Lynched? Not by me. And no aplogy necessary.Biggs wrote:...Essentially, what I am trying to get across in this rambling response is that composers know what a tuba can do, they just don't care. Granted, notable exceptions exist but this is just a hypothesis. I may be totally off the mark but in my musical travels thus far I have failed to see proof otherwise.
I was buying some high-end stereo speakers many years ago, and the proprietor of the store asked me to bring some of my favorite recordings. I brought one that I'd been listening to at the time, which was Bob Stewart's First Line Band (if I'm remembering that title correctly).
The guy at the store asked me why I brought that album. I told him I'd been listening to it a lot and knew what to expect of its sound. He saw right through that bit of BS and reiterated his question. Finally, I admitted that I was a tuba player, and then he understood.
We all think Bob Stewart is one of the greats, but the rest of the world, even those quite sophisticated on the jazz scene, think of him as something from the bizarre fringe (and not bizarre in a good way).
We talked about this a few weeks ago in the thread about a joint commission. If we are going to bring the tuba into the fold of accepted solo instruments, the music has to be extraordinary, because we coming from waaaaaay behind.
The Carnival of Venice won't do it.
Actually, of the stuff I've heard, the tuba solo that I think is most representative of the tuba sound is the Jabba the Hut solo that Chester Schmitz recorded on the "Out of this World" recording (was that Philips?) with the Boston Pops. That's the one work I can think of that just would not be the same on any other instrument. But I've never heard it actually in the movie, so it remains buried.
Rick "recalling the response of his wife's friends when she announced that we would have a tuba solo at our wedding--'A tuba?'" Denney
