Brahms

[bloke]

' was just now called to do the " German Requiem" - again - later this month.
It's been a few years since I've done it, but (since I'm old) I've done it quite a few times.
There's not a ton of tuba, but what's there are nice lines.
I'm hoping that the principal oboe hired (potentially gorgeous solos throughout) is a really great player, so there will be some good listenin'.

OK...
I can either be a jackass and double the male singers (completely obliterating them) with the behemoth or the cimbasso.

bloke "possibly joking...??"

Brahms wrecked.png (69.37 KiB) Viewed 1452 times

[bloke]

Don't forget to eat your Raisin Brahms before the gig.

[bloke]

I don't really see as how I could forget...

[the elephant]

Uh, yeah. That’s getting shared to Facebook. Yep. Most definitely.

[bloke]

' funny about this here F tuba...

This passage was (well: duh) displaying on this laptop on this webpage.

My F tuba has been sitting "over there" for about three or four months.

(I believe I set its bell on the floor, after playing some Mendelssohn back in November.)

I picked it up, all sorts of thick dust fell on my head (from the kranz) and I played the passage.

Maybe I'm too forgiving of my own playing, but it sounded damn nice to me.

For the X,XXX time, it's NOT me...It's THIS TUBA.

[tubanh84]

This is a clear opportunity to drop it two octaves and use the Kaiser. Is there another competent player in the area who could double it an octave above you?

[bloke]

This is a clear opportunity to drop it two octaves and use the Kaiser. Is there another competent player in the area who could double it an octave above you?

I guess I would need another tuba player - or sousaphone player - to play an octave higher, and then a euphonium player to play the octave above that. I think we should wear matching orange unitogs with “Dream Team” on the backs of them.

I guess I would also need a battery-operated French press, and microwavable slide grease.

[bloke]

lots of jokes but I am looking forward to playing this piece again after several years, and this 40-year-old F tuba is quite amazing.

I still would really like to do a little cosmetic step up on the thing… even if just to remove the little dinks in it, shine it up, and hit it with a new coat of nitrocellulose lacquer – same as original.

… maybe even put some European links on the rotors – which are no better than my plastic ones (actually, I believe the plastic ones are superior), but which might help my family sell it for more money, someday.

[bort2.0]

lots of jokes but I am looking forward to playing this piece again after several years, and this 40-year-old F tuba is quite amazing.

I still would really like to do a little cosmetic step up on the thing… even if just to remove the little dinks in it, shine it up, and hit it with a new coat of nitrocellulose lacquer – same as original.

… maybe even put some European links on the rotors – which are no better than my plastic ones (actually, I believe the plastic ones are superior), but which might help my family sell it for more money, someday.

As if the blolkelore of this tuba hasn't already driven the price up...

All a long ways off.
Do work to it now that you will enjoy and benefit from.

[bloke]

I see people talk about "picking their F tuba back up, and getting back into it, because they're going to be playing it on 'blah-blah'...etc."

This tuba has always been a git-'n'-go tuba, and (even if it has sat for MONTHS - as this one has, apparently since November), I can grab it, toss it in the car, go play some gig with it (any sort of gig), and it never "un-friends" me.

[TheBerlinerTuba]

Beautiful piece, have fun

When the final version of the Requiem was premiered in 1869 in Leipzig, the tubist used a tuba similar to this Vienna tuba.
Here for size comparison next to a B&S Symphonie.

Cheers from Berlin

[tubanh84]

lots of jokes but I am looking forward to playing this piece again after several years, and this 40-year-old F tuba is quite amazing.

I had the chance to play one briefly many years ago. Stunning tuba. Never produced a sound like it before or since.

[barry grrr-ero]

With the B-flats and A-flats in there, this excerpts lays really well on Eb tuba. It was a cinch.

[bloke]

@TheBerlinerTuba

' aware...
Which is why I never try to get all that "carried away" (just "play nice") when playing Brahms.
I've never used a contrabass tuba for any of the times I've played Brahms 2, nor Academic/Tragic.

That having been said (and I'm certainly not offering some epiphany, here...), MOST ALL of the other orchestral instruments (used today) are also either larger or louder as well.

That's one of the 1970's B&S tubas. Does/did it feature the small shank receiver?

bloke "A compensating euphonium is probably too small for most all Brahms tuba parts, and I don't have access to a Miraphone model 80 F tuba, and (though a Miraphone 80 offers some intonation issues) a Melton model 182 (though I may be stepping on some toes, here) just doesn't seem to offer (at least, not to me) a usable scale."

Beautiful piece, have fun

When the final version of the Requiem was premiered in 1869 in Leipzig, the tubist used a tuba similar to this Vienna tuba.
Here for size comparison next to a B&S Symphonie.

Cheers from Berlin

[tubanh84]

Melton model 182 (though I may be stepping on some toes, here) just doesn't seem to offer (at least, not to me) a usable scale."

To each his own, for sure. I've played a 182 for 15 years. I wouldn't give it up for anything. With a Helleberg 120, it's all over the place. 7B is ok on it. The Bobo solo works wonders for it. Fixes most of the issues. BUT I WILL SAY, it takes me a solid week to get the intonation back centered on it if I've taken time away from it. The only note that is consistently difficult on it is the A three lines below the staff.

I would play the 182 on Brahms. I would also play my 184 on it. Also I don't play big horns anymore.

[TheBerlinerTuba]

I agree, I've tried larger tubas in the requiem over the years and the general response from non tubists was often "why so loud"?

The Vienna tuba has the unusual advantage in sounding very "present" but wont bury the singers although the B&S Symphonie also does a fine job in a modern context.

The Symphonie in the photo is from around 1970 and used to have the smaller bass trombone sized receiver although it was a removable receiver rather than the sleeve design. There was no "standard" receiver in those days, most military issue horns had smaller receivers while most horns that were sent to orchestras usually had a larger american shaft and even a few "euro" shafts here and there.

Cheers from Berlin
TheBerlinerTuba

@TheBerlinerTuba

' aware...
Which is why I never try to get all that "carried away" (just "play nice") when playing Brahms.
I've never used a contrabass tuba for any of the times I've played Brahms 2, nor Academic/Tragic.

That having been said (and I'm certainly not offering some epiphany, here...), MOST ALL of the other orchestral instruments (used today) are also either larger or louder as well.

That's one of the 1970's B&S tubas. Does/did it feature the small shank receiver?

bloke "A compensating euphonium is probably too small for most all Brahms tuba parts, and I don't have access to a Miraphone model 80 F tuba, and (though a Miraphone 80 offers some intonation issues) a Melton model 182 (though I may be stepping on some toes, here) just doesn't seem to offer (at least, not to me) a usable scale."

Beautiful piece, have fun

When the final version of the Requiem was premiered in 1869 in Leipzig, the tubist used a tuba similar to this Vienna tuba.
Here for size comparison next to a B&S Symphonie.

Cheers from Berlin

[tclements]

I always play this on a small F, which I will be doing on May 21.