4th tenor part on Gurre-Lieder

[Finetales]

Just out of curiosity, what's the standard performance practice of the 4th tenor part in Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder for those that have played it or seen it played? I've read of it being played on bass, and with licks like this one all over the place it's easy to see why:



Kind of seems like the perfect application of a double-valve tenor if you ask me, since there's also an actual bass trombone part below it. I wonder if Schoenberg knew a tenor player with a killer low B false tone, he didn't know the low B wasn't available without E pull, or he just figured that the player would figure it out somehow.

[GabrielRice]

I've played that part on bass, and I think that's the typical choice.

Interestingly, I didn't remember that lick...I looked at the pdf of the part I've got, and it doesn't appear that way; everything below the E is up an octave. There are plenty of other low Bs, however.

[Finetales]

Interestingly, I didn't remember that lick...I looked at the pdf of the part I've got, and it doesn't appear that way; everything below the E is up an octave. There are plenty of other low Bs, however.

I looked at the parts on IMSLP after I made the post and noticed that too. It's changed in the part:



But yes, still plenty of low B shenanigans all over the part. The bass trombone part is great too!

[brassmedic]

I believe when the Germans referred to a "bass trombone" part, they were referring to what we now call a contrabass. Looking at the parts, it has "bass trombone in Eb" (which would be considered a contrabass now) and "contrabass trombone", so I'm guessing he intended to have a BBb contra for the bottom part. Seems strange that it was published as Eb bass; most of the German contras I've seen from that time are in F. Mahler's symphonies were published just as "trombone 1, 2 and 3", if I remember right, and of course we play the 3rd part on bass now.

[FOSSIL]

I did the contrabass part with the BBC Symphony at the proms a few years back and had two double valve basses above me.

Chris