"A small circus appeared at the edge of town. Could he find his future there? People would certainly want to hear him play. They would take pleasure in the sound as he confronted danger overhead on the high wire. His success would be assured."

The Tuba Chronicles is based on a story by Robert LeJeune and drawings by Alberto Longoni. The original story was in Italian but was published in German in 1960. The present version was translated into English by the composer.

This is the story of a boy whose father dies in the first scene leaving behind his tuba. The boy eventually grows into the instrument and starts a life of adventure and disappointment. He joins the circus, falls in love, loses the girl to a rich man then moves on to the life of a street musician in the city. I'll save the ending for the performance.

Longoni's drawings are animated and transformed with imaging software on a Macintosh computer. The electronic soundtrack is made by manipulating familiar tuba passages recorded by Mr. Stull. The solo tuba part is an interweaving of motives from the same set of excerpts.

The DVD contains multiple soundtracks. The main track is the electronic accompaniment alone. An alternate soundtrack contains the narrator's part so that the piece can be performed by a tuba player alone. The accompaniment is intended for 5.1 surround sound but stereo tracks are provided with and without narrator. The DVD is organized in "scenes" to facilitate rehearsal.