Bydlo

[Rick Denney]

I remember the picture. But without a scale, it doesn't mean much.

The other picture from the same post that you apparently do remember, showing scale:



Star-throated mouthpiece is far left. #2 is the other mouthpiece supplied with the Couesnon (not all that much bigger inside). #3 is a Bach 11c trombone mouthpiece. #4 is a custom Stork tuba mouthpiece.

Yes, I had forgotten that picture. It would appear that the French C tuba mouthpiece aspires to be as big as a tenor trombone mouthpiece, let alone a tuba mouthpiece. It also appears that the mouthpiece shank is no larger than a tenor bone shank, which means the leadpipe is starting from a pretty small diameter.

I would think it pretty challenging to get a tuba-like tone with such a small mouthpiece, and now I'm more curious than ever to spend some time with the instrument.

Rick "thinking the mouthpiece plays a big role in the tone concept of the instrument" Denney

[jonesbrass]

In this particular book, it does show Bydlo to be an F tuba excerpt.

Even in Germany, they must have differing views. In the Edition Peters "Orchester Probespiel" the Bydlo excerpt is labeled:

Tb. solo (oder Tenortuba oder Bariton)

So I read that to mean it is optional

I stand corrected- apparently my memory doesn't serve quite as well as it used to. The Peters book definitely offers no help- basically it says "take your pick: bass tuba, euphonium or tenor tuba."

[Roger Lewis]

need to remember on this is THE SONG. My personal vision of this solo is that of the driver of the oxcart singing this melody as the cart lumbers toward the listener and then away from the listener. I envision a beautiful melody sung by a rich Russian baritone voice. Whatever instrument that will give me THAT sound is the one I will use.

I played this excerpt for my wife, (professional clarinetist) on the big horn, my F and the euph and she preferred the sound of the F. The euph is my bail out horn as I can almost get the "right" sound out of it with the cheater mouthpiece.

The music is the main thing not the playing or the horn.

Just another stupid observation by Mr. Obvious.
Roger

[JB]

The one thing we all need to remember on this is THE SONG. My personal vision of this solo is that of the driver of the oxcart singing this melody as the cart lumbers toward the listener and then away from the listener. I envision a beautiful melody sung by a rich Russian baritone voice. Whatever instrument that will give me THAT sound is the one I will use....

The music is the main thing not the playing or the horn.
Roger

Thus far, this is the one post I have read that resonates the strongest with me, and parallels my own personal thoughts & experiences. Playing it on euph (which I have tried in reh only) may be "safer," but does not give the solo the voice (the "sound") that it requires -- at least in my own very humble experiece. Thus, although "scary,' i've alsways used F tuba.

Once more, I think Mr Lewis has pegged the determining factor dead center-- and echoing a far greater authority on the matter (Mr Pokorny), once egos are out of the way, find out who can make bigger music with the part (you or a trombonist on euph) and let that be the determining factor.

As the wise man wrote, it is a melody (i.e., song).


FWIW, my thoughts.




.

[kingrob76]

Does anyone have any suggestions on playing the high G# in Bydlo?

When I last performed this piece, I did Bydlo on a Yamaha 621 F with a Doug Elliott cimbasso mouthpiece. I liked the sound I got, which at the time was meatier than a euphonium but somewhat thinner and brighter than when I played that horn with my usual mouthpiece. I used a BUNCH of funky fingerings, esp. on the G#, to get the slots and the pitch just right for me. The biggest problem I had playing it was the transition to Bydlo after having played my big Kalison up until that time, then picking up the small F and doing it basically cold.

All the tips on building range in this thread will help immensely. I knew about 9 months prior that I was going to be playing Pictures, and I spent about 5 of those months, off and on, fooling around to figure out how to make it sound as good as I can make it sound.

And I cannot stress this strongly enough - while I understand why tuba players WANT to play this solo, and should be able to as part of the standard orchestral rep., it really needs to be passed over to one of the tacet bone players *IF* they can do it on a Euph.

[fatemokid]

So after hearing the differing opinions on what horn to use, would it be appropriate to use a euphonium or a smaller tuba on an audition?
Would an audition committee frown upon this?

[eupher61]

HOnestly not knowing, how often does Bydlo show up on tuba auditions? I've seen it plenty on trombone lists, but maybe twice on the tuba lists I remember.

AS to "you gotta give it over to the trombones", nope. IF you perform it according to the conductor's wishes, no matter what horn you as the tuba player use, it's in the tuba part. It shouldn't qualify as a double any more than any other horn choice (for the tuba....for a trombone player, yes, it is most certainly worthy of double pay).

[Getzeng50s]

Ive had Bydlo show up on my last 3 tuba auditions. and in one of them, it was in round one, and the finals. and in the finals, they asked us to play it 2-3 times in a row.

[windshieldbug]

So after hearing the differing opinions on what horn to use, would it be appropriate to use a euphonium or a smaller tuba on an audition?
Would an audition committee frown upon this?

You play it on whatever you can to nail it every time, on what you sound best with.

You don't get to explain yourself, nor do you have to. Often, in the prelims you're screened, anyway.

If you're not screened, and the committee doesn't like what they see, make sure that you SOUND good, and leave them with the impression that you'll do whatever it takes to do to get the job done right.

Any big audition will likely be an equipmentfest, regardless!

[Drbuzzz]

Bydlo was pegged to be played during the finals of the San Fran audition, but the trombone section talked MTT out of it. We did play it in the last round in Milwaukee (before the section round) and I stuck with my F tuba ('cause that's all I have to play it on).

I have noticed that regional auditions ask for it quite a bit...they get off on stuff like that. Don't get me started on regional auditons, you never know what mentality you're gonna get behind that screen. One audition's lowest note was a bottom line G!! Another wanted things played so loudly that you might have well brought a Sousaphone.

In other words, don't try to second guess what a committee "wants" to hear...they probably don't know themselves. The "right" choice is the decisive choice. Play it on the instrument that works best for you and forget about what you think they want to hear it on...then go play it better than everyone else.

[MikeMason]

So,you're going to make it into an up-facing concert-looking tuba?How much of the original horn will you use?What will you do for a valveset?How would you rate your odds of ending up with a usable horn?

[MikeMason]

Don't forget to lean back,flex your knees, and flourish a salute to the audience before you sit back down...

[windshieldbug]

Spinning the horn down to a rest position will only add to the audience's enjoyment...

[OldsRecording]

Spinning the horn down to a rest position will only add to the audience's enjoyment...

And I'm sure while you play the solo, members of the audience will shout: "GO WADE! TAKE IT HOME!! WHOOOOOOOO!!!"