Thomas L. Read

Tuba, Celesta, and Four Tom-Toms

Composer's Note:

Brillenbass is scored for tuba, celesta/synthesizer, and four tom-toms of different sizes, graduated from low to high. The celesta part may be played either on a music synthesizer keyboard using GM setting 8 (celesta), or on a standard model celesta. [The part sounds an octave higher than written.] The keyboard and drum parts of Brillenbass are conceived for performance by a single player.

In the 18th Century the German word "Brillenbass" was a derogatory description of stereotypical accompaniment patterns whose abbreviated designation [ . / . ] suggested eyeglasses. Appropriation of the term for the present music is not entirely ironical: parodies of such patterns occur in the piece in ever changing guises.

The work's interrelated sections have the character of a sonata-concerto. The writing is at once virtuosic and lyrical, and explores timbral possibilities provided by opposing the tuba with a percussion unit- in this case celesta and cymbals instead of the more usual pianoforte. After the sombre introduction, an overall, governing tempo is established even though the individual sections are vastly different from each other in character, ranging from lightly conversational to lyrical and dreamlike to dramatic and propulsive.

Brillenbass was written for and dedicated to Mark Nelson who, together with W. Ronald YaDeau and Brian Justison, gave the premiere performance of a version using cymbals instead of toms at Milliken University on February 17, 1994.

Revised version for two performers and drums, October, 2022.