Secret - Tuba and Piano

Secret for Tuba and Piano is an adaption of the original Secret, written for John Griffiths to perform with soundscape as he had asked me to write him something that he could play on a tour even if there was no piano available. The script for the original Secret was taken from an essay John had written about himself for psychology class in his undergraduate studies and coverd his background as a rather shy outsider who gained acceptance through humour, "laughter and the tuba being mutually complementary." This present version of Secret omits the dialogue and soundscape but retains much of the tuba part. The piano is largely original in that it was impossible to imitate many of the sounds, but I tried to keep the same flavour.

It begins with John's sense of isolation from the rest of his school mates and the anxiety of his being bullied by the "Kelly Gang." This moves into the period when he began to gain confidence through his success with the tuba which is indicated by the swaggering jazz section. Eventually comes the sense of belonging, characterized by "party music".

In the original Secret, there is a preliminary dialogue written by John, himself, cleverly including as many names of tuba players as he could work into it. One of the names, Abe Torchinsky, is alluded to as being a "Torch" burning throughout his journey. At one point, he writes, "Take this Torch, Insky!" I carried on with that theme with the subtext of the tuba being the torch that lit up the personality of John Griffiths.

The final comment from John's original essay was: "The route didn't always lead where expected. In fact, sometimes it went to some pretty surprising places. But in the end, I gotta say, it was a great trip."