Re: Re: Re: Why is low range bad on F's?


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Posted by Frederick J. Young on December 17, 2001 at 17:34:45:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Why is low range bad on F's? posted by Rick Denney on December 17, 2001 at 07:37:51:

Phil played the Boosey & Hawkes F tuba soon after he started to play in LSO after the war.
He had Boosey build it for him because they had not made one in the last 40 years. They could not find all the necessary parts in the Edgeware Works and substituted a couple of Eb tuba bows which made notes like the C two lines below the staff hard to play. Phil made sure they put in the proper bows and that fixed it up. He played the first performance of the RVW Concerto on that Boosey & Hawkes compensating F tuba. I also had one like it and he let me try his tuba. It had a sharp high F above the bass clef staff. He had to use 23 to play it in tune. Mine did not have that trouble. Neither tuba had any difficulty below the bass clef staff although the low F fourlines below the staff might not respond as quickly as one might desire at times depending on ones lip.

In Phils office he had a most interesting picture on the wall of him playing his tuba for Ralph V. Williams. RVW was standing down wind of the bell and his hair was standing straight on a slant such that one might think Phil was blowing it in that direction. RVW consulted him as he composed the concerto and thus one has to conclude that it was written for a compensating F tuba.

With regard to the low C problem several people report to me that they have trouble with said C on the Melton F tuba. My differential equation analysis of the open tones of that instrument indicates one must really force it to produce that note. C two lines below the staff is simply not one of the tones that the 4th valve produces. Instead it is at best a preferred tone.


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