What's the most horns you've played in a quintet?

[tubeast]

I used my MW46 for all pieces, ´cause that´s all I had at that time.
That included "Symphony for brass choir" by V. Ewald, the Euph part NOT taken down an octave as well as "16 tons" (I forgot what arrangement) which happened to have this fun solo that went low enough.

Lots of possibilities to alter colours with one horn.
Today I´d like to use a Cimbasso on baroque music, but sadly the quintet is no more...

[keronarts]

Continuing with the "We-love-Wade-land-theme" ... I actually like bloke's idea of getting to the gig with ONLY the tuba and mouthpiece to be used -- minimal approach works best. Of course it depends on repertoire for the gig, and location. But I never had any problem with ALMOST ALWAYS just the one horn -- VERY occasionally a second one -- usually determined by the factors above.

[windshieldbug]

What's the most horns you've played in a quintet?

I've only ever played one horn in a quintet. A couple of tubas, a trumpet or two, and even flugelhorn, but only one horn (although it WAS a F/Bb double horn, but I still count that as only ONE horn)

[Slamson]

Once upon a time, I had a Mahillion F (actually, I still have it - can't part with it for sentimental reasons, I guess). It's so small it can easily be mistaken for a euph, so I nicknamed it "Pixie". Our faculty quintet went on the road for some recruiting, and we were playing a version of Handel's "Water Music" that was written for 2 trombones, so I hauled Pixie along. Everything was going great until we reached one school. We each take turns introducing the tunes, and it was my turn to talk about the "water music". After a brief bit about Handel, etc. I turned back to play and realized I still had my CC sitting there. I turned to the audience and said "Excuse me, while I whip out my Pixie."

Now I can't bring the poor thing to rehearsal without the rest of the quintet laughing at me....

[LoyalTubist]

What's the most horns you've played in a quintet?

One. I lose.

It's a trick question, Wade.

The answer is five.

You in English, unlike Spanish, doesn't refer to any particular number. A brass quintet consists of five players, so only five instruments can be orthodoxically played at any time.

Now in Vietnamese, which really doesn't even have a word for you, it gets mighty tricky!

[tubaskiv]

Can't believe I am adding to this. Of all things...

For a recent brass quintet recording, I used three different horns:
MW 45S - F on M. Calvert - M. Hills and some other stuff
Miraphone 188 for a Bach Fugue
2165 for some jazz tunes

Other than that, I think all my regular BQ gigs I play on a Yamaha 822. Yeah, I almost used that at the session, too.

I got so much crap from the guys about that session, we joked I should use a different horn for our concert band recording session a few months later (2165, HB-21, 822, 45s, 188, Getzen, sousaphone) as a joke. Yeah, really funny.

Did I mention that I have used F and CC AND the Fender bass on some gigs? I need a life.

Maybe we should do this with mouthpieces, too! Yippie!

[tubapress]

One...but it was a Rudy 5/4 so it counts as at least the beef of 3 tubas!

[Rick Denney]

I once switched from my usual small F for quintet to my Holton, for a couple of jazz tunes. One of them was an arrangement of Old Man River, and on the small F it sounded too much like a white guy singing it.

My small F (a Yamaha 621) will do a fine job in an arrangement intended for bass trombone. The example above is by far the exception to my usual practice of bringing only F tuba to quintet. Any quintet tuba part that I can't play on F is usually beyond the capabilities of the quintet as a whole.

I've seen Gene Watts put a euphonium on stage for certain pieces, to use instead of his trombone. But I've never seen Chuck Daellenbach switch tubas on stage. That's probably a matter of travel convenience more than anything.

Rick "who prefers a more pointed, focused sound for quintet" Denney

[OldsRecording]

never more than one at a time

That kind of works for trumpet, but for tuba, well, not so much.