Well, crap. I was actually in Arlington Saturday visiting friends after a research meeting at UTA on Thursday. Didn’t see this in time to even consider it.

But I did go to hear the FWSO play the Brahms 2 Friday night.

Rick “flying back to VA Sunday” Denney

…
Played on a Masterclass with Michael Sanders at The US Army Band Tuba/Euphonium Conference…


I remember that conference.

Mike had asked me if I was willing to be the victim trainee for that master class, but there’s no way in the world my delicate ego could have withstood the pressure of such ...

I never studied with a tuba teacher until I was an adult, which has left a hole in fundamentals training I have hardly been able to fill in the 50-odd years since.

Starting at age 27, I took occasional lessons from Mike Sanders and later from Lee Hipp. A little more recently, I took a couple of ...

To support your reasoning:

British-style brass band music is transposing, and written specifically for Eb and Bb basses. But military/concert band/wind ensemble music in other settings is almost always written in concert pitch, and one just learns the fingerings as needed for the chosen instrument ...

So everyone is in agreement then?

1) Play it as written

2) Keep it musical

3) Don't make an ass out of yourself or piss off the conductor.

That sounds like good advice all around....


Yeah, for all the pissing-match to and fro, everyone seems to agree on those points.

A composer does not ...

Firstly, it doesn’t affect mouthpiece fit in the receiver. It just adjusts the tip of the mouthpiece shank with respect to the joint between the receiver and the lead pipe. If the shank is too large it won’t go in far enough, etc.

Secondly, some (German) tubas don’t have a joint between the ...

I see it as a somewhat mournful or reflective end to an extended passage, and when I played it I let the tempo lag a bit with tenutos here and there, but didn’t do anything else.

Rick “not humorous” Denney

I’ve used everything from a Yamaha 621 to my Hirsbrunner 193 in quintet. I don’t think I’ve ever used the Holton, but at times I’ve wanted to. The big tuba was useful for jazzy bass lines mostly below the staff. The 621 is versatile but has a ceiling above which it will not go, and playing louder ...

With marginally enough time for mute changes, I've been known to grab one of those leather upholstered piano benches and set the mute on it on my left side, but many stages don't offer the space to do that.
church orchestra gigs with muted passages in one or more of the parts:
nope...
because ...

The Amtrak station in Baltimore is a lot nicer to use than Union Station in DC. When I took the train to NY or Boston, I would drive to Baltimore and catch the train there. Once I returned right in the middle of rioting and had to ask the station cops which was the best exit strategy. But it's easy ...

Bloke may think it's his right to define it, but words are defined by how they are used. The notion of the freak jury was that none of us really know the context of people asking questions in good faith, but were still willing to opine at length about our own answers, whether or not they applied ...

The last time I was asked to use a mute was when I was using a standard 4/4 rotary tuba. That's the mute I still own (an Apperson that looks like it's made from screen-door parts), so if I need to play a piece with a mute requirement, they are getting a standard 4/4 rotary tuba.

Rick "might be able ...

Though Klaus's York Master put the fourth slide next to the bell stack as did York, mine routed it to the backside of the instrument with a big wide-open loop. That feature is also present on my Hirsbrunner 193, and isn't worlds different from the back-side fourth-loop adjacent to a back-side third ...

In June of 1961 I was 10 years old, and my family drove to California to visit relatives and see the sights, Disneyland, Marineland, etc. We drove to El Paso then hit Route 66 somewhere in New Mexico and followed it most of the rest of the trip. The interstates were just beginning construction, so ...

I've never been much of a fan of brass band stuff--too competitive (not why I do music) and violates my universal notion that bass notes should be in the bass clef.

But if I had to do it, I think I'd go Eb bass rather than Bb bass, simply because it's a completely new tuba for me and so I would ...

I would try to find a one-piece bell for a Marzan. The interchangeable bell was, in my opinion, constrained by the bell ring to too small a diameter. The Marzan bell has a wider throat.

You might also check with Lee Stofer. He was working with Kanstul some years ago to make replacement upright ...

By the way, this reminds me of something I thought about for a long time.

Music from the '60s and '70s sounds good enough and everything now, the remastered stuff is nice and all. But it must have sounded good as s*** when it was performed live on all the old tube amps and stuff. I think ...

Joe, how did you chuck up and indicate in the rotor plates in your lathe? It’s been too long since I visited and while I looked at your lathe I don’t remember details. Shaving off less than a thou is easier on brass than on steel, but it’s still difficult and alignment would need to be perfect to ...

Since Joe revived this necrothread, I might as well put in my two cents. I believe I’ve played everything mentioned at one time or another, and I like most of it a lot.

I didn’t see the Giannini Variations and Fugue, though. It’s not my favorite compared to some already mentioned, but it should be ...

prodigal , I haven't seen a 3100 with the old Symphonie graduated bore on the B&S website for a while now. It used to be designated the PT-9, but they have gotten rid of all the PT designations at this point. I didn't seen any with a bore reported at less than 19mm.

Mine is from the last run of ...