Posted by Jay Bertolet on January 07, 2003 at 23:24:24:
In Reply to: A hypothetical situation... posted by Josh Calkin on January 07, 2003 at 23:09:34:
Tuba A.
Because you can fix articulation and intonation through practice. The sound is something much harder to fix. Rating the three, I would say that sound is the hardest to repair, followed by intonation, then articulation. Articulation has to be the easiest because we are expected to alter articulations during a piece of music anyway (can you say "accents"?). Learning the proper articulation technique for the horn, combined with learning the exact timing of the articulations to get the various types of articulations you want, seems to me to be the easiest solution. It won't take any 35 years either.
Of course you don't specify which horn matches you and your sounds concepts closest. This will certainly influence the decision. And don't kid yourself about different mouthpieces not making any difference. They can make all the difference.
My opinion for what it's worth...