Them Basses

[imperialbari]

My Mac has an iTunes application which for most formats provides the best playback. Over the years the main window has collected quite a few tunes. When a new tune is downloaded the application continues with the next tune on the list. When it fits with my other tasks I over time hear quite a few different tunes.

One is Them Basses. Today it struck me, that I must have played that march at some point of time. But I am quite sure I never did so.

This march is a nice feature of our instruments, but honestly it is written very close to a form laid out by another composer, whom I believe to be J. P. Sousa. The bands I played in as a young person played several Sousa marches, few of which I can remember by name.

Them basses has a short break theme with a high note (preceded by a grace note) on beat #1 with the same note(-s) repeated several octaves lower on beat #2 in the same bar. That figure must have been in one of the Sousa marches I have played, but which one?

The main idea in Them Basses appears to have been pilfered from the B-section of the same or another Sousa march.

Many marches appear to be more formal than inspired. Them Basses more so than many others. Exactly that fact makes it kind of interesting to me. Somehow I can hear it transcribed for a tuba choir. Has this been done? The clarinet counterfigures would be just so cute in the high register of the F tubas.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[Casey Tucker]

there's an interesting arrangement of it (and several other pieces) compiled into a piece called "Them Baces". no, i didn't misspell that. it's written by Don Butterfield that compiles the march and several other tuba specialties including tubby the tuba. it was dedicated to bill bell. our tuba/euph studio played it two years ago at the itec regional in austion (SHSU). very fun piece.

-CT

[iiipopes]

"Them Basses" is a favorite of the Shrine band I play with. And yes, it probably has its best effect played on a souzy with a cupped mouthpiece to facilitate the articulations, projection, and range.

We also have a similar march in our folder called, "Basses on a Rampage" by G. H. Huffine that has a similar octave followed by half step in relative minor motif in its break strain, but with the octaves inverted so it doesn't look so blatantly like it was copied from something else. I agree the motif is more formulaeic in its structure. But I can't think of any other marches whence the idea may originate, either.

[eupher61]

"Them Baces"... That's been around a long time! Yep, very fun chart.

[Paul Scott]

Klaus,
You might be thinking of Sousa's Semper Fi which has the same type of 6/8 bass line. Also, Washington Post has a similar "break" section. I once played Them Basses standing between two marching bands (at rest) as the sole sousaphonist present. We named the piece "Them Bass" for the occasion.

Paul

[Alex C]

"Them Basses" was written by G.H. Huffines but "Huffines" may have been an alias for Henry Fillmore.

BTW, the "rodeo tempo" for Them Basses is 172+.

[imperialbari]

Klaus,
You might be thinking of Sousa's Semper Fi which has the same type of 6/8 bass line. Also, Washington Post has a similar "break" section. I once played Them Basses standing between two marching bands (at rest) as the sole sousaphonist present. We named the piece "Them Bass" for the occasion.

Paul

This is it!

I definitely have played Washington Post (on horn in 1962) and Semper Fidelis (on bass trombone in 1970 or 1971) as I remember specific situations as internal video clips.

Glad I asked!

Klaus

[runelk]

I HATE "Them Basses."

Played it so many times I get sick just at the thought of playing it again.

[tbn.al]

I had the pleasure this past month of playing two orchestral "Patriotic Concerts", one on tuba and the other on bass trombone. "Twas most interesting playing Liberty Bell, Washington Post, National Emblem and Stars and Stripes in all the wrong keys. I'm sorry but D Maj to G Maj just doesn't cut it for Stars and Stripes. I actually had to look at the music, which is a pain standing up for the last strain. The piccolo player was tied in knots, "40 years in Ab and they want me to stand on cur and play this lick in Gmaj from memory?"

[eupher61]

Rumor has it that the Db piccolo was invented for that very reason.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Rumor has it that the Db piccolo was invented for that very reason.

Unfortunately, if you play the piccolo solo on a Db piccolo as if you are playing the band version on a regular piccolo, it would come out in A Major, not G Major.

Now, where's that B piccolo???

[imperialbari]

Rumor has it that the Db piccolo was invented for that very reason.

