Posted by Rick Denney on June 18, 2003 at 10:36:37:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: use of F tubas in Europe posted by Bilmac on June 18, 2003 at 07:40:21:
Yes, Roebuck is a name I'd been trying to remember throughout this thread--thank you. I've seen a picture of him with his F, and it indeed is much bigger than the typical Barlow F tuba. And, yes, by all accounts he was a great musician.
So was Kilton Vinal Smith, who played an F his entire career in Boston, or so the lore goes. Yet those practices would not be as easy now, and I think partly because orchestras in general have tended to the louder. I think that is driven in large part by the perceived need to compete with loudly reproduced recorded music (for example, at movie theaters) and the general rise in ambient noise levels.
If Fletcher was dissatisfied with his choices in EEb, one can only speculate what he might have sounded like on the instrument he wanted. But I have to say that the improvements in the EEb design that lore suggests Fletcher promoted, including the widely tapered bell stack and large bell, made a huge difference at least in the Bessons that I've tried.
As far as the compensation system goes, I find that I don't have to mess with the slides on my five-valved F tuba that is only a little larger than a Barlow F, though others who use the same instrument do adjust the first valve slide for a note or two (and those are notes where the compensation would have no effect, like the G at the top of the staff). I also didn't notice too many intonation difficulties in Catelinet's recording--there were plenty of other problems though.
Rick "who thinks six valves would be nice for playing the pedal F in the RVW with valves instead of as an open pedal" Denney