I am very disappointed with the Guinness World Book of Records in that they state that the largest ensemble of tubas is something like 147 for something that was going on in Austria about ten years ago (I don't think it's in current editions). I wrote to Guinness about including TubaChristmas and was blatantly ignored.
Actually, the largest non-TubaChristmas tuba section I was in was something that was being done to get into the Guinness World Book of Records--It billed itself as the World's Largest Polka Band at the Fort Worth Oktoberfest when I was in grad school, about 15-16 years ago. I think we had about 100 players. We played only the "Beer Barrel Polka."
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You only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it.
1991 All Ohio State Fair Band. We had 24 Sousaphones. Every type and every condition you could imagine. The band was around 300+. It sounded great. However these days if you go to the fair the band is about half of that. There is not much interest in it these days.
Professionally, when I was in the Army, I was in a place that had three other military bands nearby... (three Army bands, none of which exist anymore, and one Air Force band, which does) We gave weekly concerts (together) at various locations. We had 15 tuba players in that mass band.
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You only have one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it.
Got to play in Senior Bowl activities at Ladd Stadium where half time would find every band within 100 miles playing on the field all at once.
I would rather have watched from the bleachers. Couldn't tell much from where I stood.
Our Catholic high school had two tubas in a 60 piece band-but we were both ANIMALS.
Jacksonville State University marches twenty 20J's and plan to put thirty of them on the field soon for a special event. That's a lot of tuba to march with
Dan Schultz
"The Village Tinker" http://www.thevillagetinker.com" target="_blank
Current 'stable'... Rudolf Meinl 5/4, Marzan (by Willson) euph, King 2341, Alphorn, and other strange stuff.
I was raised in post war Germany, because my father was a school headmaster within the Danish minority there.
A Danish Christian youth organisation inspired by the British Boys Brigade was strong in Sydslesvig, which is the Danish name of northern Germany. I became a member aged 8, but there was no band in the town, where I lived.
I only started playing within that organisation after my parents moved back to a much larger town in Denmark.
That organisation, FDF, held a lot of week-end camps with huge massed bands of 500 or 600 players (the average local bands were around 15 pieces playing old Danish military scores).
I remember such a weekend of may 1961. I played a pre-war valved alto trombone by the Danish maker I. K. Gottfried, a very good instrument.
But already then I was profoundly interested in brass instruments. So I was immensely impressed by the 50+, maybe even 75 tubas. All in F or BBb, German style rotorphones. Most being pre-war made. Just about every sample looked like aluminium foil as used for wrapping homemade lunch-sandwiches.
We were still very poor back then, but if I had started collecting at that point of time, I (aside from a more roomy home) would have owned stellar samples from all of the great European tuba makers, which I by now only can present in .jpg format in my galleries.
FDF also took part in the yearly Danish rallies in Sydslesvig at the first weekend of June, mostly comparable to a peaceful version of the Orange marches in Northern Ireland.
On Saturdays we were out in the small towns. On Sundays we were at either of 3 main rallies. And at late Sunday afternoons we all joined into a possibly 500 or 700 piece band at the main square of Flensborg.
Quite an experience, even if I am not totally convinced about how musically valid it actually was. I could see the conductor, I could hear the bass drums, and then I heard nothing but the alto line.
But there were a whole lot of tubas. If only I had had the pick of the best ones!
Dang. THIS MANY of you actually COUNTED and REMEMBER?!?!?
Apropos of nothing... do you guys also carry a tape measure into the bathroom with you?
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Joe Baker, who does different silly s*it, and so really has no right to laugh...
"Luck" is what happens when preparation meets opportunity -- Seneca
Joe Baker wrote:Dang. THIS MANY of you actually COUNTED and REMEMBER?!?!?
Apropos of nothing... do you guys also carry a tape measure into the bathroom with you?
OK, my memory was supported by a later band mate, who actually was in the said tuba sections. He, Ole Thunbo, and I have had our photos on the TubeNet in another context:
