Why contrabass tubas? (above-board troll)

[Rick Denney]

For me, the sameness of sound in a quintet is what makes it work as an ensemble. There is a clarity in having the voices so much from the same family. The quintets I've listened to that included a big orchestral tuba seemed to sound like a tuba with four brass accompanists, whereas a quintet with a well-integrated sound makes a wall of harmonic structure. That does not mean a big tuba can't work, it just means the big tuba player has to make it work. And that is not easy. With the F tuba, I can put that effort in and get the tight, dry sound that is appropriate for Renaissance music, or I can go the other way and play a bass line for a Dixieland arrangement. F or small C is not that important to me from the audience perspective, but in that role I play F better and more accurately so that's what I use.

Rick "trying unsuccessfully to imagine Prokofiev's 5th on an F tuba, however" Denney

[eupher61]

One word springs to mind re contrabass tuba: Gravitas.

um...that would seem a stretch of sorts, but the judge's decision is that it's OK.