Posted by Jim Andrada on March 05, 2002 at 22:11:45:
In Reply to: ContrabassTuba posted by Sam on March 05, 2002 at 12:55:39:
When I was an undergrad at Harvard hundreds of years (well maybe over forty years) ago I actually played the BBBb sub-contrabass at a couple of summer school concerts. It was used primarily as a prop for football games. Occasionally we'd drag it out on the field and a small kid would jump out and run around. Nobody I knew of actually played it, but somehow I got the idea it would be playable and I fooled around with it and got a "sort of" decent sound out of it.
I was back in Cambridge for a band reunion in 99 and at the concert Chester Schmitz played one movement of a Mozart horn concerto on it. Sounded damned good! He ended with a great example of circular breathing.
I have inks to some photos of Chester playing it If I can find them I'll post the links