jsipes

For clarification, the pedal tone that wikipedia informed you of is not the pedal tone you want. You are looking at a pedal point, which, as other posters have informed you of, is a sustained tone over which other chords are played. In a typical sonata form, a pedal tone is used to establish te dominant triad just prior to the recapitulation. It is used to build suspense and tension. The pedal tone that wikipedia mentioned is a set of very low tones on a brass instrument. Now, I play tuba, so naturally, I know all about these. My tuba is a CC contrabass tuba, meaning that the fundamental pitch is a C, the fourth note on an 88-key piano. It is commonly referred to as pedal C. There are a set of notes around that note which are called pedal tones. I went to a tuba convention recently in which I played an F bass tuba, for which the fundamental is the fourth ledger line F below the bass clef staff. This pitch vibrates at somewhere in the 40-50 hz range. However, I managed to play lower than that, a phenomenon which I believe woodwinds refer to as undertones. I actually achieved a double pedal F, the space below the seventh ledger line below the bass clef staff, which vibrates at about 22 hz, and is a half step higher than the lowest pitch audible to humans as a pitch rather than individual beats. I also played every note chromatically between the two pitches, and I beat out the contrabassoon as the lowest pitched instrument. Anyway, I digress. A brass pedal tone simply refers to the fundamental pitch of the instrument and the lowest tones surrounding it.

Well, tuba music...let's see here... (John) Williams, Vaughn Williams, Woodward, Gregson, Arutiunian, and Broughton have all written substantial (and very difficult) concerti for the tuba. There are more, I just can't seem to remember the whole of our repertoire at the moment. Most of the tubist's rep is actually for tuba and one or two other instruments, most typically (as is to be expected) piano. There are some really wild unaccompanied pieces and some absolutely insane pieces with tape (see: Penderecki Cappriccio, Persichetti Parable XXII, Kraft Encounters II, Lazarof Cadence VI, and the works of Neal Corwell). If you would like to know more about the tuba rep or would like advice writing for it, let me know.

One name that stands out to me is John Cheetham...his sonata for tuba and piano is simply awesome.