The Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto: Its Inception, and Influence on Selected Twentieth Century Works for the Tuba by British Composers

Abstract

The Concerto for Bass Tuba by Ralph Vaughan Williams was the first concerto written for solo tuba, and remains a staple in the repertoire today. The Vaughan Williams Concerto came about in the twentieth century due to the rapidly evolving role of the tuba within the orchestra, brass and military bands, eventually inspiring Vaughan Williams to write for the tuba as a solo instrument. The Vaughan Williams Concerto influenced Edward Gregson’s Tuba Concerto, as it is directly quoted in the development section of Gregson’s first movement. There are also marked similarities between the two concerti in terms of form, range, and intervallic material. The Vaughan Williams and Gregson Concertos both influenced two works for the tuba by British composers that would come about in the subsequent decades: the Concerto for Tuba and Strings by Roger Steptoe, and Capriccio by Rodney Newton. Steptoe’s Concerto is mostly atonal, yet the influence of Vaughan Williams and Gregson on its form, style, and intervallic relationships is still discernable. Newton borrows fanfare-like elements from Gregson while utilizing motivic material that is similar to Vaughan Williams. The goal of this paper is to show the influence of the Concerto for Bass Tuba by Vaughan Williams on the British tuba concerto as it evolved throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.