Posted by Peter Schickele on January 15, 2001 at 00:14:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Who invented the tuba? posted by Gary Swart on January 14, 2001 at 23:51:29:
Ahem!
Those papers have been found in a brown envelope on the front step of Funk and Wagnall's.
And it has been absolutely determined that the Tuba was not invented at all, but unearthed in Wilhelm Wieprecht's backyard. Apparently, a loud crash brought the household through the back door to discover a crater 100 feet around with a brass object in the bottom.
His buddy Moritz slapped a label on that sucker so they could satisfy the very bureaucratic Prussian Office of The Kaiser's Patents and Copyreichs, and off they went.
P.D.Q Bach was the first composer to have written for the tuba, having been born before it appeared, and have died even before that. The first big-time composer to really give it a whirl was that stinky French fellow with the funny name.
I have this, of course, on very good authority. They're sending us an oboe that plays in tune next, plus a saxophone with a good sound.
Peter "Body-Snatched" Schickele?