Posted by Why not.. on July 14, 2003 at 09:14:36:
In Reply to: multiple tubas - one piece of music posted by Yuba on July 14, 2003 at 00:22:51:
There are as many reasons that you may want to change tubas for a specific passage in a work (for example in Vaughan Williams #4, or Tchaikovsky, etc...). Those reasons are entirely yours and you have to make that decision. Roger Bobo was well known to take 2 or three tubas on the stage to perform what we might consider doing on one single instrument. He did it only for musical reasons (well, at least 99% of it..it still looks cool to have three tubas on stage!).
I think that experimentation is, and should be, a vital part of performing these (any)pieces. Every great artist must bring something new to the work every time he/she performs it. Jacobs switched mouthpieces, Bobo, horns...it really doesn't matter. What they did was try and make a difference each time (that doesn't mean being heard better each time either) Playing brass quintet on a 6/4 make almost no sense UNLESS the rest of the group plays in that sort of style (volume, etc..) Also, playing a tiny horn for BIG passages such as Fountains may be impressive, have a great deal of clarity, but lends nothing to the musical intent (colour, dynamics, blah..)
What you should strive for is something that is excellent musically--the rest will certainly fall into line. Good luck..DK