustrations,
music examples, bibliographic references, index.
One of the youngest of brass instru-
ments, the Wagner tuba remains among
the least known. At first glance, it looks
rather a failure among instruments, one of
a number introduced in the nineteenth
century with great fanfare that hardly any-
one used. The main difference is that it was
designed at the behest of the very influen-
tial Richard Wagner and used by other
composers in several pieces that quickly be-
came part of the international standard
repertoire. With its very small but impor-
tant body of music, it has attracted little
scholarly interest until now.
William Melton begins his first chapter,
“The Vision,” by quoting numerous de-
scriptions of its noble tone quality, but then
goes on to point out that its notation has
confused both composers and players, that
there are more than a dozen names for it
in German alone, and that the literature
abounds in misinformation and dubious as-
sertions. Wagner first conceived of new in-
struments in 1853. He was struggling to
perfect the Valhalla motive in Das Rhein-
gold, the first opera in which he attempted
to conceive pitch, rhythm, and instrumen-
tation in a single step. He first intended to
have the Valhalla motive played by trom-
bones, but soon decided on Tuben instead.
There was not yet any such instrument, but
he wanted a sound that would invoke Norse
legends and, no less important, create a
better blend in the brass section. He
planned to use four pairs of horns, the last
two of which would double on the new in-
struments, high and low tuba in each pair.
Archeologists had unearthed several ex-
amples of the ancient lur in 1797, in good
enough condition that they could be
played. Their sound was exactly what
787
is feuilletonistic criticism of the highest de-
gree; one can hardly fault her for including
it here. Still, one wishes one had seen more
of Brecht at the opera prior to that.
Stephen Luttmann
University of Northern Colorado
Wagner needed, but they were not chro-
matic. Numerous firms, including Moritz,
Sax, Červený, and Alexander, supplied mil-
itary bands with valved instruments of the
type now known as saxhorns. Wagner knew
about them, but was not satisfied with the
sound. He needed something with the flex-
ibility of saxhorns and the sound of the lur.
Chapter 2, “The Apprentice,” deals with
the beginning of Wagner’s relationship
with Hans Richter, a professional horn
player, and their collaboration. Richter be-
came Wagner’s copyist and secretary, and
eventually a noted conductor. The chapter
culminates in a description of the premiere
of Das Rheingold (Munich, 1869). Contrary
to assumptions of earlier writers, Melton
finds no evidence that Wagner tubas yet ex-
isted for that performance.
Nor did they exist the entire time
Wagner was preparing to have the scores
for his Der Ring des Nibelungen published.
Without actual instruments and people
who could play them, he had trouble decid-
ing how to notate their parts, as detailed in
the third chapter, “Trials and Transposi-
tions.” During this same time, he was also
trying to build his theater at Bayreuth.
Wagner had a falling out with his patron,
Ludwig II of Bavaria, who refused to have
anything to do with the Munich premieres
of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre. Finally,
the king cut off his funding, and it looked
like the operas would never be presented
and that the new tubas would never be
built.
In “Fruition,” chapter 4, Ludwig re-
lented. Construction on the theater contin-
ued, and Wagner completed his plans for
the first Bayreuth festival. Richter’s part was
to hire singers and orchestra personnel and
788
to see that the new tubas were ready. He
notified Wagner in a letter dated 25 Sep-
tember 1874 that they had been ordered
from Munich brass maker Georg Otten-
steiner. The first concert in which they
were used took place the following March.
Melton provides detailed analyses of how
the new instruments functioned dramati-
cally. Unfortunately, Ottensteiner’s tubas
were technically deficient and had poor in-
tonation. Moritz made better ones in 1877,
and Alexander better ones still in 1890.
Several other firms subsequently made
Wagner tubas, but the Alexander models
turned out to be definitive.
Chapter 5, “The Disciple,” is devoted to
Anton Bruckner, who first heard the new
instruments at Bayreuth in 1876 and de-
cided to use them in each of his last three
symphonies. Melton analyzes the role of
the tubas within the symphonies and
chronicles their earliest performances,
some of which to Bruckner’s disappoint-
ment omitted the tubas.
