Sound Artists
Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2020 12:47 pm
One definition for the word music is organized sound – and if someone who never heard music in their entire life were offered this definition, it wouldn’t make much sense and fall far short of this expansive five letter word. If we tried to describe any color to someone who has never seen before – we could never capture the colors of a beautiful sunset in any series of words. Personally, I hear music and musical instruments as colors. Each instrument becomes its own color, painted on a canvas we call music. My color for as long as I can remember is green – an emerald green. Those we consider great composers, illustrate vividly in a wide pallet of colors, and green is in the middle of the color spectrum – it’s a unifying color.
Although the tuba in any orchestra is a solo position (only one), we often play with other instruments other than the rest of the brass section, so having a concept and understanding of being a unifying “sound artist”, is more complete than being just a tuba player. Returning to our definition of organized sound – composers organize and instrumentalists create the sounds – which by definition, makes sound hugely important.
People will often say, “I love the sound of that tuba.” A nice compliment, but I’ve yet to hear any instrument make a sound without a human doing something to create the sound. Compared to 50 years ago, we now have a huge selection of tubas and mouthpieces to choose from, and none of them are inexpensive. The tuba I bought brand new in 1975 (age 16) was a Miraphone 186 for about $1,600. An instrument I played for 17 years and sold for more than double what I paid for it in 1992. The reason I sold it was to pay for a different tuba, a 1963 Alexander in a very rare (only 5 or 6 ever made by Alexander) solid nickel silver for $2,000. Yes, I got a great deal and I promise I won’t be selling it for anywhere near that price.
My first tuba teacher owned a 6-valve gold brass Alexander from the late 50’s. According to his daughter, he was going to give me this tuba. However, it burned up in a tragic fire. My next teacher, Dave Pack of the Phoenix Symphony, played a Miraphone 186 during the four years I studied with him. Great German rotary valve sound was planted in my soul and has never left. For a semester at Indiana University, I studied with one of the greatest Alexander players, Michael Lind. What a sound! My four tubas are all German rotary valve instruments – three Alexander’s and one Rudolph Meinl.
Big 6/4 sized piston tubas began showing up more and more in professional orchestras in the 80’s. The famous York tuba played by the great Arnold Jacobs in the Chicago Symphony had been copied and made available by other makers. Chester Schmitz of the Boston Symphony, another Alex player, bought an early Hirsbrunner copy and many followed. For years I was curious about York copies, but never found the color of sound that made me want to change directions. Eighteen months ago, I played a friend’s 5/4 Rudy Meinl, (a very large tuba) that caught my attention enough to buy only days after playing it. When I was able to finally play it for my wife, she said, “it sounds like you.” Great! Why did I spend thousands of dollars to sound like me?
This week, Bruckner 7 is on my schedule with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and I had planned to perform this monumental symphony on my Rudy. However, plans changed and I’m playing my nickel Alex and my Alex F. Our new Music Director loves to isolate chords for intonation, and believe it or not, the pitch on my three Alexander CC tubas is better than on my Rudy Meinl, which has very good pitch. Perhaps in time I’ll be better able to control the pitch, but it isn’t this week. Also, all four Wagner Tubas in the orchestra this week are made by Alexander. The color we make, especially at the opening of the second movement is quite wonderful.
It’s great to let loose on big works like Bruckner 7, but as sound artists, we have to look beyond the ego trip of playing loud and consider what the composer was trying to achieve when they composed their masterpiece. Anton Bruckner was an organist – and much of his composing style reflects his background as an organist. My take on Symphony 7 specifically, is the tuba part is the little finger on the left hand – not a pedal on the left foot. For me, that means balanced and blended playing – as opposed to, “look how loud I can play!”
Bruckner specifically marked the tuba part bass tuba in the first and third movements and contrabass tuba in the second and fourth movements. There’s a section in the middle of the first movement I switch over from F to CC in order to play with more power on the low C’s and also at the end of the movement to be ready for the opening of the second movement. Otherwise, my Alex F tuba works beautifully. Much of the CC playing is fairly mid-register playing. My Rudy can easily dominate the texture in this register, but it’s not what’s called for in the music. What are we doing and why are we doing it?
It always comes back to color for me – and having played my nickel Alex for the past 28 years, it’s hard to leave it at home when it comes to late German Romantic music. I’m very fortunate to have four great tools in my shed to choose from. This week I chose the nickel Alex and haven’t regretted my decision for a single note. Find the color of your soul and from there, find the instrument that helps bring that out to share with the rest of your fellow musicians. Try not to get caught up in bigger and more expensive equipment. My four tubas combined cost me $20,000 – 5K per horn. The painting we are recreating through sound colors may not have a lot of green, but when it comes time to add your color, do it with the greatest of care and make it as beautiful as you can imagine.
