Description
Ever since he received a rolled-up cardboard tube which contained his first-edition copy of the Vaughan-Williams Tuba Concerto in 1955—sent by request of the composer himself—Roger Bobo has notched over seventy performances of the concerto as soloist. From the first one at Interlochen as a teenager in 1956, until his last time with the Charleston Symphony in 1988, he is easily the tubist who has performed the piece the most. It is the piece by which he learned to play the tuba at the highest level
When the concerto first arrived in the mail from Oxford University Press, it came with editing marks in the solo part, which Roger dutifully learned. During preparations for a performance of the concerto, Robert Marsteller listened to Roger as he followed along with a manuscript copy of the orchestral score. He noticed a couple of notes in the cadenza of the third movement that had been written and then crossed out. When he pointed this out, Roger looked and saw that there were articulations in the solo tuba part in the score that were quite different from the solo tuba part that he had received from Oxford University Press. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that there were many further discrepancies in the notes themselves, which had been either incorrectly notated, crossed out, or left out altogether. Shocked by what he found, Roger wrote to Oxford University Press to suggest that corrections be made, but was met with stubborn refusal by the company to alter the engraved parts.
Since then, Roger has related this information to every student who has studied the piece with him, and made it his mission to share the truth of the existing errata. This complete manuscript score—photocopied from Roger’s personal library—and composite of the solo tuba part are shared here in an effort to inform and educate, and is not meant to replace the score and solo tuba part published by Oxford University Press.
