Posted by Richard on October 20, 1999 at 19:08:31:
In Reply to: Arnold Jacobs' York Tuba posted by Matt on October 20, 1999 at 15:06:24:
The two Yorks were made for Arnold Jacobs' teacher, Philip Donatelli, principal tubist of the Philadelphia Orch during Mr. Jacobs' student days (early '30s) at the Curtis Institute. Donatelli decided the big York wasn't "him" and sold one to Jake. The other one went out in the world to be recovered around 1950.
Mr. Jacobs made his legendary reputation on this instrument, but it would NOT become a popular type of horn with most orchestral tubists until years later. Jake arose in a milieu dominated by the legenday William Bell, a very different approach, and the King he played, a very different type of instrument. It is diffucult to imagine how polarized the tuba world was between these two, the one an established giant, and the other an emerging one. It took another generation, Harvey Philips, and Roger Bobo, with THEIR approaches and instrumental options to put things in perspective.
And Roger in particular was extremely influential in establishing Mirafone as a tuba of choice for many players who emerged in the '60s
The virtually global interest in 6/4 York-like tubas is a recent phenonenon of the last 10 to 15 years. Most American players in the 40s-70s, even Jake's most devoted pupils were quite happy with the more moderately sized tubas. Jake was ahead of his time, but time has caught up, big time.