"monster" tubas

[tubanews]

What is a tuba anyway?

NO Im not going there but the contrabass tuba, would not likely have been invented were it not for the gross orchestra.

(dont read anything into that)

So, lets talk about it. Tuba players are utilities in bands. And when they got invited to the "orchestra party",
they started to feel extra special for getting paid for counting 2 or 3 movements off and coming in REALLY REALLY loud at the end.

No the great composers didnt ask the tuba player to perform great feats, but besides orgasmic very loud completely analog
bass performance, the bass section was fairly well enough, likely until the invention of the "trumpet" a derivation of a "horn",
used in hunting which is highly loud and annoying and generally signals to its targets "impending death".

There was much later a more flavorful and enjoyable use for the trumpet and the horn, but our due attention to it is largely based
on a fear of very near death.

The current pandemic has however somehow not resulted in LARGE GAINS for trumpet and horn performers.

Back to the orchestra, In the US orchestras make people feel "special", so if you are in the back of an orchestra "holding a tuba", you are super special, because you are in an orchestra.

Sort of....

See in Europe, the most plausible birthplace of "orchestras and symphonies" we can currently identify,
Musicians were of the slave class. Thats WHY they wear tuxedos. "Tonights specials are..."

So in the US while we somehow equate orchestras with sophistry, it was never that way, it was the "kings ball".
And may it please the king.

It was a ritual of royal servitude and nothing else. And the fact that the music was so good, (that the composers made) may inform you to the consequences of their potential failure to do so.

So what have we here a man with a large trumpet? We have a bass section, we have wonderful horn players!

"But your majesty, is it LOUD ENOUGH?"

End scene.

[bloke]

... Now THAT’S the type of response for which I was trolling !!!

I hit the troll’s jackpot in 2021.

Being out-trolled (yet, with irrefutable truths) is an honor bestowed on very few.

[Kirley]

[Mark E. Chachich]

To reinforce what tubanews said in the excellent post. This is the link to Doug Yeo's article with a reply by Gene Pokorny. I make sure that everyone in the community band tuba section that I am in get this article when they join and I still reread it.

http://www.yeodoug.com/articles/text/teamplayer.html

Best,
Mark

[humBell]

Yeah, i adopted it as a moniker after seeing the Conn Loyalist listings online, which seems to use Giant for Eb bell size and Monster for BBb. I only assume it came from original publicity materials.

https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/ConnBassModels.html

I also like to infer that the American Model being front action, that american as modifier means front action, so i like to refer to the (early model number) 28j as an american monster.

And i learned from Sesame Street that monsters aren't all that bad. C is for cookie, and that is good enough for me.

But wait...the Cookie Monster himself before singing Take Me Out to the Ball Park during the Seventh Inning Stretch last year said C was also for Cubbies! I saw it live and it was a great moment. The singing starts around the 2:40 mark but the whole bit is great. The crowd just roared - the buzz lasted the rest of the game.

Sorry for my slow response...

My holidays were good, and i have one cookie left:



"Nom Nom Nom..."

I have zero cookies left.

(And the tuba isn't really a monster... but i sure look forward to playing it in 2021!)

[LargeTuba]

Holy Moly what is that @humBell!

I think I'm in love.

[iiipopes]

And on another note, the front pipes of an organ, especially the larger ones, the bass notes, which are in various schools of organ building are called "diapasons" or "principals," are called "montres" in French organ building. This is a derived word from the French "monstre" which is the same word as the English word "monster." But since the French historically played their C tuba in orchestra, I wonder if until recent times if there were ever any occurrence, possibly in Quebec with a Casavant organ, where a "monster tuba" was played by the tuba player with an ensemble playing a selection along side the organist playing a chorus on the "montres."

[humBell]

Holy Moly what is that @humBell!

I think I'm in love.

I want to say its an ordinary frosted sugar cookie. I can ask the friend who baked it to confirm.

As for the tuba, it is featured as a holiday best wishes picture on Lee Stofer's site before he shipped it to me. It is a Jerome Thibouville-Lamy, who, as an instrument maker is better known as a Luthier.

To comment on points not discernable from the picture, it is a small 4/4 size wise, comprable to a 10j, but... ~10lbs heavier (well, that was before restoration... haven't weighed it since getting it back) it is BBb with extensions to tune to AA if i want. It originally came with a reciever that needed another receiver as an adaptor, so as part of the restoration, it now takes an american shank.

Despite its small size, i think it belongs in this thread as i got it off ebay from Maine Goodwill, and it has faint etchings of tentacles in the bell, so i imagine if i play it in the wrong secluded cove along the shore, it may summon Cthulu or one of his ilk.

Anyway, i been encouraged by others to post my obsession with this maker, so i'll save some things to say for when i get round to that...

[humBell]

And, yup, i confirmed with the baker. It is a sugar cookie, or as some apparently call it, a butter cookie.

[Alex C]

Monster violas are a thing, or have been at any rate.

At the bottom of the page is a listing of Baritone Violin, Soprano violin, Mezzo and Treble violins. Man, you opened up a treasure trove of insturments to go along with the baitone ukelele and soprano trombone.

[donn]

There may be some use for a baritone ukulele, but I think its unpopularity is deserved.

I think it's fairly clear though that the bowed strings are more just mired in tradition. Air on the G String performed on the "New Violin Family."