six valve french tuba

[Tubadork]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Antoine-Courtois-Mo ... 286.c0.m14" target="_blank

cool,
Bill

[jtuba]

I see this making it's way to Atlanta soon.

[ASTuba]

I see this making it's way to Atlanta soon.

I think it would make for nice duets with a contrabass trombone. Maybe trios with a serpent???

[MaryAnn]

Drooooooooool.

MA

[jhedrick]

Bydlo (or is it bid-low ) here I come!

[Tubadork]

It's tempting, but I don't think I'm gonna bite on it.
And check this out from the description:

This instrument is esentialy new, was purchased for a school bid that never came to pass.

SCHOOL BID?????? Wha? what school would try to get a french c tuba?
oh well
Bill

[MaryAnn]

I see it was worth $3049 to someone in Japan.

MA

[tbn.al]

Japan has all the money. Come to think of it, didn't we severly disrupt their economy a while back? Resilient folks.

[windshieldbug]

I see it was worth $3049 to someone in Japan.

Well, they may have spent $3K, but still all they'll get is a French tuba!
(there's a reason they don't use them any more... )

[k001k47]

I see it was worth $3049 to someone in Japan.

Well, they may have spent $3K, but still all they'll get is a French tuba!
(there's a reason they don't use them any more... )

I've always wanted to give a French C a quick toot...
Does anyone in south Texas own one?

[J.c. Sherman]

I would sell my mother into indentured servitude for that horn...

J.c.S.

[Nick Pierce]

I would sell my mother into indentured servitude for that horn...

J.c.S.

Does that say more about the horn or your mother?

[MartyNeilan]

If you reroute the leadpipe, you could have the first 6-valved Flugabone! (in C!!)

[J.c. Sherman]

Uh, guys… You all DO know that these play like crap, right? That is why they have mostly fallen out of use.

That explains why they were in use for so many decades...

"Different" isn't necessarily "Worse". I've played one. Hindemith was right...

"The old is good, not just because it's past,
Nor is the new supreme because we live with it..."

Or something close...

J.c.S.

[windshieldbug]

For a lark, they're interesting to play. Lark. "Interesting".

This from someone who used to honk seriously on an ophicleide.

They'd be NO FUN to use in a modern orchestra. Even if EVERY SECTION, INCLUDING THE STRINGS was willing to use smaller, softer instruments, they still take a lot of effort to learn and play in tune.

Even with their "strong nationalistic" tendancies, once the French orchestras and audiences heard Culbertson, they practically abandoned them overnight. And nobody was attacking them!

[J.c. Sherman]

I still want one. I'm opening a home for wayward French Tubas...

Poor, unwanted ones that no one loves....

J.c.

P.S. What ophicleide did you have and where did you play?

[windshieldbug]

I restored an umarked C to working condition that was owned by the Streitwieser Foundation, which is now in Austria, but was then in Pennsylvania. I used it for contemporary ensembles, and also played the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique a few times with the Delaware Symphony.

[windshieldbug]

Mostly strange... the kind of stuff you mean was written for a tenor tuba. While a French tuba is 6 valve is similar, it is descended from the C ophicleide, with additional valves to make it play lower. It has a very baritone-like sound up high, and a more bass-bone sound lower.

Only, it doesn't come with a handy seven position slide to make intonation adjustments. And it plays a lot more like a tenor bone straining to be a modern bass.

For the tenor tuba parts you mentioned, a proper tenor tuba or euphonium is the way to go.

[UDELBR]

I thoroughly enjoy my Couesnon 6-valve French tuba. Sure, it's got its quirks, but what instrument doesn't? And of course its use is limited, just as a BAT's is (heresy; I know).

Sorta growing weary of the bashing.