Posted by Jim Andrada on May 07, 2003 at 13:22:50:
In Reply to: Looking for a pilgramage down an octave posted by Triple Bass on May 07, 2003 at 12:33:55:
There's one of the BBBb tubas in the band room of the Harvard Band in Cambridge Mass (I think it's at 74 Mt Auburn St, 02138) Legend had it that someone bought it from Carl Fischer where at one time there were two of them and gave it to the band.
If you're in the area and give them a call I'm pretty sure you could get a chance to play it.
I played it when I was in college in the late fifties - nothing much, just sort of comic relief at at couple of concerts. I remember doing "Tortoises" from Carneval of the Animals - slow can-can melody while the clarinets twiddled along and the other band members rolled their pants legs up over their knees and did a slow can-can kick on the steps of the Widener library in Harvard Yard. Yeah, it was as bad as it sounds, but it was a nice summer evening and after a few beers it seemed sort of funny.
A few years back I was at a band reunion and Chester Schmitz of the BSO played a Mozart horn concerto on it. Sounded fabulous, but then again he would have sounded superb on a garden hose (lacquer or silver, with or without heavyweight nozzles :))
Playing qualities - large. with intonation quirks. Valve spacing and ergonomics - built for the average mountain gorilla with basketball player hands. Also needs an assistant or two to keep it from falling over and crushing you, unless you can lean it in the corner of a room.
But once you get used to the idea that you're playing an octave higher in the range and adjust your fingerings, it's just sort of a not so great 3-valve student line tuba with elephantiasis.
Mouthpiece choice is a bit problematic - I think I used my regular sousaphone mouthpiece with tape wrapped around the shank, but there was a special mouthpiece for it. If that's disappeared, you could probably liberate a fixture (preferably bowl shaped:))from any restroom and use it without modification. Backbore should be sufficiently open :)