Meistersinger on F

[bloke]

clarification: (as my previous post was too long and wondering)

I've done a bunch of tuba-swapping when playing excerpts (as well as playing other music) and those people aren't the only people who suggest it. Alan Baer also suggests it. The thing that I tried to say isn't a good idea is struggling to play stuff on crappy tubas.

[arpthark]

clarification: (as my previous post was too long and wondering)

I've done a bunch of tuba-swapping when playing excerpts (as well as playing other music) and those people aren't the only people who suggest it. Alan Baer also suggests it. The thing that I tried to say isn't a good idea is struggling to play stuff on crappy tubas.

Point taken. I think my teacher more used it -- ("it" being "playing traditional contrabass tuba excerpts on an old, small German F tuba") -- as an exercise for his students to figure out what a German rotary F tuba "needs" in the low register.

A lot of my classmates ended up buying tubby ol' piston valve F tubas anyway, so I'm not sure the lesson stuck.

[bloke]

As I balked at buying a crappy (intonation) F tuba in the 1970's (as I believe I played well enough to release that the intonation offered by all of those which were imported into the USA - at that time - were crappy), I put off buying one until I discovered one that was actually good. At that time, only a couple of small places were importing a few of them, and (again) mine was brought to me by a German resident acquaintance who was scheduled to visit the USA. (They marked up their cost - INCLUDING "pre"-transportation ACROSS GERMANY AND BACK to fetch the tuba for me, to finance their trip to the USA...still defining a very reasonable price for me...$2400, which - adjusted for inflation - is around $7600...for a handmade 6-rotor F tuba (better than any imported to the USA at that time, and - arguably - better than any others made before or since).

low C, etc.
These are not contrabass tubas. Those who blow into valve trombones as if they are bass trombones are going to run into the same sorts of issues. ...

a bit of a learning curve?
sure.

Do some never learn or refuse to learn?
apparently, many.

Has the market addressed this issue by developing a bunch of dull-sounding and out-of-tune mostly-piston-valved F tubas which play low C more easily?
obviously.

Does Alexander get a bye/exemption/bonus points, due to cachet?
maybe with some folks, but not with me.

Am I able to pick up any/all of the crappy out-of-tune rotary F tubas and easily play in the "low C" range?
absolutely, but they're still crappy and out-of-tune.

...and crappy/out-of-tune is why I don't believe its a good idea or "rite of initiation into a studio" to coerce (particularly not freshman) students into working on ANY passages of ANY pieces with some mascot/known-to-be-crappy instrument.

[NapoleonWilson]

So many great players over the past several decades have played Meistersinger on CC. And they’ve sounded great on it. And they didn’t have tuba forums telling them what is right or wrong.

But for me, playing it on a CC tuba is a long road to a small house; which is to say that the payoff doesn’t justify the journey, FOR ME. Not totally sure why people seem so married to it on the CC, but I think there’s a bit of “that’s how Arnold Jacobs played it…….” going on.

Sits better on F. Usually sounds better on F. And with the MUCH improved selection of F tubas currently available (JBL, PTxx, MRP-F, etc) it’s not “hard” to play it on the F, and that includes the opening.

[bloke]

I have no idea whether Mr. Bobo - on that tour - packed a C instrument...
Quite obviously he had his B&S Symphonie...and (used on a Berlioz overture, that night) his MiraFone "G" tuba as well...

...but (even if there was a third C instrument in an orchestra travel trunk), prior to LAPO he HIMSELF had been the Concertgebouw tubaist...so "Bobo playing an F tuba on Meistersinger"...DUH !!!

[Grumpikins]

Any news on the results of your audition?

I would like to hear what the judges thought of it.

Was it a blind audition, behind the curtain style?

I'm just being curious and nosey.

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[russiantuba]

Any news on the results of your audition?

I would like to hear what the judges thought of it.

Was it a blind audition, behind the curtain style?

I'm just being curious and nosey.

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Blind behind the curtain. I’m not sure how many total were at the audition, but I was in the 11am hour and the end of my hour had 23 candidates who had gone, and they went until at least 5pm… 7 total advanced. I did not, but I didn’t get cut after Meistersinger. In the warm up room, I heard a couple of others working it on F. At other auditions, I’ve seen people who advanced do it on F, but I haven’t done one since 2016 as they are expensive and I have other career focuses too. It seems like horn choice matters less than what we think…

[Yorkboy]

.

[Yorkboy]

The part lies pretty well on an E flat. I’ve done it that way a few times.

In kolij 40+ years ago I played it on a King 1241. That’s all I had. It worked just fine on that too.

[UncleBeer]

The part lies pretty well on an E flat. I’ve done it that way a few times.

Agreed. I also like it on Eb.

[Grumpikins]

Thanks for the update. Sorry you didn't get the job. I imagine that competition for full time playing jobs is fierce.

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[MikeS]

I heard Bobo, Peebles, Reynolds and _________ (sorry...??) do the opening (only) to that Overture with Mr. Bobo playing that instrument, and that's when my eyes were opened - even though I hadn't done enough research at that time to understand that it was written specifically for bass tuba.

Perhaps Ralph Sauer and/or Sonny Ausman. Yeah, those guys could play a bit.

[bloke]

Mr. Sauer was not on the tour.
Mr. Peebles was assistant principal, and was on that particular tour.

The second trombonist (c. 1980) is the gentleman whose name escapes me.

Bravo to the SECTION, but - in my estimation, Mehta at LAPO (along with Bernstein at NYPO) are two music directors who - in my opinion - allowed for some of the sloppiest corporate (ie. entire orchestra, not individual playing) recordings and - I would naturally assume - performances.

[jtm]

The elephant's book of Christmas quintet arrangements reminded me that I arranged Sleigh Ride for three parts, trumpet, trombone, and tuba. Three isn't enough, so the tuba part includes both down beats and up beats. The upbeats aren't especially high notes, but they're seldom close to the downbeat notes. I now find this much easier to play on an F tuba.