Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: use of F tubas in Europe


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Posted by Bilmac on June 18, 2003 at 07:40:21:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: use of F tubas in Europe posted by Rick Denney on June 18, 2003 at 01:09:34:

Just for the record, a very, very great player in the Halle orchestra Manchester England used a big Barlow F for most of his playing career.His name was Stuart Roebuck.Not only was he a truly great player but he was also reckoned the best teacher in GB. He played there between 1968 and the early /mid 1980's.He also used a B&H BB flat and latterly a Marzan BB flat but the Barlow was his first choice.He was as great a player as any in GB but because he did not like London and the way of life, he would not play in any of the London orchestras despite being offered just about every job that came up in them.For that reason very few USA players will have come across him but he was a "Great".
The Barlow he played was one of the last couple made.Unlike some of the earlier ones
,it was a big instrument,about the size of a modern Besson.The alloy composition was different to a modern Besson but in which way I'm not sure.Roebuck's brother was a metalurgist and had analysed some very fine samples from the instrument.
The sound was unique.Close up I did not think it anything special.It felt a bit tight
and strange to play but when you sat in a concert hall and heard him play it , it sounded wonderful.Fletcher described it as "pungent",that's probably the best word.It was a bass voice to the brass section rather than a huge sound holding up the whole orchestra.The projection was fantastic and the sound held together in all registers, at all dynamics.The huge sound you come across in some USA orchestras was never the way for British orchestras until Fletcher blazed a trail with the Holton and Rudolf Meinl.He started and others followed over the years.
With more and more players using the B&H EE flat ,the Barlow became less popular.To many players, the Barlow sounded out of tune.A B&H EE flat has great tuning,so much so that once the slides are set you do not need to do much other than blow it. You cannot do that on a Barlow. It does not have a compensation system and has a five valve set up so it has inherent tuning problems. With practice and patience and some alternate fingering it can
be overcome but not many British players wanted to do it.Apart from Roebuck in his day
and another player called Vic Sewell who retired a good while ago,they're not much used now.
Fletcher would have liked B&H to make Barlows again or even to make them in E flat but they were not interested.I have oftened wondered if Gronitz would make a custom version. That would be interesting!



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