Although the tuba in any orchestra is a solo position (only one), we often play with other instruments other than the rest of the brass section, so having a concept and understanding of being a unifying “sound artist”, is more complete than being just a tuba player. Returning to our definition of organized sound – composers organize and instrumentalists create the sounds – which by definition, makes sound hugely important.
People will often say, “I love the sound of that tuba.” A nice compliment, but I’ve yet to hear any instrument make a sound without a human doing something to create the sound. Compared to 50 years ago, we now have a huge selection of tubas and mouthpieces to choose from, and none of them are inexpensive. The tuba I bought brand new in 1975 (age 16) was a Miraphone 186 for about $1,600. An instrument I played for 17 years and sold for more than double what I paid for it in 1992. The reason I sold it was to pay for a different tuba, a 1963 Alexander in a very rare (only 5 or 6 ever made by Alexander) solid nickel silver for $2,000. Yes, I got a great deal and I promise I won’t be selling it for anywhere near that price.
My first tuba teacher owned a 6-valve gold brass Alexander from the late 50’s. According to his daughter, he was going to give me this tuba. However, it burned up in a tragic fire. My next teacher, Dave Pack of the Phoenix Symphony, played a Miraphone 186 during the four years I studied with him. Great German rotary valve sound was planted in my soul and has never left. For a semester at Indiana University, I studied with one of the greatest Alexander players, Michael Lind. What a sound! My four tubas are all German rotary valve instruments – three Alexander’s and one Rudolph Meinl.
Big 6/4 sized piston tubas began showing up more and more in professional orchestras in the 80’s. The famous York tuba played by the great Arnold Jacobs in the Chicago Symphony had been copied and made available by other makers. Chester Schmitz of the Boston Symphony, another Alex player, bought an early Hirsbrunner copy and many followed. For years I was curious about York copies, but never found the color of sound that made me want to change directions. Eighteen months ago, I played a friend’s 5/4 Rudy Meinl, (a very large tuba) that caught my attention enough to buy only days after playing it. When I was able to finally play it for my wife, she said, “it sounds like you.” Great! Why did I spend thousands of dollars to sound like me?
This week, Bruckner 7 is on my schedule with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and I had planned to perform this monumental symphony on my Rudy. However, plans changed and I’m playing my nickel Alex and my Alex F. Our new Music Director loves to isolate chords for intonation, and believe it or not, the pitch on my three Alexander CC tubas is better than on my Rudy Meinl, which has very good pitch. Perhaps in time I’ll be better able to control the pitch, but it isn’t this week. Also, all four Wagner Tubas in the orchestra this week are made by Alexander. The color we make, especially at the opening of the second movement is quite wonderful.
It’s great to let loose on big works like Bruckner 7, but as sound artists, we have to look beyond the ego trip of playing loud and consider what the composer was trying to achieve when they composed their masterpiece. Anton Bruckner was an organist – and much of his composing style reflects his background as an organist. My take on Symphony 7 specifically, is the tuba part is the little finger on the left hand – not a pedal on the left foot. For me, that means balanced and blended playing – as opposed to, “look how loud I can play!”
Bruckner specifically marked the tuba part bass tuba in the first and third movements and contrabass tuba in the second and fourth movements. There’s a section in the middle of the first movement I switch over from F to CC in order to play with more power on the low C’s and also at the end of the movement to be ready for the opening of the second movement. Otherwise, my Alex F tuba works beautifully. Much of the CC playing is fairly mid-register playing. My Rudy can easily dominate the texture in this register, but it’s not what’s called for in the music. What are we doing and why are we doing it?
It always comes back to color for me – and having played my nickel Alex for the past 28 years, it’s hard to leave it at home when it comes to late German Romantic music. I’m very fortunate to have four great tools in my shed to choose from. This week I chose the nickel Alex and haven’t regretted my decision for a single note. Find the color of your soul and from there, find the instrument that helps bring that out to share with the rest of your fellow musicians. Try not to get caught up in bigger and more expensive equipment. My four tubas combined cost me $20,000 – 5K per horn. The painting we are recreating through sound colors may not have a lot of green, but when it comes time to add your color, do it with the greatest of care and make it as beautiful as you can imagine.