Notation for Wagnertuba: The Definitive Guide

You have been handed a bizarre, oblong brass instrument and some music in an unusual transposition. Playing it feels oddly familiar yet also alien and strange - the sound is bright and has a lot of front, and it honks out at a disarming angle. It’s almost the length of your torso, but it’s either too short to rest in your lap, or a bit too long so you adjust your seating position to accommodate it. It’s likely you’ve never played it before in your life, or at least in a couple of years. Oh, and the first rehearsal is next week.

Welcome to a typical Wagnertuba player experience! Not many orchestras have a set, and even the world’s top orchestras will only use them once or twice a season. Most of the orchestra’s core members are simply playing their French horns as usual (aside from perhaps the Associate Principal) so it falls to local substitute players to tame these beasts.

The story of the Wagnertuba (or Wagner Tuba) shows that if you really want something, and you’re truly driven, you can just manifest it into existence. In 1853, Das Rheingold was just a libretto and a twinkle in Richard Wagner’s eye, and already he had a concept of a quartet of “Tuben” that would bridge the timbral gap between the tuba and the French horns. It wasn’t until 1875, 6 years after the premiere of Rheingold, that the Wagnertuba finally made its public debut.

Stephen Caudel and Reverend Gregory Thompson, B.A., created a website in 2001 which contains a fantastic summary of the history of the instrument and some details about its characteristics. I highly recommend reading through their segments on the Wagnertuba’s history. It’s some fantastic background context for how the instrument came to be and its intended role in the orchestra.

The unfortunate thing about this otherwise excellent website, however, is that their page on transposition is wrong! Or at best, incomplete.

As a latecomer on the orchestral scene, a standard of notation for the instrument never really crystallised. Even within the Ring Cycle itself, transpositions and clefs vary from opera to opera, and even act to act. Orchestras hoping to perform Wagner’s works often substituted military band instruments in the absence of Tuben; I would speculate that his copyists had this in mind when they created some of the earliest parts.

With this article, I’m hoping to create a comprehensive guide to the notation of the Wagnertuba. Let’s set the record straight.

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: An Alexander B-flat Tenor Tuba and F Bass Tuba, ready for action in Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.

Cut to the chase; what transposition do I use?

The short answer is: it depends! Always do your research before the first rehearsal, by listening to a recording if possible. The intention of this article is to give you tools to figure out the transposition of this magnificent contraption.

Tuben (the German plural for “Tubas”) usually come in groups of four. Most scores with Wagnertuba will include two Tenor tuben in B-flat “basso” and two Bass tuben in octave-displaced F, sounding a major 9th and a perfect 12th below written, respectively. If you are performing Strauss or Bruckner, this is almost certainly the transposition you are looking at.

The logic of this notation is that it conforms to traditional brass fingerings. Trumpet players are very familiar with this concept, and are able to seamlessly switch between B-flat, C, and E-flat trumpets without having to learn new sets of fingerings. Most American wind ensemble publications include an alternate “Euphonium Treble Clef” part, transposed up a major ninth so the fingerings are identical to trumpet. This follows British brass band tradition, wherein the baritone horns, trombones, and even tubas read in treble clef with identical fingerings.

A clever Wagnertuba player will figure out that they can simply use a standard trumpet fingering chart to learn the instrument, aside from the lowest notes requiring the fourth valve. I personally unlocked a lot of dexterity on the instrument when I realised this, and was then able to improve my sound concept by playing through Kopprasch études.

You may also encounter B-flat “alto” and F parts, sounding a major 2nd and a perfect 5th lower than written, respectively. This is the case in Das Rheingold, and Stravinsky also used it in the Firebird ballet (Rite of Spring is a whole different beast - we’ll get there).

If you’re lucky, you may have a modern edition, which will feature a copy of the Wagnertuba parts transposed into F, sounding a perfect 5th lower than written. These are the easiest to play from, since as a horn player you are used to reading and audiating notes in F. The notes on the page will match the sound concept in your head, and it will be easier to anticipate your entrances. This is the transposition I would recommend if you find yourself writing a brand new Wagnertuba part or editing an existing one. Some publishers include these in their rental sets, so it’s never a bad idea to ask your librarian to see if they have modern transposed parts available.

Alternatively, you may be playing one of the few parts with an unusual transposition that doesn’t match the instrument, such as E-flat tenor tuba, or C and B-flat bass tuba. This applies to Die Walküre and Siegfried, and was possibly done to allow substitution with military instruments when only a couple copies of the Wagnertuba existed.

If one layer of transposition wasn’t enough, “old notation” bass clef octave displacement may or may not apply as well. This is the same principle as “old notation” on an F Horn part; notation written in the bass clef is written one octave lower than corresponding notes in the treble clef.

The reason for this historical practice is beyond the scope of this article, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that a horn player tasked with performing on Wagnertuba would already be familiar with it.

Ultimately, the transposition should make the part fit more-or-less into the standard range of the French horn. The F Bass Tuben should not be consistently playing higher than the B-flat Tenor Tuben.

A couple years ago, I was playing 6th Horn / Tenor Tuba 2 on Strauss’ earth-shattering Alpine Symphony. We used the M9 transposition, but the Bass Tuba players (very understandably) thought their part was in a standard French Horn P5 transposition. We only realised the mistake on the last note of the rehearsal, when the seventh horn player squeaked out a squirrelly pianissimo high F, teetering a full octave higher than everyone else in the orchestra. This perilous moment could have been avoided if we had taken a few minutes to work out the voicing of the final B-flat minor chord:

When in doubt, take the time to check the score and do this with a few passages. It may shed light on an ambiguous transposition.

The Wagnertuba in Rite of Spring

If you are performing 7th or 8th Horn on Rite of Spring: welcome to a very niche point of contention in the horn community. Stravinsky used two Tenor B-flat Tuben in his seminal work, and there is no widespread consensus among horn players or conductors on which octave it should be played in. It is playable either way, although it takes nerves of steel to play the higher octave.

The case for B-flat alto (M2 transposition)

• This is not Stravinsky’s first attempt at Wagnertuba writing. He also used them (offstage + muted) in the Firebird ballet. Those parts are quite clearly written “B-flat alto,” so it’s likely he wrote them the same in Rite of Spring.
• There is a 1960 recording conducted by Stravinsky in which the 7th and 8th part clearly play up the octave.
• It’s simply more fun to play up the octave! Playing in the extreme high register is exciting; it requires more energy, carries more risk, and produces more adrenaline.
• Stravinsky is no stranger to writing unusually high brass and woodwind phrases; Rite of Spring famously even opens with one in the bassoon.
• The key lies in the whole tone scale in the final 6 measures of part 1. Initially, the two bass tubas play in octaves for two bars. When tuba 2 drops down to F#, the Wagnertuba takes over this line and continues the scale an octave higher. This matches the octaves of the bassoons, which are also at the high extreme of their register:

The case for B-flat basso (M9 transposition)

• Firebird was published by a different publisher than Rite of Spring, who may have used a different octave transposition; In any case, it is likely that the engraver made a decision on the octave transposition, not Stravinsky himself.
• The 1960 recording doesn’t actually give much insight into Stravinsky’s intentions: in addition to that recording, there is also a 1929 Stravinsky recording where the Tuben appear to play down the octave. Did he change his mind for the later recording? More likely, he simply didn’t give it much thought.
• Most horn players would agree that playing in the high register is exciting. However, making music is not a sport, and the part being more “exciting” is not a artistically sound way to make this decision.
• Put simply: it will sound better down the octave. The part is much more idiomatic this way, and removes a lot of risk that comes with two tuben screaming in unison in their high register. According to Stefan De Leval Jezierski, a 44-year horn player of the Berlin Philharmonic, “all the conductors except for [Zubin] Mehta asked for the lower octave.”

