WINGATE: CHTHONICS 
for Tuba Quartet

Date:
2010

Instrumentation:
Four CC Tubas or F Tubas [range: B0 to C5]

Duration:
4'15"

Notes:
Chthonics for tuba quartet takes its title from one of the composer’s favorite Ancient-Greek-derived English words (meaning ‘from the underworld’), and uses a non-existent plural form of the word to evoke categories or fields of study like ‘phonics’, or musical terms like ‘harmonics’, ‘tonics’, or even ‘sonic(s)’. In the opening, a dual drone on a low C quietly pulsates while an 8-note pitch set in rotational array attempts to escape the nether-realms of this tonic-like subterranean heartbeat. The close and crowded intervals sounded in this basso profundo register create a destabilizing sonic effect in the ensemble, sometimes fluttering with prominent and disturbing oscillations of beat frequency, perhaps more akin to demonic rumbling than to musical growth. But the piece’s many dissonances are somewhat mitigated by the mellower-sounding conical bore of the tuba in contrast to, for example, the cylindrical-bored trombone of similar range. But this conical bore also tends to create an eerie hollowness of tone when the tuba ensemble lingers in its higher registers. An elaborate contrasting episode of tangled runs showcases the often-underused agility of this instrument, and finally the piece descends back to its abyss, to conclude after exhausting its final emanatory gestures.