Recording of Tuba Carols in London

[Wyvern]

Today with about 50 other tuba and euphonium players (plus one Helicon, but no sousaphones), I participated in Tuba Carols in front of St.Paul's Cathedral in London expertly conducted by Patrick Harrild of the London Symphony Orchestra. I think we all had a great time I recorded the event on my Zoom H2 (placed under the conductor's stand).

Angels from the Realms of Glory - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41298/ ... Glory2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Christians Awake - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41311/ ... Awake2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Coventry Carol - http://www.upload-mp3.com/files/260447_ ... Carol2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Ding Dong - http://www.upload-mp3.com/files/260448_ ... 20Dong.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Finlandia (in memory of John Jenkins) - http://www.upload-mp3.com/files/260449_ ... landia.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
The First Noel - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41314/First%20Noel.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
God Rest You Merry Gentlemen - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41315/ ... lemen2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Good King Wenceslas - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41316/ ... eslas2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Hark the Herald Angels Sing - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41317/ ... Herald.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41318/ ... 0Clear.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Jingle Bells - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41319/ ... 0Bells.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
O Little Town of Bethlehem - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41320/ ... lehem2.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
O Come All Ye Faithful - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41322/ ... ithful.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Once in Royal David City - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41323/ ... 20City.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
Silent Night - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41324/ ... 0Night.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
I Saw Three Ships - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41326/ ... 0ships.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
We Three Kings - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41329/ ... 0Kings.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
While Shepherds Watch - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41327/ ... 0watch.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
White Christmas - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41330/ ... istmas.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank
We wish you a Merry Christmas - http://www.upload-mp3.com/pfiles/41331/ ... istmas.mp3" target="_blank" target="_blank

[Highams]

Congrats to all and big thanks to Chris Ludwig for organising it and to the Church officials for providing all those chairs without fuss.

Great to see visitors from Exeter/Birmingham/Warrington and so many youngsters too. The added descants spiced it all up a bit as well.

Book the date for next year!

CB

[Locky]

Well done all. The Finlandia is most touching. Two things - Remind us of the charity benefiting from this event and what is the date for next year?

John

[Highams]

Date (tbc) is 13th. December 09

The Evelina Children's Hospital;

http://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/servi ... ahome.aspx" target="_blank

CB

[imperialbari]

Thanks for uploading the recordings!

If I still travelled, this was an event I would have liked to participate in.

Thankfully no bad singing over the PA system, which possibly wasn’t there at all.

I haven’t heard all of the carols yet, but I will later on. I knew some of them, but certainly not all. Aside from a few shared ones from the continent, our national traditions are very different.

The melody playing on the euphs was so beautifully light, very different from my own much darker concept.

The recordings appear to be fair towards the melodi and towards the bass line, but where are the inner parts? I may sense the chords, but I only hear more than two lines clearly in the places, where a descant is played above the melody. This may be a matter of section placements relative to the mics.

The tunes obviously are listed in alphabetical order, so I cannot tell the performance sequence. In some tunes the tuning is much better than in others. The melody in some tunes appears to be tuned sharper than the bass line, whereas the tuning within each section appears to be better. My take would be, that the tuning happened indoors, and that the basses were more affected by the lower outside temperatures than were the euphoniums, which stay well together.

Did you bring the Neptune or the Cerveny?

Klaus

[Wyvern]

Pleased you are enjoying the recordings Klaus! I am not so sure why the inner voices would not be clear as I think they were in front of the microphone. We were in a half circle, top voice on the far left to lower tubas far right. I took along my 'new' PT-3 for this which has reinforced my view of what a good small CC it is - really like a 'baby Neptune'. Responds much the same, but with obviously more compact voice.

I played my Cerveny last year and may well use the Neptune next year. It was nice to see several rotary tubas in the ensemble and to have the tuba sections of both the Welsh and Irish Guards bands join us.

[imperialbari]

Which part did you play on the PT-3?

Was the distribution on parts pretty much euphs on the to lines, Eb on the 3rd line, and CC’s and BBb’s on the bass line?

Klaus

[Highams]

The first batch of videos is up on youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J879e_ntkn0" target="_blank

hopefully there will be lots more in the next few days so keep checking back.

I'm surprised at the comment on the tuning issue, whilst I'm sure most were and attempting to temper it, you have to remember this is a scratch group of mixed abilities, from the youngest to the pro's, playing 4 part carols maybe for the first time for most and controlling tuning in freezing temeperatures is very difficult.

I'm grateful for Jonathan for getting the recordings, is was ALWAYS going to favour the higher parts, hence the balance issue, more noticeable on the videos.

CB

[imperialbari]

If the tuning had been all over the place, I had said nothing. The top line euphs stay together very well. The bass line is fine in some tunes, but all go flat in other tunes, so basically I made observations exactly about playing in cold weather. And I heard nothing making me thinking about beginners playing here.

