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The classical station in Dallas plays a lot of brass, not necessarily featuring tuba or euph. They play lots of Dallas Wind Symphony and there is a featured "March of the Day" at 7:35 every weekday morning. I don't listen every day, but I can check their upcoming playlist online.

I am lucky. I live in a country where most people have no preconception of what a tuba is. The folks here think a tuba is nothing more than a great big trumpet. I tell them it's a tuba (and it's the same word in Vietnamese) but they say, no, it's just like a big trumpet, only lower. I don't think I want to change their minds.

Classical radio stations are not necessarily run, hosted, or listened to by musicians, so take that into consideration. KMZT (K-Mozart) in Los Angeles is an example. It's the station that the boards that sponsor the musical groups listen to. It's not bad but KUSC is better (I think) and I can listen to it on the Internet here in Vietnam.

It should also be pointed out that KMZT is commercial and KUSC is listener (and University of Southern California) supported.

Heard some tuba jazz on our local NPR/Jazz station the other night...that was encouraging.

Classical tuba is a different deal (not that jazz tuba is booming!). It's a niche within a niche. How many fans can there be...mostly tuba players I imagine. First off, what percentage of Americans listen to classical music on a regular basis? Of that percentage, how many have penchant for solo tuba or euph?

Then again, how many of us have played solo tuba somewhere and dumbfounded the audience with its beauty? "I had no idea the tuba could do that!!! I love it!!!"

Time for some major tuba payola!

In general NPR stations, at least here in Cincinnati, seemingly to put little to no effort into playing anything outside the realm of Mozart. This is one of the reasons the audience for this kind of music is dying. When you play nothing but what certain people want to hear, you are alienating a large part of your future audience. Its quite infuriating actually, personally for me because Mozart would not even be in my top 25 composers to listen to. But thats beside the point. But on a positive note, the radio station I work for recently had Mike Thornton from the Cincinnati Symphony on as a guest. He and our "host" (which was actually me, and not the real host of the show) played some tunes. It was broadcast to 38 States, and half of Canada on our terrestrial signal, and to the entire world on our XM and Internet siganls. But back to NPR, get some Program Directors who know music. Believe it or not, thats how alot of radio stations without government funding survive. Just because you can program talk, country, or Urban. Doesn't mean you can program "Classical."

Les Brass wrote:The tuba recital is one of the most amusing memories of music school

Do you also think the same radio stations are shorsighted by not playing more double-bass or piccolo solo works? There's a heckuva lot more solo music for either of these than there is for tuba.

knuxie wrote:Isn't that where a little thing called 'pride' is triggered? Who is actually proud of sounding bad in a public performance?

I've attended Ray Grim's little shindig for the past few years, and I have to say every year someone has come up and commented on how great the group sounds. And we have kids as young as 9-10 years old up to 80 and 90. Maybe the difference is the level of pride the group as a whole takes in producing a good sound with whatever we have in our hands.

One of the main differences is that Ray's music is much easier to play well. I've always had a beef with the Wilder TC arrangements--they are much harder than they need to be for the musical result. The first tuba part, for example, is no picnic for anyone who is not playing every day. That means nearly all the kids and adult amateurs will be on the second part, with only a few trying to balance them on the first part. Also, some of the voicing is non-intuitive for young players, especially considering the limited rehearsal opportunity.

Ray also usually programs a smaller group to provide a feature, or at least he used to, to provide a demonstration of something closer to the potential for a tuba ensemble. And if too many show up, someone falls in the river, which keeps the size down to manageable sound production.

But that pride issue is a big one, even with adults. Many who play instruments are not into music, they are into their instruments. For them, playing tuba (or trumpet--whatever) is an opportunity to compete, much as in playing sports. It's the underlying ethic in such statements as "Tubas RULE!". We all say those things, I suppose, but they should be character assessments and not battle plans for playing. I don't think open competition against each other has any place in music--the competition should be to reach a higher musical standard. When people bring their odd instruments that barely play or when they engage in the blastfest, they are competing against others either to have the most unusual instrument or to make the most conspicous sound.

Rick "who needs to figure out how to make it back down to SA for a TubaMeisters Christmas" Denney

I rememer the classical station in Austin. They play more classical guitar than anything else. It seemed like every other piece they played had guitar in it. Oh, and great deal of classical guitar quartet music.

I wish stations like this would play a wider variety of "classical" music.

Seems like they stick with Renn, Baroque music up here--- WAY TOO MUCH. I can't remember the last time I heard Shostakovich, Berlioz, Hindemith...

Actually, the "March of the Day" is regular programming. I guess I shouldn't have said featured.

We are fortunate in central Oklahoma to have a good classical station that truly plays a variety of periods (public radio). There's nothing they won't play. But when I lived in Tulsa they had something entirely different. I hated it! I've learned since then that there are two kinds of classical music stations: Classical and Light Classical (the Tulsa one being a Light Classical station).

Light Classical is ALL Vivaldi and Mozart chamber ALL THE FREAKING TIME. This is for type A people who want to be lulled into a peaceful state on their way home from work OR for people who don't really like classical music but can tolerate Light Classical because it contains less dissonance and irregular meter.

David proudly dawns his little I'm-superior-because-I-like-Mahler hat, turns to leave but trips over his stack of Vivaldi and Mozart CDs

I've given up on regular radio completely for passive listening.

I have Sirius satellite radio in the car though - I like the more specialized music channels and the absence of annoying commercials. My 90 minute car ride a few days ago included Alice in Chains, Ray Charles, Elmer Bernstein's Guitar Concerto and Suite from "The Ten Commandments" (Seattle Symph.), and even the Burning River Brass doing a transcription.

knuxie wrote:Isn't that where a little thing called 'pride' is triggered? Who is actually proud of sounding bad in a public performance?