The next chapter, “Wagner’s Heirs,”
opens with a discussion of the use of the
tubas by the next generation of German
composers. Most of the composers and
their music have dropped out of sight, but
Richard Strauss used Wagner tubas exten-
sively in works between Guntram (1893)
and Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919). Begin-
ning with Elektra (1909), he demanded the
utmost virtuosity of them. The chapter con-
cludes with a more general consideration
of performances of music with Wagner
tubas outside of Germany (where tonally
less robust instruments like saxhorns were
substituted) and the state of manufacturing
tubas in Germany. Once all of the German
opera houses had sets of tubas, there were
many manufacturers and virtually no mar-
ket until military bands all over Germany
adopted them early in the twentieth century.
“Modern Voices,” chapter 7, traces the
use of Wagner tubas in the music of Arnold
Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók,
Gustav Holst, Leoš Janáček, and two little-
known Danish composers. None of these
composers used the tubas in more than two
works, and although several of the works
are concert staples, they have often been
performed with other instruments substi-
tuting for the Wagner tubas. Only a few
were composed after World War I. By the
end of World War II, with hardly any recent
Notes, June 2009
music calling for Wagner tubas and the
closing of many of Germany’s largest in-
strument manufacturers, it appeared that
there was no future for them.
While most readers will probably have at
least a nodding familiarity with the outline
of the story told so far, the last chapter,
“Revival,” comes as a surprise. Composers
in the 1960s, including Friedrich Cerha,
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Bernd Alois
Zimmermann, and Hans Werner Henze,
began to find new uses for Wagner tubas in
large-scale works, some using twelve-tone or
avant-garde techniques. The rest of the
twentieth century witnessed Wagner tubas
in film music, chamber music, and even
solo pieces. Far from the heroic or brood-
ing character of Wagner’s or Bruckner’s
tuba parts, this more recent music often
includes humorous pieces like Thomas
Goss’s The Seven Deadly Sins (of a Dog). New
manufacturers have begun not only making
Wagner tubas, but tinkering with the design.
No one yet specializes in playing Wagner
tubas; they are still played by hornists.
There is no sign that they are becoming
permanent members of the orchestra. They
still appear in a small proportion of the
music by the composers who write for them
at all. Signs are, however, that the death-
watch is over. A small but steady stream of
new music for Wagner tubas seems likely to
continue indefinitely.
This story is certainly worth telling. I just
wish it were better written and better orga-
nized. The narrative is arranged in a
chronological sequence. Whenever Melton
identifies an area where earlier scholars
have made assumptions that are unsup-
ported by documentation, he mentions the
errors within that sequence. He also details
his own findings within that sequence.
Many authors assert that Wagner collabo-
rated with Franz Strauss in designing his
tubas. There is no evidence of this, and
as the two despised each other, it seems un-
likely. Melton brings up the point on p. 21.
The chapter about Richter begins on the
next page, with the implication that he,
not Strauss, was Wagner’s technical advisor.
Melton nowhere says so directly. The first
explicit mention of Richter‘s role comes
almost in passing on p. 34.
Melton brings up another common but
undocumented assertion, that Moritz made
the first Wagner tubas for the 1869 pre-
Book Reviews
miere of Das Rheingold, on p. 27, at the end
of chapter 2. We do not learn who the first
manufacturer actually was, or the perfor-
mance at which the new instruments were
first used, until p. 46 in chapter 4. It would
probably have been helpful to enumerate
all of the important problems with the ear-
lier literature and a brief statement of what
he found in his sources in one place as part
of a general introduction. That way, the
material would be easier to find, and the
details about common errors would not in-
terrupt his primary narrative.
Throughout the story, Melton attempts
to cram in as many details as possible, no
matter how tangential. Until I got to the
last chapter, I was beginning to think that
he was padding to make up for not having
enough important information to justify a
book on the subject.
There are more than one hundred end-
notes in six of the eight chapters. There are
789
multiple endnotes in virtually every para-
graph. Unfortunately, they are not limited
to bibliographic references. Considerable
information that should have been inte-
grated into the text is hidden in the notes.
There is no separate bibliography, which
will make it unnecessarily difficult for any
scholar who wants to follow up on Melton’s
work.
Anyone interested in Wagner’s music,
the development of orchestration, or the
history of brass instruments will find much
of interest in Melton’s book. The organiza-
tional problems will not get in the way of
casual reading. They make careful study
more difficult than it needs to be, but on
the whole, this book is a welcome addition
to the literature.
David M. Guion
University of North Carolina at Greensboro