Re: F tubas in concert band?


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Posted by David Brown on May 19, 2003 at 22:07:56:

In Reply to: F tubas in concert band? posted by curious on May 19, 2003 at 14:00:36:

Interesting question...

We use F-Tuba in the Army Band periodically, depending on the repertoire, and when someone in the section might be playing a solo on the concert and doesn't want to carry 2 horns to the gig. A number of the older orchestral transcriptions were written with Eb and Bb basses in mind, and the parts are written in octaves most of the time. Both Tom Bratten and I have played F (his a Willson, mine a Hirsbrunner) on a number of concerts with excellent results. I have listened back to recordings of these concerts and found that the F Tuba adds a clarity to the overall section sound without any loss of volume. Clearly, intonation problems increase when using Bass and Contrabass Tubas together, but it serves as excellent training for anyone who is struggling to play a small horn in tune. Finally, we only use F when there are at least 2 others guys on the concert playing CC. I haven't tried using F with just one other player, and I suspect it wouldn't work out quite as well.


Thanks,

Dave Brown
Tuba
The United States Army Band "Pershing's Own"
Washington, D.C.




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