Melton, William
The Wagner Tuba
A History
(English language edition)

198 pages
Numerous illustrations
Many musical examples
ee 208010
© 2008 edition ebenos
ISBN 978-3-9809379-1-0

EUR 24,00

< shop



The Wagner tuba has accumulated a thick crust of fable in the little over a century and a quarter since its invention.

This book revisits original sources to bring the facts of the instrument’s development to light: the scope of Wagner’s vision, the myriad helpers who gave the vision practical form, the musicians who pioneered the playing technique, and the new generations of composers who adopted the curious little tubas.

Though the scholarship is painstaking, all of these elements are woven into an approachable narrative that ranges widely across the European musical legacy.



Die Erfindung der Wagner-Tuba liegt nur wenig mehr als ein Jahrhundert zurück, und doch bleibt noch vieles im unklaren oder legendenhaft, fragt man genauer nach ihrer Geschichte.

Anhand der Originalquellen werden in diesem Buch alle Aspekte der Entwicklung des Instruments umfassend beleuchtet: Wagners zu Grunde liegende Vision, die Umsetzung dieser Vision in die Wirklichkeit und die vielen daran Beteiligten, die Musiker als Wegbereiter einer neuen Spieltechnik, die nachfolgenden Komponisten, die sich den Klang der neuartigen Tubeninstrumente zu eigen machten.

In einem erzählenden Stil führt uns diese wissenschaftlich akribische Arbeit (in englischer Sprache) über die Wagner-Tuba zugleich durch einen wesentlichen Teil der europäischen Musikgeschichte.

William Melton (b. Philadelphia, 1954) was a horn pupil of Sinclair Lott (a protegé of Alfred Brain and Otto Klemperer) and a graduate student in historical musicology at UCLA. He has been a career hornist with the Sinfonie Orchester Aachen in Germany since 1982. He is also a charter member of two horn quartets, ”Die Aachener Hornisten” and ”The Rhenish Horns”, and has toured with them in hundreds of performances on three continents. Melton has twice won the International Horn Society's ”Harold Meek Award” for scholarly articles, he translates books from the German for Schott Music International, and is the author of ”Engelbert Humperdinck: An Odyssey through Wilhelmine Germany”, which will be published shortly by Toccata Press (London).


THE HORN CALL February 2009
(International Horn Society),
"[An] almost unbelievable level of research, using a truly amazing
number of primary and secondary sources. This is what true
scholarship is all about, and the result is a truly authoritative
resource for the Wagner tuba, and an inspiration to those who
appreciate the act of conducting research. Even just reading the
footnotes is totally thrilling ... I offer my highest recommendation,
for its content and as an example of the type of work scholars (and
scholar-wannabes) should emulate."


THE HORN PLAYER Autumn 2008
(British Horn Society)
"This is a significant book which has been carefully researched ...
The author makes a very good job of separating fact from fiction
during the early history of the instrument ... Melton also deals
lucidly with the question of transpositions used in the Ring
scores ... Altogether this is a much needed, fascinating and well
written book. Highly recommended."

^ nach oben / to top of page
< shop