Plenty of folks, Ken, plenty of folks...

My guess is we might hear more tuba and brass music on the radio than actually appears on symphony stages? How often do symphonies have performers play Tuba Concertos? I know none around here ever have a tuba soloist. At least not that I remember.

I am half way to Adam's post about Sirius radio. I like their 3 classical stations, but they tend to repeat things over and over again. If you like Grieg, get Sirius! If I have to hear In the Hall of the Mt. King one more time...

Anyway, Sirius does offer a lot a of good music including NPR as well as the Elvis station. Can anyone go without this station?

BVD Press wrote:Anyway, Sirius does offer a lot a of good music including NPR as well as the Elvis station. Can anyone go without this station?

Lots of good stuff to choose from on the web. The box I use for NAT and email also runs RealPlayer and is connected to an FM transmitter, so I can pick webcasts up anywhere in the house.

Coder wrote: Ever been to Akron, OH?

I have! Maybe folks just want to get out of the cold, but Akron's TubaChristmas performances are always packed (players....usually 3 to 4 hundred) and audience (they have 2 performances because there are so many people that want to come to hear it that if they can't get in for the 1st one, they will wait the 2+ hours for the 2nd one)....and I still hope to someday have a tone like Tucker Jolly's.

Coder wrote:Ever been to Akron, OH?

"Wouldn't that get a little monotonous? Just Akron, cold beer and 'poor, poor thing' for two weeks?"

I think that the overriding principle in Classical radio programming, and the ubiquitous programming of Baroque/Classical music has more to do with the length of the compositions, than the style itself.

The stations that I am familiar with, program with the idea that the public has a limited attention span (perhaps not unfounded), so Mahler is not too frequently heard.

Another trend is to focus on instrumental music, and not opera.

Tubaryan12 wrote:

Coder wrote: Ever been to Akron, OH?

I have! Maybe folks just want to get out of the cold, but Akron's TubaChristmas performances are always packed (players....usually 3 to 4 hundred) and audience (they have 2 performances because there are so many people that want to come to hear it that if they can't get in for the 1st one, they will wait the 2+ hours for the 2nd one)....and I still hope to someday have a tone like Tucker Jolly's.

Try 600-700. Much closer to reality. The Civic holds 1500 or so, but almost a third of the floor is filled with players.

Good Evening. I stopped by to catch up a little bit and saw this post and decided to answer.

I have spent a great deal of time in Classical Radio, up until recently as the Weekend Host for Classical 89.7 KCNV here in Las Vegas. The station uses a service now, so no live hosts, but that is another set of visits to.....well, you get it.

First: Classical music on the radio is directed at the non-musician. The bulk of the programming is done with the segment of society that appreciates, but doesn't necessarily identify with, classical music. That segment of society knows the names of 3 composers: Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, ergo, the bulk of the programming is based around the time periods of those aforementioned composers. That is why most of the music you hear is Euro-Centric classical music that is easy to listen to, hence the term "passive listening" and hopes to garner the continued donations of the 34-55 college educated demographic that most classical stations market to.

Second: Most programers wear alot of different hats. They program, host, engineer, log in product, read focus group results, answer phones, check systems, keep up with the ever widening FCC regulations, etc. Most programmers count on a music library software package that does a number of things. First, it is a catalogue of ones entire cd collection (KCNV had in excess of 15,000 cd's), second it programs hourly segments for the station, and third, it keeps track of the number of times a certain piece has been played. This is the important part. When you enter a cd you give it a rating based on it's popularity. Based on that popularity it is designated a certain place in the rotation. The number one rotation cd? Beethoven's 5th. If you think about it, you hear it alot. The rotation of a popular piece is @ 9-11 days. The three aforementioned composers are popular, hence the rotation. The program also looks for like sounding and high rotation pieces that will fit in. The standard formula is this: 6, 2, 26, 8, 5, 3. This is the number of minutes an hour that a piece will generally last. The rest of the time is announcing, back announcing, breaks, underwriting and the such.

NOW, if you have a dedicated programmer (check out John Clare on WITF.org in Harrisburg, PA, the best in the business and my last boss) you can manipulate not the time, but the piece. Say for instance that you have the 6 minute slot at the top of the hour. You don't want to hear a piece by Pleyel(a contemporary of Beethoven). You can go into the system, type in 6" + or - 5 seconds and a whole wealth of music comes up. So instead of Pleyel, you can piece in the Webern Passacaglia or something more adventurous, BUT you had better follow it with a "ditty". On the weekends I had a greater leeway with my programming. I was able, over the course of a month to feature all of the Shostakovich Symphonies, the odd Sibelius Symphony (#7 is astounding) or feature music of a deserving composer(listen to the music of Kurt Adderburg, it is some of the most beautiful stuff written). But I always followed it up with a full hour of, you guessed it, Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.

Anything else is niche music. I never programmed a tuba piece, but did program Vivaldi's bassoon concertos (he wrote 58 of them), not because of the bassoon, but because Number 4 on the hit list is Vivaldi. Band music is relegated to the odd march or wind band piece by Holst, not for it's intrinsic musical value, but for a break in the line up. Guitar music is soothing, you will generally hear it at afternoon drive time.

Public radio is a funny business, but it is still just that, a business. When we had a booth at a July 4th Concert where people could request their favorite music they asked for, well you should have it ingrained by now. BTW, Vivaldi's 4 Seasons is the most popular in May. Weddings. The rest of the year, it's Beethoven's 5th.

Happy Listening. Remember, if you like, listen to it on cd. Public radio is not in the business of satisfying musicains. They don't make enough to support it. That is right out of a demographic study.

Chuck

I still don't understand why anyone would want to listen to a solo tuba work. Must be this at work: