New York Phil. Digital Archive

[mbell]

There's some really great stuff in the New York Philharmonic's Digital Archive. A search for "tuba" brings up some nice photos mainly of William Bell and Joseph Novotny. There's also one that I believe is Warren Deck. I'm curious about the horn he is holding.

http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/se ... tID&page=1#" target="_blank

A search for William Bell brings up some programs where he was soloist or narrator. Also pictures as well.

http://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/se ... pe=program" target="_blank

They have scores and parts that have been marked by performers that can be interesting to look at.

Enjoy!

mike

[hbcrandy]

In the two shots of Warren Deck with the harpist and others, Warren is holding his rotary valved Geib model Conn CC tuba. That tuba had a detachable bell. You can see the bell collar if you look closely.

[mbell]

Thanks for the info. It looks like a really big horn.

mike

[hbcrandy]

The Conn was not a big tuba. It was what the modern world refers to as a 4/4 tuba. Though it had a big bell flare and the plumbing past the main tuning slide expanded rapidly, the valve plumbing had the conventional Conn bore of .735". These were the dimensions of the Conn when I studied with Warren in the early to mid 1980's. At the end of my time with Warren, he had ordered a .810" valve set from Alexander with an Alexander lead pipe that made a great tuba even greater. Hearing Warren on the original version of the Conn, I could not imagine that he could get a bigger sound on that instrument. I was wrong. The sound of the modified Conn was amaizing. It was huge!