The first Tuba Solo

[Bill Troiano]

Hi Mike!! I stand corrected in that Emmett's Lullaby was not written by Paul Holmes, Lento's composer, but by someone named G.E. Holmes. I just checked it out. I knew it wasn't Larry Holmes!!!

[1895King]

I located an edition of "Beelzebub" with Band accompaniment dated 1885 in the on-line library of Marshall's Civic Band (Topeka, KS). They also have a solo with band entitled "Old Helicon" by one Ellis Brooks dated 1883.

[PolkaNoble]

About Emmett's Lullaby and G.E. Holmes.

Published by Rubank, copyright date 1933 (MCMXXXIII) by Rubank Inc, Chicago Ill. Price $1.00 (rather expensive for the day).

The name G.E. Holmes (Guy Earl Holmes is his full name, I believe) is on the upper right corner of both the solo part and the piano part as if he was the composer, no arranger names and no indication he was not the composer at THAT location. HOWEVER, Below the Title is the word "transcription" in caps and in type about 1/4 the size of the title. No other indication of who may have written it, or what it was transcribed from.

Above the title is even smaller Italic type is the following: Featured by William Bell, Bass Soloist with Armco Band and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. (!!)

Range from FF to f. Theme and variations, sounds technical and difficult. Not as hard, technically as it sounds. Written for "BBb Bass (Sousaphone)". Indicated on the upper left corner of the solo part.

[mjlivingston]

Does anyone know G. E. Holmes's birth and death dates? I am performing his composition for a talent show, and I cannot find his dates.

Thank you!

[hubert]

The Tuba Source Book (comp. R.W. Winston Morris & E.R. Goldstein) says in the chapter on Music for tuba and band (Skip Gray): "Among the earliest original solo works for tuba are The Thunderer (1891) by J.S. Cox, Tuba Polka (1886) by J.J. Davis, The Beauty Polka (1887) by D.L. Ferrazzi and Dream of Peace (1888) by W.C. Ripley. George Southwell is credited with at least five works for solo tuba with band between the years 1881 and 1902."
For questions about music for ophicleide it could be useful to address (Facebook, Twitter) Nicolas Indermuehle, tubist at Turku in Finland. For his master thesis he draw up An ophicleide repertoire....July 2014. As I have understood, he is still expanding the database of his findings. I consulted his thesis on the web, but I could not find a chronological entry in his work so far.
Hubert

[opus37]

"The Mighty Deep" by Jude 1898.

[Michael Bush]

The lyrics to this solo:

(1–23) Tukulti-Ninurta, king of the universe, strong king, king of Assyria, king of kings, lord of lords, ruler of rulers, prince, lord of all, conqueror of the rebellious—those who do not submit to (him and) who are hostile to Ashur—, defeater of the princes of the Qutu as far as the land Mehru, disperser of the forces of the land of the Shubaru and the remote lands Nairi as far as the border of Makan, strong king, capable in battle, the one who shepherds the four quarters at the heels of the god Shamash (am) I; son of Shalmaneser, king of the universe, king of Assyria; son of Adad-narari (who was) also king of the universe (and) king of Assyria.

(24–50) At that time the temple of the Assyrian Ishtar, my mistress, which Ilu-shumma, my forefather, the prince, had previously built—that temple had become dilapidated, and I cleared away its debris. I changed its site. I founded (it) in another place. I made it more outstanding than ever before. As an addition I built the room of the shahuru and lofty towers. I completed that temple from top to bottom. I built within it a lofty dais (and) an awesome sanctuary for the abode of the goddess Ishtar, my mistress, and I deposited my monumental inscription.

(51–55) May a future prince restore it (and) return my inscribed name to its place! The goddess Ishtar will listen to his prayers.

(56–65) As for the one who removes my inscription and my name: May the goddess Ishtar, my mistress, extinguish his sovereignty, break his weapon, cause his manhood to dwindle away, (and) hand him over to his enemies!

[opus37]

Happy Thought by J. Baseler 1891. Beelzebub by A. Catozzi 1891.

[1895King]

Look back a page; I found "Beelzebub" with band accompaniment as of 1885.

[PaulMaybery]

"Beelzebub" actually goes back to the 1880s or 90s. (too lazy to look it up) There are others from that era with wonderful names. "Olosabut" Ca. 1880 for one (tuba solo spelled backwards.) I conducted that with Mark Jones many years ago. He used an over the shoulder Eb and had his back to the audience. Down in the Deep Cellar, Osceola, My First Tuba Solo, Victory by W.S. Ripley, Solo Pomposo by Henry Fillmore.
These all have band parts - old small instrumentation. There are lots more. You could do a search on the Chatfield Brass Band Library web site:http://selco.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US ... TBND_LIMIT

[Mark Horne]

I played Beelzebub recently as a contrabass clarinet solo (one octave below the tuba part) with clarinet choir. The folks that put the video together indicated that the piece was a winning entry in a solo instrumental composition contest sponsored by the Carl Fischer company in 1886. Catozzi was a well-known tuba soloist in that era.