Mike Roylance plays the restored Harvard Tuba!

[Dave Detwiler]

Hi everyone,

Last night was the special reunion concert celebrating the Harvard Band's 100th anniversary, for which they had their famous giant tuba restored.

Performing on the beast was Mike Roylance, principle tubist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The piece was commissioned for the occasion, "Caprice for a Great Big Tuba" by Lewis J. Buckley.

Here's the link to the video, and a few photos of the performance: https://tubapastor.blogspot.com/2019/10 ... -tuba.html.

Enjoy!
Dave

[jerseyeuph]

Neat!

Does anyone know what became of the giant tuba from the Carl Fischer store in NYC?

Edit: As of March 2017:
https://www.njsymphony.org/news/detail/ ... giant-tuba" target="_blank
(The internet comes in handy. )

[Matt Walters]

Does anyone know what became of the giant tuba from the Carl Fischer store in NYC?

Yes.

[Dave Detwiler]

Neat!

Does anyone know what became of the giant tuba from the Carl Fischer store in NYC?

It's still with them, in their corporate offices in NYC. But the Harvard Tuba (which was originally known as "La Prodigieuse," built by F. Besson in 1889) was the original giant tuba featured in the window of Carl Fischer's store on 4th Avenue (later referred to as Cooper Square). It was there from 1889 until 1911, when it went up to help launch the Boston branch. "Big Carl," built by Bohland & Fuchs in 1911 or 1912, took the place of "La Prodigieuse" in the window of Carl Fischer in NYC.

[jerseyeuph]

Interesting. Thanks. It was always neat to see it when visiting the retail store. Sad to see it as well as Patelson close.

It's still with them, in their corporate offices in NYC. But the Harvard Tuba (which was originally known as "La Prodigieuse," built by F. Besson in 1889) was the original giant tuba featured in the window of Carl Fischer's store on 4th Avenue (later referred to as Cooper Square). It was there from 1889 until 1911, when it went up to help launch the Boston branch. "Big Carl," built by Bohland & Fuchs in 1911 or 1912, took the place of "La Prodigieuse" in the window of Carl Fischer in NYC.

[Dave Detwiler]

Link didn't work for me but its at 1 hour and 22 mins if you want to cut ahead on youtube.

Delightful piece! The lead pipe seemed to move around on mike. Is that intentional?

About the link, it appears that you can only watch the video on YouTube, rather than from my post. But you can click on the link in the window that comes up on my posted link to get there. Sorry about the hassle!

And about the lead pipe, no it shouldn't move around. Matt Walters created that both to lower the pitch (the tuba was built in high pitch) and help with the ergonomics of playing the tuba (it's way easier to reach the valves now with that 90 degree lead pipe).