Historic Tuba Quartett - Bohemian Tubas

[Kontrabasstuba]

A new video with some of my historical instruments from my collection.
I played from the 17th Century Dances by Michael Praetorius, movement number 3 - La Bouree.

I played the 4th part on my Bohland and Fuchs Kaisertuba from around 1880/1890. It is 100% in its original condition. The bore is 20 by 21 mm and sounds extremely dark and full!

The 3rd voice is played with a very special instrument. A V.F. Cerveny E flat tuba with roller valves. The bore is 21.2 mm for the 1st & 2nd valve and 22.2 mm for the 3rd & 4th valve. The height is 105 cm. A real Eb Kaisertuba

The 2nd part is a Bohemian F tuba with 5 valves. Manufacturer is unknown. Height 98 cm, bell 32 cm. The hole is 16 mm throughout. The valve lengths are very interesting: 1st valve: whole tone 2nd valve: halftone 3rd valve: major third 4th valve: fourth (very high) 5th valve: fourth (very deep) The fundamental is right at 442 Hz.

And on the 1st part I played a V.F. Cerveny baritone, also with roller valves. The sound is very soft and the intonation surprisingly good! Real craftsmanship. The bore is 1st - 3rd valve 15.2 mm and the 4th 17.2 mm

Unfortunately I don't have any original mouthpieces, so I played modern ones. But the sound is still unique.

The next video will be a V.F.Cerveny special!

Thanks to Marcel Boom for the visual and acoustic implementation.

https://youtube.com/user/BasstubaOE

[youtube]https://youtu.be/zFuCMBE1GC0[/youtube]

[hrender]

Very nice!

[bone-a-phone]

Very cool. Love that sound down on the bottom. Great collection of horns too.

[prairieboy1]

That was excellent! Such a nice blend with all the horns. That bottom end!

[pjv]

Beautiful.
I'm hoping you'll some day put up a link to your collection with pictures and info. You have quite a collection it seems.

[tofu]

.

[Kontrabasstuba]

Beautiful.
I'm hoping you'll some day put up a link to your collection with pictures and info. You have quite a collection it seems.

Good idea. Maybe a Homepage with a lot of informations.... thank you for this idea!

[Kontrabasstuba]

Really lovely and special to see vintage instruments performing together. Gives a hint as to what they were capable of back in the day. I suspect a lot better than many think it was.

Question: did the 4 horns in the video require a lot reworking to put them in their current playing condition? And a follow up: what if any modifications have been done to the horns?

Thank you! I think the instruments could do more than the players know in the past....

Mostly of the instruments are playable. I ceep them in original condition. No changes in tune or something...
Only remove some dents....

[edfirth]

You are one Fantastic tuba player and musician! BRAVO !!! Ed

[donn]

I was inspired to try this myself. I mean, I have a couple tubas, I have a computer, Garageband is free, I have some arrangements of 15th/16th century trios. I find that it's harder than he makes it look.

[pjv]

Beautiful.
I'm hoping you'll some day put up a link to your collection with pictures and info. You have quite a collection it seems.

Good idea. Maybe a Homepage with a lot of informations.... thank you for this idea!

I hope so.
Or you could just make a new FB folder for "your instruments. Slowly work through your collection, one by one. Picture, a little bit of info, (maybe even a super short video of how it sounds) voila.

[Doc]

I was inspired to try this myself. I mean, I have a couple tubas, I have a computer, Garageband is free, I have some arrangements of 15th/16th century trios. I find that it's harder than he makes it look.

It can be lots of fun. I've never tried Garageband - how do you like it? (I use Audacity) And I agree it is not easy to play with yourself. It can be a real education in intonation, phrasing, and timing (click track or not).

[donn]

I've never tried Garageband - how do you like it? (I use Audacity)

With no basis for comparison, and limited to the experience of trying to get one tune into it ... it's OK. Any complaints I could have would probably be just my lack of knowledge ... for example, clicks were making it into the recording, if I turned the headphones up high enough to hear my other tracks, so I used the click for only the first track; but there's very likely some way to control the click level separately - adjust master volume or something. With the experience to really know how to work it, my complaints would probably be different. But at this point if my equipment really is holding me back, it's probably the computer on-board microphone. And what's really holding me back is my playing ability.

[Doc]

I've never tried Garageband - how do you like it? (I use Audacity)

With no basis for comparison, and limited to the experience of trying to get one tune into it ... it's OK. Any complaints I could have would probably be just my lack of knowledge ... for example, clicks were making it into the recording, if I turned the headphones up high enough to hear my other tracks, so I used the click for only the first track; but there's very likely some way to control the click level separately - adjust master volume or something. With the experience to really know how to work it, my complaints would probably be different. But at this point if my equipment really is holding me back, it's probably the computer on-board microphone. And what's really holding me back is my playing ability.

I'll go out on a limb and say that having a decent external mic will make the biggest difference. You can figure out the rest as you go. Regardless of ability, I'm sure you'll enjoy it when everything else falls into place.

[Kontrabasstuba]

Beautiful.
I'm hoping you'll some day put up a link to your collection with pictures and info. You have quite a collection it seems.

Good idea. Maybe a Homepage with a lot of informations.... thank you for this idea!

I hope so.
Or you could just make a new FB folder for "your instruments. Slowly work through your collection, one by one. Picture, a little bit of info, (maybe even a super short video of how it sounds) voila.

If i do, i do it in perfect way!
I will ask an colleague from me. He is a Computer specialist. I will make a Homepage. Some infos from me and lot's of infos about my instruments

[Kontrabasstuba]

I was inspired to try this myself. I mean, I have a couple tubas, I have a computer, Garageband is free, I have some arrangements of 15th/16th century trios. I find that it's harder than he makes it look.

Let's goooooooo