Tuba players get no respect. Relegated to oom-pah-pah’s and whole notes by most composers, a melodic line for a tuba is less common than a blue moon. And don’t even think about tuba solos! er, . . . unless you have to, that is. That’s just the situation I found myself in a few days ago! We are blessed to have a very talented and faithful tubist in our church orchestra who is one of our best musicians (is a tubist a musician or someone who floats down lazy rivers with completely inappropriate quantities of alcohol?). Anyway, just recently, I endeavored to find a solo tuba hymn arrangement for this person to play. How hard could it be, right? Well, when they don’t exist, they’re pretty hard to find! Having already stoked our tubist’s enthusiasm, I couldn’t very well go back and say, “Sorry, there’s just nothing available.” So, sort of like the old commercial tag line, “If you don’t have an oil well, get one!” I went out and wrote a new tuba solo. Fortunately, the whole process just took a few days. The first hymn to come to mind was the traditional spiritual, “Were You There?”, and
since it seemed to be the perfect vehicle for the deep, mellow tones of the tuba there was no need to search farther. Also, I wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary. So, I began to experiment with some polytonality (multiple keys at the same time) and the result seemed to fit perfectly with the ugliness and irony of the first stanza crucifixion setting. Next, I added on major and minor key settings of the succeeding stanzas and left the ending unresolved. That seemed to do it! I now have a solo tuba hymn arrangement and my tubist is a very happy person! Check out the result for yourself in this preview. (Hope to have a live performance recording this summer!) Sheet music available at Were You There?