I think this is true. The application then goes this way:

Use the Db piccolo for the Ab band version.

You then will be able to use he same fingering using the C piccolo in the orchestral G version. Maybe with the difference that some Db piccolos have an open G# key.

This fits with the old tradition of transposing orchestral pieces up a semitone in the band arrangements, so that bands would sound bright on the Sunday afternoon park bandstands. The lead brass back then often was in the Eb soprano flugelhorn or Eb cornet.

Today the brass lead in bands with almost no exception is the Bb trumpet or Bb cornet. Orchestral keys now mostly are taken down in band arrangements.

Klaus

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I thought the whole point was for a piccolo player, who has played that solo for years in band, to be able to play the orchestra version which is rarely played without "relearning" it.

Unless that person had played the solo for all those years on a Db piccolo (does anyone still use these anymore?), there isn't an easy way out.

More to the point...the solo simply isn't that hard, especially for a piccolo player.

Todd S. "still hunting for that B piccolo to make it easier for the poor gal" Malicoate

[Tuba-G Bass]

See this topic viewtopic.php?f=10&t=28847" target="_blank" target="_blank

for the link to a recent performance of Them Basses by my band,

[imperialbari]

See this topic viewtopic.php?f=10&t=28847" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

for the link to a recent performance of Them Basses by my band,

I would have replied to this posting of yours, but my reply ended up where else:

Thanks for the better than usual video. Probably taken with a rather stationary camera, so that artistically minded amateur photographers haven't spoiled the concert. I once had the behind-the-neck slides of my bass trombone rammed by a professional camera team on a stage in Poland. While I was playing. I was not amused.

The tuba playing is fine, but I wonder whether the layout of parts wasn't a bit too ethnocentric towards tubism?

Your two tubists played all of the notes, but I heard no trombones or euphs in the upper octave. Of course the tubas are the important factor, but the addition of the more medium sized horns after all add some definition to the bass line.

Klaus

[Jeffrey Hicks]

in 1991 played it with a 320+ member band with 24 sousas and 20 euphs. it was then that i really began to get a grasp of what the music in heaven must be like...

[Dan Schultz]

See this topic viewtopic.php?f=10&t=28847" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

for the link to a recent performance of Them Basses by my band,

..... The tuba playing is fine, but I wonder whether the layout of parts wasn't a bit too ethnocentric towards tubism?..... Your two tubists played all of the notes, but I heard no trombones or euphs in the upper octave. ....... Klaus

No, but you could sure as heck hear the usual volume from the trumpet section! Why don't these folks ever figure out that ta ta ta ta ta afterbeats ARE NOT SOLOS!

[Tuba-G Bass]

One of the reasons I love playing at TubaChristmas events,
NO TRUMPETS!
I guess all those years of marching band are tough to un-learn!

Two sound levels. . . . On.. and Off

[Adam C.]

Unless that person had played the solo for all those years on a Db piccolo (does anyone still use these anymore?)

We had a piccolo player recently retire after 30+ years; she used a Db piccolo on occasion, I think because some of our older marches only have Db parts. Our music library is currently "modernizing" the piccolo book to all C parts due to the fact that NO ONE (including our current fabulous young piccoloist) uses Db piccolos anymore.

*edit: I forgot to mention that I think "Them Basses" is a terrible march.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

We had a piccolo player recently retire after 30+ years; she used a Db piccolo on occasion, I think because some of our older marches only have Db parts. Our music library is currently "modernizing" the piccolo book to all C parts due to the fact that NO ONE (including our current fabulous young piccoloist) uses Db piccolos anymore.

Interesting. If I received a tuba part in community band in treble clef, Bb transposition, and for some reason there was no bass clef part in the master folder, I would do the best I could at the rehearsal where it was passed out, and then put it in Finale myself and produce a part in bass clef for the section. I often am asked to do custom parts for a friend in the community band who plays only treble clef baritone and doesn't read bass clef very well - it takes very little time.

But, I suppose, not everyone can do that...they can write it out by hand, though, I would hope.

Is this a problem for old pieces with "Eb horn" parts?