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Getting the tuba part of a newly commissioned orchestral piece to be premiered at concert in a couple of weeks time I was amused to see on the tuba part:

harmon mute, stem in

I have never heard of a harmon mute for tuba. Has anyone come across one?

I am just using my standard straight mute for lack of anything else.

Jonathan "who wonders what a harmon mute would look and sound like in his Neptune!"

Harmon mute! Oh take me back my friend, to college days blowing trumpet with a harmon mute into a mike going into a guitar amp with the bass cranked, highs turned down and all the reverb on the amp wide open. The other guys in the band called it "The Sound" (major sarchasm) because it penetrated even when I played softly.
I would love to hear a harmon mute in a tuba. A metal mute.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if that sound would be a hugh chick magnet?

Neptune wrote:Getting the tuba part of a newly commissioned orchestral piece to be premiered at concert in a couple of weeks time I was amused to see on the tuba part:

harmon mute, stem in

I have never heard of a harmon mute for tuba. Has anyone come across one?

I am just using my standard straight mute for lack of anything else.

Jonathan "who wonders what a harmon mute would look and sound like in his Neptune!"

Makes me wonder what the linkage would look like in order to make it 'wah-wah'. Would be interesting, that's for sure!

Jeff "Mr. Rube, meet Mr. Goldberg..." Benedict

Mike Johnson wrote:it seems to me the composer hasn't done his homework too well

In composition, it could be what's known as "conceptual music", and to actually perform it as written often ruins the concept!

windshieldbug wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote:it seems to me the composer hasn't done his homework too well

In composition, it could be what's known as "conceptual music", and to actually perform it as written often ruins the concept!

I will tell you a bit about the tuba part. The harmon mute passage is solo tuba, but in sort of canon to harmon muted trombones which probably explains the marking. Also further on I am unusually playing with the flutes in my highest register way above the trombones (interesting effect!), while at the same time have a solo passage ascending from the depths which rather reminds me of the tuba part at the start of the last movement of Mahler 10.

You can make your own. Take a cheap thin aluminum pie pan like the ones pies come in from Wal-Mart, cut a hole in the middle of it, and lay it in your tuba bell.

iiipopes wrote:You can make your own. Take a cheap thin aluminum pie pan like the ones pies come in from Wal-Mart, cut a hole in the middle of it, and lay it in your tuba bell.

A bundt pan on an aluminum straight mute (ala TTU) would work for the plunger out style (Miles) but not for plunger in.

Carroll wrote:

iiipopes wrote:You can make your own. Take a cheap thin aluminum pie pan like the ones pies come in from Wal-Mart, cut a hole in the middle of it, and lay it in your tuba bell.

A bundt pan on an aluminum straight mute (ala TTU) would work for the plunger out style (Miles) but not for plunger in.

A real plunger with a hollow handle out to do the trick...

Had the composer fly in from the states today for rehearsal, so I asked him about the marking of harmon mute on the tuba part. It turns out it is simply a printing mistake - in the full score it is shown con sord.

Anyway, I used my normal straight mute and he was quite satisfied with the resulting sound. The music is starting to grow on me as we rehearse.

If you are wondering, the composer is Matthew Peterson and the new piece is called A London Thoroughfare 2am for Soprano and Orchestra. It includes a short quote in the horns from Vaughan Williams London Symphony which will also be in the concert.