TUBA ODYSSEY
Franner Otter

Jon Hodkin, tuba

July 23, 2023
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Davenport, Iowa

Big River Brass Band
Nicolas Propes, music director

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Composer's Notes:

The Journey of InnerTuba
for solo tuba with brass band

Depicting the journey of InnerTuba traveling through and interacting with nature, the landscape and surroundings along the way.

A suspenseful opening describes the emptiness of the open road. The solo tuba calls out to the natural world, asserting its individual self. At first this is ignored by the surroundings; the call goes unanswered.

A single voice (flugelhorn) picks up the idea and joins in.

Then the journey sets off, pedaling with determination. The cornets start to pick up and echo the solo tuba's call.

The theme of journey enters, representing progression in good spirits followed by transition into the slow theme begins.

Quiet, up a semitone step into the theme itself; this theme is not of sadness but of optimism and quiet reflection, noble and understated.

It ends with a reference to the solo tuba's initial call which has now been altered on reflection by the natural world to a falling semitone instead of a tone.

The next section represents the ravages of nature. Bees buzzing, turbulence (physical or metaphorical!) and challenging weather. Eventually the whole of the natural environment states the tuba's theme back demonstrating might and power which dwarfs the call of the lone tuba voice.

The weather clears; back into a reprise of the slow theme again up a semitone into the main theme but a tone higher than its first appearance suggesting progress and optimism.

Stated on solo cornet at first, the solo tuba intertwines and combines with the natural world, wrapping around the theme easily before taking it on, elaborating to an uplifting ending, and InnerTuba cycles off into the sunset.

Franner Otter, October 2014