Klaus

[Highams]

Thank you Klaus.

Picture the scene, I have taken up a seat in the back row, intending to cover tuba 2 parts mostly, but not getting away with it (lol). Behind me is Stephen Wick on tuba, to my right Steve & John from the Welsh/Coldstream Guards.

Two seats in front are a batch of youngsters, legs dangling off the ground, thrilled to bits at being given first parts to play, and who stayed there from 12.45-2.30pm hardly missing a verse/chorus!

btw; Inner parts 2 & 3 were being swapped halfway through and passed around the stands just to add variety in repetition.

CB

[bearphonium]

Very nice, thanks for the recordings.

[Wyvern]

Which part did you play on the PT-3?

Was the distribution on parts pretty much euphs on the to lines, Eb on the 3rd line, and CC’s and BBb’s on the bass line?

I played tuba 4 (the lowest part) on my PT-3. However there were a several Eb's also playing that part, so I cannot say how was the distribution of parts. Possibly too many on the lower part and not enough on tuba 3 (you know most tuba players like to be on the bottom )? Maybe next year I should take my Melton Eb and reinforce the upper tuba part?

I did not notice any great intonation problems, but from where I was sitting there was lots of lovely low vibrations, but at times difficult to hear the upper parts.

PS That is me at end of second row back

[imperialbari]

By now I have heard all carols 2 or 3 times, and certainly not for masochist reasons. I am thinking a lot about how I could make it to London next year. Most likely if I could organize a small bus of tuba friends. I would like to bring my Conn 40K, but my Cerveny oval Kaiserbariton is more likely alone due to physical manageability matters.

I hear this event as very British in sound, but which arrangements are played? The US TC ones?

Does the helicon behind Charlie play along on the top line?

Klaus

[Highams]

You would certainly get a warm welcome!

The arrangements are the original John Fletcher scores alongside Dave Powell's, who also added the descants.

http://www.warwickmusic.com/composers/p ... vid+powell" target="_blank" target="_blank

All 4 parts are printed in both tc & bc.

The Helicon was mostly playing tuba 2 parts.

CB

[Highams]

Organiser Chris Ludwig has just informed us;

"Many thanks to all 52 players for your support. Special thanks also to Patrick Harrild for conducting, Dave Powell for the arrangements, Jonathan Hodgetts for the recordings and to all those who collected for us.

I have just heard that we collected an excellent £759.50 for the Evelina Children’s Hospital. (More than double last year’s amount.)

I’m looking forward to Sunday 13th December 2009 – Tuba Carols 2009."

CB

[Wyvern]

I have put Tuba Carols 2009 in my diary. Come on all you UK readers of TubeNet - make the effort to come along - you will enjoy immensely!

Jonathan "who can still feel those wonderful low vibrations"

[Rick Denney]

Possibly too many on the lower part and not enough on tuba 3 (you know most tuba players like to be on the bottom )? Maybe next year I should take my Melton Eb and reinforce the upper tuba part?

I keep wanting to go to my usual TubaChristmas event with the Holton so I can enjoy playing the bottom part, but the last time I took a contrabass, I ended up killing my chops playing the third part. You guys had solid professional participation, so this was probably less of a problem, but at the events I've attended, tuba players who can play the upper part are usually the least well represented of the participants. In our event, which draws around 35 performers total, there are usually only three or four of us on the upper tuba part. So, I continue to bring an F tuba so that I don't have to work so hard. The Wilder arrangements used for TC are not forgiving of any lack of upper-register endurance for the players on the upper tuba part, especially when the conductor wants to play everything through twice so that the crowd can sing second time around.

Rick "finding it impossible to even assess the intonation at most TC events" Denney

[Wyvern]

Another video on YouTube I have come across - playing 'White Christmas'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDntL5hBO54" target="_blank

[Wyvern]

Here are some pictures of the Tuba Carols kindly taken by the brother of my friend, Alison Pearce (the young lady in the red hat sitting beside me).






For your interest that is a Yamaha rotary BBb (don't know model) front left with Besson BBb prototype front right. Behind Alison is playing her Besson 982 and me on my PT-3, while at the back are two Besson Eb (the centre one the new model) and a Besson BBb


Patrick Harrild conducting


Line up of Eb's




Me caught at a jovial moment


St.Paul's cathedral steps behind

[gionvil]

Thank you for the nice recordings and pictures, Jonathan!
Tomorrow I will attend our traditional "Tuba sotto l'albero" (tubas under the tree) event in Lecco, Italy, and your post makes me feel already those "wonderful low vibrations" I am sure I will enjoy tomorrow..
I'll share some pictures or recordings if I can
Buon Natale
Gionata