Playing a Titanic Tuba

[bobd0]

I hope everyone can access the links below to the NY Times video and article on what could be the world's largest bugle.

Video:

Playing a Titanic Tuba

http://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/1 ... d=46928198

Story:

It’s a Giant. It’s a Novelty. It’s a Tuba Named Big Carl

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/nyreg ... .html?_r=0

[bighonkintuba]

That was a great store and it was always neat to see the big tuba. I'm glad to know that it's still around.

I guess the valves and associated tubing are just for show...

[bort]

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

[windshieldbug]

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

Are you saying that all they did was put it in a tanning booth!...

[roweenie]

I was wondering where that horn went after the Carl Fisher retail store went under and the building became "luxury condos".

It used to be displayed in a place of prominence, on a ledge right over the front door of the store.

It's interesting to know that the valves are just for show - - -

[Paul Scott]

I remember that tuba well and I miss the Carl Fischer, Cooper Square, NYC store since it was in such close proximity to McSorely's Ale House!

I believe that this tuba was built as a functional chromatic instrument. An article by Gary Stewart in the Fall, 1988 T.U.B.A Journal states that this instrument is a sister to "The Tuba" at Harvard. The engraving on this tuba also reads Besson & Co., Carl Fischer U.S. Agent and I recall the NYC tuba having this same marking. The Harvard tuba hung in the Carl Fischer store in Boston until the early 1950s, according to this same article. Photos show that the two tubas are indeed different with the Harvard instrument being left-facing while still a top action.

Before the Cooper Square, NY store closed the tuba sat on the floor and I was able to push one of the pistons up and down. At that time two of the enormous finger buttons were there but now it seems that only one is left.

My favorite detail: a lyre holder just in case you wanted to march with this beast!!

[bobd0]

I remember that tuba well and I miss the Carl Fischer, Cooper Square, NYC store since it was in such close proximity to McSorely's Ale House!

I believe that this tuba was built as a functional chromatic instrument. An article by Gary Stewart in the Fall, 1988 T.U.B.A Journal states that this instrument is a sister to "The Tuba" at Harvard. The engraving on this tuba also reads Besson & Co., Carl Fischer U.S. Agent and I recall the NYC tuba having this same marking. The Harvard tuba hung in the Carl Fischer store in Boston until the early 1950s, according to this same article. Photos show that the two tubas are indeed different with the Harvard instrument being left-facing while still a top action.

Before the Cooper Square, NY store closed the tuba sat on the floor and I was able to push one of the pistons up and down. At that time two of the enormous finger buttons were there but now it seems that only one is left.

My favorite detail: a lyre holder just in case you wanted to march with this beast!!

Very interesting, Paul. Thanks for the details.

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

Are you saying that all they did was put it in a tanning booth!...

It all makes perfect sense, really: We're the tanning booth capitol and we now have more than enough experience dealing with over-sized blowhards.

[bighonkintuba]

Mmmmmm.... Cheese and crackers.

in such close proximity to McSorely's Ale House!

[roweenie]

I remember that tuba well and I miss the Carl Fischer, Cooper Square, NYC store since it was in such close proximity to McSorely's Ale House!

Ah yes, Paul - McSorley's Ale House! I spent many evenings (and afternoons) there, back when I used to drink. As a young man while still in school, I almost took a job at Carl Fisher up on the second floor (balcony) in the band and choral music department. In retrospect, considering the proximity of McSorely's, it's probably for the best that I didn't end up working there, after all......

Bill Bell still holds the ale drinking record there, if I am not mistaken (I don't know if he preferred light or dark).

Bob

[Matt Walters]

Big Carl was never made with actual valves. If you take off the top valve cap and remove that spring assembly that pushes the finger buttons back up after you push them down, you will see a brass tube passing in one side of each valve casing and out the other. I was trying to figure out how that spring system would work the valve beneath it until I got a look inside and saw there was no valve. It's a giant bugle made as a prop. Big Carl was most likely made by Bohland & Fuchs and is way bigger than the Harvard Besson BBBb. Even the slides were made non-functional.

[bigbob]

Is the one in Europe where it takes two men to play it bigger??.....BB

[hbcrandy]

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

They wanted it in the hands of experts. Mark Twain defined an expert as "an ordinary fellow from another town."

[bighonkintuba]

re: valves
Thanks Matt.

I agree that's disappointing.

Do we know the fundamental note of the horn? Then we can at least call it a natural tuba in ____.

[Tuboxchef]

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

For the record, both the tubists with the Met and NY Phil live in New Jersey. It's a fact of life. NYC is expensive, NJ is less. If a southern boy like me can move to Jersey and not go insane, can't be too bad.

[bort]

Oh come on, they get guys from Jersey to work on and play on the big tuba?

For the record, both the tubists with the Met and NY Phil live in New Jersey. It's a fact of life. NYC is expensive, NJ is less. If a southern boy like me can move to Jersey and not go insane, can't be too bad.

I live in Manhattan -- trust me, I know what you mean. It was meant as a rag on the newspaper, certainly not on you or the folks at Dillon Music.

It's like when people ask me which New York football team I root for... I tell them neither, because they're both in Jersey.

[Gandalfe]

Okay, that makes sense Matt.

[edsel585960]

I know what I want for Christmas.

[DanPriven]

I have a couple of questions about that horn: It states in the article that it's 60' long and is BBBb. Since a BBb horn is 18', shouldn't a BBBb horn be 36' long?

Also, Derek, when you played that insane helicopter note, did I see correctly that your bottom lip was BELOW the rim of the mouthpiece? What the heck was that? Is that pro-tuba technique I should explore?

Thanks to all -

[Tuboxchef]

Also, Derek, when you played that insane helicopter note, did I see correctly that your bottom lip was BELOW the rim of the mouthpiece? What the heck was that? Is that pro-tuba technique I should explore?

Hello, yes...my bottom lip is below the mouthpiece. I don't know what other people call it, but I call it a tongue pedal. Basically you are replacing the bottom lip with the tongue, and now you're flapping the top lip and tongue. Sounds weird, but it allows me to play the super pedals on my tuba, and coincidentally it works GREAT on Big Carl. The highest note I'd use it on is pedal G (below low G) and I can get down to double pedal C# (sorta). Kind of a cool trick that actually sounds like a pitch, and doesn't take a lot of air to do. I also have greater control of it, I can play really soft pedals with it, though I can't play it louder than about forte...

[DanPriven]

Thanks! I now have a new experiment with which I can torment my besieged family.

I think "Pelican-ing" is a good term for it, because it looks like you're putting the mouthpiece in a pelican-pouch.