for double-low B-flat fans...

[bloke]

This is NOT "America the Beautiful", but (as will be quickly realized) is actually "Amazing Grace".

double-low B-flat: ' sorry...not until the end.

I did not do it in the rehearsal, but my buddy (the bass-trombone-playing-euphonium guy) gave me an index-finger-down gesture, so I accommodated him.
(This is a very early production M-W 5450 with minor mod's...a very, very easy-to-play instrument.)

[Three Valves]

Nice effect.

[York-aholic]

F tuba
5/4 CC tuba
Eb tuba

You must have quite the roadie!

What pieces did the 2nd tuba player play on?

[tubro]

Great playing!
Who did the Arrangement?

[bloke]

F tuba
5/4 CC tuba
Eb tuba

You must have quite the roadie!

What pieces did the 2nd tuba player play on?

99% of all brass instruments feature valves 1, 2, 3 (and, when 4) that do the same things, proportionally. I've said this before (more than once), but (as a formerly heavily-invested guitarist) I tend to view "tubas in different lengths" sort-of like a guitar capo. Once I've done it for a month or two (with the least of my reading being with E-flat, so occasionally I have to "brush up" - as I did to play the piccolo part to S&SF), reading (notes or chord changes) doesn't seem to be a problem - particularly in that (can we talk?) tuba parts to most music are (well...) easy. ...so valves 5 or 6...?? not a problem: "This guitar has this knob, or this whammy bar, double-strings, or this feature, etc., etc."...plus (in addition to the use of a capo occasionally - though I typically prefer to - simply - barre, when playing the guitar), more than a little bit of my (way back when...) solo guitar repertoire included a few "open tuning" (usually: D) pieces.

To your inquiry about the brass concert, and the two "real" tubas...
There were a handful of pieces where
> there were two tuba parts, and
> the upper part could not be covered by the [bass trombone player, who was playing] euphonium (because he was busy playing another part)

Whenever there were two tuba parts, both covered by contrabass tubas - and the "2nd Tuba" (the other "real" tuba - rather than the euphonium) was covering one of them - I covered the LOWER part. This is the tack that I nearly always employ (taking the lower part), including Rite of Spring. That having been said, I DO cover the "1st Tuba" part when Symphonie Fantastique is programmed, simply because there is very little to play in its "second tuba" part, and most of the writing is unison. In my view, the LOWER tuba part (as long as it covers most everything) is nearly always the PROMINENT part, whereas many written higher tuba parts tend to disappear into the (particularly: wind-instrument ensembles') thick/already-over-orchestrated "mezzo".

bloke "sorry...You probably were not seeking all of that so-called 'information'... "

[hrender]

Very, very nice.

[Mary Ann]

Very nice. JS sounded way better than it did when I played in it back in 1970 or so.

[bloke]

The horn soloist got of to an only barely-rough start, at the beginning.
The previous piece ended VERY loud, and the MD chatted for a few minutes before beginning this one...
...That's not a particularly good combination for a horn player.

[York-aholic]

F tuba
5/4 CC tuba
Eb tuba

You must have quite the roadie!

What pieces did the 2nd tuba player play on?

Just meant ‘what a pain to carry them all’

[bloke]

It has always seemed easy to me to manage parking places near stage doors. I just ask.

[prairieboy1]

That was really, really nice. Well Done!

[LibraryMark]

The end brings tears to my eyes.

[bort2.0]

For me, I didn't like the low Bb. Compared to the rest of the music happening around it, the low pedal (which admittedly, did sound quite organ-like) just kind of popped up out of nowhere and didn't make an awful lot of sense to my ear. That said, I've never really been wowed by the end of many arrangements of Amazing Grace. The climax is so big and close to the end, the actual ending is just sort of like the music stops. So a big pedal Bb at the end seems to make a big statement where the music doesn't really go in that direction naturally.

Regular Bb -> <- Pedal Bb

[MN_TimTuba]

Nicely done, Joe. I'm a fan.

[bloke]

Had he requested that octave-drop - and were the tonic a C, I would not have fulfilled his request.

The execution of the fundamental - with many tubas - tends towards "sharp", but (playing B-flat on a C instrument) there is a very easy way to remedy that.
==============================
To Brett...
I get/feel ya, but I wonder how many male gospel quartet concerts (in NYC, Minneapolis, etc...??) you've attended, even had you been interested in doing so. I went to grade school with Mark Blackwood (father: Cecil Blackwood...You can use your search engine, or go to the *footnote). They actually had a music store directly across the street from our elementary school.

Very traditionally, gospel quartet numbers often end with the bass - not only dropping the octave, but - executing an octave glissando from their last harmony note down the the one an octave lower...and it's not just "rarely".

Here is my childhood friend, (again) Mark Blackwood (grey suit) and his Blackwood Gospel Quartet (this time: NOT in front of a packed crowd in some basketball arena - backing up Willie Nelson, but THIS time: in some little country church - with an out of tune console-size piano and an inadequate p.a.) doing just what I described, above.
This is approximately the last minute or so of one of their numbers, so you can hear the bass "octave slide":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

...so - whether-or-not you or I like it - it's done...a lot, and by the standard ensemble that - typically/regularly - performs songs of this genre.
____________________________________________________
*All of the original quartet's (Mark's father and uncles) houses were within two blocks to 11/2 miles of my boyhood home, and notice the address of their music store (link below)...Our elementary school really was directly across the street, at 3950 Summer Avenue...
https://ourmemphishistory.com/growing-u ... lackwoods/

[WC8KCY]

When providing organ accompaniment to a choir, on the last held note of the last verse of the last hymn of the service, it can be tasteful to add the pedal a major fifth above the tonic pedal being sounded, thus resulting in a perceived octave drop.*

When tubists follow this same convention, as bloke did, it can likewise be in good taste.

When tubists do this at the end of every selection on the program, it becomes cloying.

When tubists do this multiple times during the same selection, it's abominable.

*Some organs are built with a "Resultant 32-foot" stop for the pedal division, which does this automatically when engaged.

[LibraryMark]

...
When tubists do this multiple times during the same selection, it's abominable.
...

Don't you think it really depends on the tune?

[Doc]

Sometimes, it's just the right fit.

I have a recording session approaching, and the ending pedal idea has been mentioned. We will be recording:

Karg-Elert "Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals" (Key of C)

"Lord, Speak to Me" (Tallis Canon) Richard Shephard (anyone have a recording of this?)

Based on my experience as a listener and player, the pedal C on Praise the Lord can get lost in the heavy texture of the organ, so I'm not sure it's a good idea. I'm not familiar with the organ where we are recording, so a rehearsal will provide the final answer.

On the Lord, Speak to Me, the last note is a low G, so it's likely not a big issue.

Methinks the ear must be the guide...

[Three Valves]

*All of the original quartet's (Mark's father and uncles) houses were within two blocks to 11/2 miles of my boyhood home, and notice the address of their music store (link below)...Our elementary school really was directly across the street, at 3950 Summer Avenue...

Was that six lane road a gravel street then??

[WC8KCY]

...
When tubists do this multiple times during the same selection, it's abominable.
...

Don't you think it really depends on the tune?

If:
- you're playing a band transcription of an orchestral work where euphoniums and tubas cover the violincello and double bass parts, AND
- the dim-bulb arranger writes the euphonium and tuba parts up an octave if they dip below low G or F, AND
- playing what's on the page does not result in a musical expression that audiences familiar with the work are expecting to hear, and your artistic judgment tells you that the moment totally gets ruined if played as written

then, by all means, do it.

For Lincolnshire Posy, NO!!!