Where's our Spaarnay?

[tubafatness]

As I'm sitting here working through my pneumonia, I'm starting to develop a longing for my tubas. And as part of that, I've been doing a lot of thinking and pondering on the instrument's status, its history, its future, what-not...
So, forgive me if this seems a little out-there or ponderous, but I'm itching to air these thoughts out.

What I want to know is, where is our Harry Spaarnay? Now, I know that is an obscure name for most tuba players, but let me finish. Mr. Spaarnay is a famous and astounding Dutch bass clarinetist, particularly known for having over 400 composers write for him, (everyone from "no-names" to the big guns like Luciano Berio and Morton Feldman.) Now, here's how he works into my argument:

What I really want to know is, Where are the tuba players out there who are working hard at getting all kinds of composers and musicians actually excited about the tuba, excited enough to write all kinds of new music for the instrument and the player? Now, I know there are some guys (and girls) out there who are doing things like this, (I'm looking at you, Mr. Sass!) But it seems like there aren't any players out there who have really brought the instrument to the level that people like Spaarnay have, (or David Tudor, David Taylor, Christian Lindberg, Jean Joanrenaud, to name a few others.) It seems like the new superstar soloists of today's tuba world are content to live in the same area of semi-new works, punctuated by comfortable favorites and good-ol' classics/transcriptions.

Now, it's all fine and great to play music like this, but recently it seems as if this has become the established mode of operation for anyone hoping to become a so-called "tuba soloist." The difference it seems between today's new crop of outstanding tuba players and these established soloists in other instrumental circles is that these non-tuba playing musicians not only can play everything, they do everything. This isn't to say that there aren't tubists out there who could play whatever the hell they well want to, there are. But it's one thing to be like one of the current bunch of tuba soloists, and quite another to be someone like David Taylor, who will go from one gig playing Mahler to another playing with the Mingus Big Band, and then to another playing a new piece written especially for him by an established and well-respected composer. And what I want to know is, why don't we have someone like this? I know there are people who have the ability to smash all the snide looks and offhand remarks that the tuba so often gets, but it seems to me as if there hasn't been any one player that has broken through this musical ceiling yet.

For my own two cents, one person that gets pretty damn close to breaking this ceiling is Mr. Roland Szentpali, but for whatever reason I can't explain or understand, he doesn't seem to have made as much of an impact here and elsewhere, or at least as much of an impact as he is capable of.

So I ask again, where's our Spaarnay? Or for that matter, where's our Kronos Quartet? Why is it that, when I see so many different websites for different chamber groups dedicated to new music and such, I have almost never seen a group with a tuba player? As Dan Perantoni said to me and a group of students several years back, where are the tuba rock stars? Now, there are some people out there who are fighting for this type of role for the tuba, (people like Jon Sass, Klaus Burger, Nat McIntosh, Marcus Rojas, Tubalate, Robin Heyward, and others.) But it just seems like there aren't enough people moving in this direction.

For my money, I think this expansion of our instrument's stature well within the grasp of the tuba and its players. The same goes for the euphonium. All we need are a handful of players who are willing and able to go out there and make people see just how much the tuba can do. We aren't going to get much respect sitting down and playing pretty tunes from time to time. As I saw at this last ITEC, tuba players can be an awfully stubborn group of people when it comes to musical diversity, (although there were many notable exceptions to this rule, some of which fall back again to Mr. Szentpali.)

It just frustrates me when I see all this potential go down the drain. I know I am going to try as hard as I can to show others just what me and my instrument can do. I just hope that there are enough players out there who are willing to go along with me on that trip, or at least make the path a little clearer.

Forgive me for my ranting, but this bugs me from time to time. Any views or replies on this would be much appreciated!
Aaron H.

[Tubaing]

I do not think I saw you mention Harvey Phillips in your post.

[eupher61]

any recent word on Harvey's health? PM me if you feel it's necessary...

[tubafatness]

TUBAING, +1 for you...
And Harvey was doing it FIFTY years ago!!!

And that's just the thing: Harvey did all these great things, fifty years ago, (less than that, I know, but you know what I mean.) Where's the player out there who can do such a large amount of the things with tuba as Harvey did, today? To rephrase, where's our Harvey of today? We need someone who is willing to take the tuba as far as they can. And, I mean this with no offense whatsoever, but since Harvey made his impact on the musical scene, there have risen many new and different challenges for the tuba player, beyond the things that Harvey did so well many years ago. Our instrument can't make it with the work of a few men from the middle of the 20th century; we need to extend their ideas of what the tuba can do beyond what even they could have ever imagined.

Flame away, if you want to, but that's just my thought on this.
Aaron

[THE TUBA]

How about Sérgio Carolino or François Thuillier?

[eupher61]

well, given the BVD Press commissions (Barbara York and others), the James Grant Consortium of a few years ago, and the general huge number of things released for tuba and euphonium annually...

Do we really need a Spaarnay any more?

I'm not saying we don't need to keep in the minds of composers, but I don't think one person has to do as much as Harvey once did.

We haven't quite arrived, but we're at least on the train now!