A Piggy in an orchestra

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Michael Bush
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A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Michael Bush »

I was worried at first, but it would have to be a *lot* bigger orchestra for this to be not enough tuba.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Ace »

Reminds me of a phone conversation I had years ago with our esteemed TubeNetter, Roger Lewis. He said a big percentage of his professional playing, including orchestras, was done on his Cerveny Piggy.

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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Michael Bush »

bloke wrote: PK took one on tour (decades ago) with Philly...
It was heard.
It was neither (to my teenage ears) a "glorious" nor a "bad" sound.
Controlling for the vast difference in user ability both in the tuba player and the orchestra as a whole, that's pretty much my assessment. No problem being heard. Not a half bad sound.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Roger Lewis »

The above poster is correct. For about 20 years my only CC tuba was a Walter Sear piggy. I won Tanglewood on that horn and an older Perrantuci F tuba. I played it with the Boston Pops that summer and it worked fine. The piggy is a horn you can "push". You can play it a lot bigger than it looks. Sometimes though it depends on the player. Great horn and still using it today.

When one of my orchestras scheduled Mahler 2, that's when the Yorkbrunner joined the family.

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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Michael Bush »

The main difference between the two I've had with an intention to keep and play is the position of the valves. On this one, the main tuning slide is shorter and the leadpipe is longer, and the valve set is a little lower on the body.

The previous one (picked up in a trade generously hosted by bloke, complete with excellent BBQ) was ergonomically unworkable for me. No amount of shifting it around put my wrist at a viable angle.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by cambrook »

The first two I ever saw/heard were
- one belonging to a kid with the Australian Youth Orchestra (on tour, young man - my age - stayed at my parents' house). It was the first "really large bore" tuba that I ever played. This was probably in 1974.
I think that would have been Peter Sykes, he was later to join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and I bought that piggy when Peter bought one of the first batch of Yorkbrunners. I played the piggy with the Sydney Symphony for about 3 months and won my job on that horn in 1983.

It had a lovely sound, intonation in the middle of the stave was a challenge. Times have changed - I don't think anyone would win a job playing all the excerpts on a piggy these days....
Last edited by cambrook on Thu Mar 09, 2017 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by cambrook »

BTW- that tour was in 1976, to celebrate the American Bicentennial - and Principal Trombone was Michael Mulcahy.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Three Valves »

"Libertyland"

I like the sound of that!!
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by EdFirth »

Most of you know that the bore of those Piggys(dubbed that by John Fletcher at Walter Sear's shop and referred to by Walter and the Cerveny company as the Opera Model) is right around .835. It doesn't get much bigger than that. They were designed to be an orchestral sounding tuba for use in limited space. Paul K(Philly) was at Walter's place the day before I went down and he took six with him. I heard him play Finlandia on it and still think it was the best I ever heard from him sound wise. I'm pretty sure that if you handed one to Chester Schmitz or Arnold Jacobs before a concert they would sound like themselves. I think many of us have begun to listen with our eyes in this regard. In today's terminology they are a 5/4 in 3/4 clothing.FWIW, Ed
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by pjv »

So what are the "quality combinations" that help to make the Piggy one of the winners in the tuba world?
Let's say the quality of the build/assembly is a given and that rage doesn't play a part in this.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Michael Bush »

pjv wrote:So what are the "quality combinations" that help to make the Piggy one of the winners in the tuba world?
Let's say the quality of the build/assembly is a given and that rage doesn't play a part in this.
It's a big sounding tuba in a small package.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by arpthark »

Post Piggy pix, perhaps? Posthaste, preferably!

For real, I love the sound of a Piggy. I owned John Cradler's old one for a few months, I believe that's floating around here now. Excellent little tuba.
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Roger Lewis »

On the previous page the photos show my Sear piggy in the top photo. I know as has the Rudy Meinl valve paddles and linkages on it.

Putting it consisely the piggy is a small horn you can "push". You can get it to play a lot bigger than it looks.

Roger
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Re: A Piggy in an orchestra

Post by Ace »

bloke wrote:Though .835" bore, I found that they were outfitted with the 681 model's .795" bore rotors (except with .835" bore knuckles brazed to the outsides of the .795" bore rotor casings).
Joe, I'm curious about how the .795" dimension meeting up with the .835" might have affected the tone, resistance, etc. If Cerveny had used .835" bore rotors, would that have made the Piggy even better than it was? Would it have become an air hog?

Thanks, Ace
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