If you’re looking for my personal opinion, I would discard most of the above points because they are fundamentally an appeal to the composer’s intentions. I’m not a fan of this argument - if the composer is dead or can’t be reached for comment, it’s unfalsifiable. It also overlooks the fact that composers are human and predisposed to make mistakes or less-than-optimal decisions, and it downplays the beautiful collaborative nature of live music. That being said, the musical argument for unison with the bassoons is quite compelling.

I don’t want to make a definitive statement one way or the other in this article, so I’d recommend deferring to your principal horn player or conductor. Ultimately it will have very little impact on the final performance either way (unless you cack it!).

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Myself, Wagnertuba in hand. They’re honestly quite fun once you get used to them.

You’re composing for Wagnertuba, for some reason

So you’re thinking of adding to this obscure instrument’s very tiny repertoire? I will warn you right out of the gate: you are dooming your work to obscurity. Only high-calibre orchestras will have them on hand, and using them entails hiring extra musicians and paying doubling fees. If you hope to write a solo work, note that (I say this lovingly) only the nerdiest of horn nerds would own one themselves.

With that disclaimer out of the way, if you still plan to write for it, I’m assuming that a hornist or an orchestra has specifically asked you to write for it. Or maybe it’s just a passion project, not intended to be performed - that’s valid too.

Regarding transposition, I conducted an informal poll in April 2024 on Facebook. 97 people responded from all around the world, including members of prominent professional orchestras:

• 74 in F (P5 above)
• 2 in B-flat (M9 above)
• 21 “I don’t care either way”

In a rare case of near-unanimous opinion in a Facebook group, this answer seems resounding and decisive to me. You should write all parts (including the B-flat tenor tuba parts) exactly the same as the French Horn parts: in F, a major fifth above the sounding pitch. You should also include a note to specify that the part is in F, sounding a perfect fifth lower than written, just to eliminate all doubt.

None of the most popular scorewriter softwares do this by default, so I’m going to touch on how to do accomplish this:

Wagnertuba in Notation Software

Sibelius 2024.6 uses the most common Wagnertuba notation by default: treble clef, with the M9 / P12 transposition. You can change it to P5 horn notation in the Edit Instruments window, accessible by clicking the tiny arrow for “Instruments” under the Home tab. From there, you can find the Wagner Tubas and click “Edit Instrument…” to change their transposition:

By default, Dorico 5.1's Wagner Tuba parts are in bass clef and in the M2 / P5 transposition. You can change them under the Edit Instruments window, which is accessible via the Library menu or by clicking the three dots next to the instrument in Setup mode and selecting “Edit Instrument Definition…” :

The F tuben are already good to go, though you’ll likely want to swap them into the treble clef.

Side note: while researching this, I discovered that the ever-popular playback engine Wallander Instruments NotePerformer actually has a dedicated sound for the Wagnertuba. True to form, it sounds a little darker than the trombone, but noticeably brighter than the horn. Cool!!!

MuseScore’s Wagner Tubas use the same configuration as Dorico by default: bass clef with M2 / P5 transposition. Changing it is very easy - simply right-click on a measure you would like to change and go to “Staff/Part properties…”. From there you can swap the transposition at the bottom of the dialog box.

Not quite immutable

The last thing I’ll mention for completion’s sake: Yes, Wagnertuba mutes exist! You’ll find a “con sord.” or “mit Dämpfer” indication in works like Alpine Symphony, Bruckner’s 9th Symphony, and Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet.

They are even rarer than the instruments themselves, adding a further obstacle to your work being performed. Anecdotally, I can attest there are possibly only two sets of mutes in all of Canada, and only one in New Zealand. But if you’re determined to write for Wagnertuba in the first place, you’ve already blown past multiple disclaimers. What’s one more?

I hope you take some time to relish how unique your life is. There are over 8 billion humans on earth, and you are among the very very few who have a working knowledge of the Wagnertuba, a true niche-within-a-niche. Wield that knowledge responsibly.