Posted by Frederick J. Young on May 26, 2002 at 08:11:58:
In Reply to: Re: Basses and Contra B. posted by Jim on May 23, 2002 at 16:41:46:
It doesn't matter how large the Eb tuba is in comparison to a CC or BBb tuba. When you get to the fundamental notes of the Eb tuba beginning at Eb 5 spaces below the bass clef staff, the number of harmonics in the tone doubles. That doesn't happen on the CC or BBb tuba until you reach C at 6 spaces or Bb at 6 lines below the staff. Although there are a lot of low Eb and D notes in the literature, one can usually avoid them by skipping to the top line of the part. So if one really likes the Eb there is nothing wrong with playing it exclusively. For some years I played the F tuba and as we all know there are many Fs four lines below the staff. I could play them but they comprised almost nothing but high harmonics which probably plagued oboe and flute players because the harmonics are not in tune with the well tempered scale. I remember a rehearsal where the reeds were being tuned on a certain chord. The conductor asked me to play my low F with them. As soon as I did one of the flute players said I was causing her A (note that is) to beat or wobble. As we all know the A overtone on an F tuba is a multiple of the flat fifth open note. After that I used the Eb tuba for many years and found I could do better on the low notes than most CC and BBb tubists as long as I avoided the fundamentals.
I remember attending a brass quintet concert in Baltimore. The tubists had just gotten a new York-Brunner tuba which was his pride and joy. To end the concert the group played something by Bach that ended in the tuba playing C (two lines below the staff), G (4 spaces below) and C(two lines below the staff). Since this was the massive ending to the piece the tubist succumbed to pedalomania and dropped the last note to the pedal C and really nailed it. He evidently imagined the kind of C that a pipe organ gets with a pipe about 1 foot in diameter. In reality, all he got was a bunch of loud out of tune harmonics in the region upwards of middle C on the piano keyboard. Here was a concert where the bottom dropped out at the climax!