picture of a horn

Audio Clips

Wagner Tubas

performing Bruckner 7

The four of us playing Wagner tubas in the Green Mountain Mahler Festival orchestra, up against the back wall, bells obscuring our faces.
Left to right: Helen, Marti, Bruce, Bill.

Symphony No. 7 by Anton Bruckner

Green Mountain Mahler Festival
Andrew Massey conducting
April 17, 2008

The Wagner tubas play in the 2nd and 4th movements of the symphony. We doubled on horn in the other two movements. The numbered clips are Wagner tuba snippets from our own rehearsals. Listen for us in the full orchestra clips.

Movement II Adagio

The movement is basically a tribute to Wagner, who was on his deathbed while Bruckner worked on the symphony.

The theme in Clip 1 opens the movement, and recurs several times. Clip 6 is the Dead Wagner Moment; we are playing the funeral dirge -- when you hear it in the full orchestra clip (toward the end of the 2nd movement), listen for the grief-stricken horns coming in over top of us.

Movement IV Finale

A happier movement.

Also check out the audio clips of us playing horn quartets on Wagner tubas. We've also got some videos.