So, somehow I have come into possession of a tuba. I may have been possessed during this possession, since not a whole lot of rational thought went into it, but nevertheless this tuba is mine. All mine.
A bit of searching reveals that this Marceau tuba was built in Czechoslovakia and marketed by a French company (hence the name) and, even more interesting to me, sold in the Sears Catalog circa 1900. I happen to have a copy of the 1908 Sears catalog (no surprise), and so looked it up and sure enough, there it is, the nickel plated Eb 15" bell Contrabass:
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I had no idea it was in E flat when I bought it. Truthfully, I didn't even know horns came in different keys. Or that an E flat European tuba is hard to find a mouthpiece for since they have smaller shanks. I probably should have gotten a Bb since that is my preferred singing key. Then again, it's likely I won't be singing too much while playing the tuba, know what I mean?
So Eb it is. For now I am using a trombone mouthpiece. Those of you from the Madison days might remember my neighbor Rocky selling me a trombone for 5 bucks (only days after my old one was hurled into the woods at the Charlotte bluegrass festival, which is a long story). Somehow I have held onto it for all of these years, and now it turns out to have been a good thing.
The Marceau tuba sold for $28.60 in 1908, which is $652.31 in 2007 dollars, according to this inflation calculator. That means I did ok on this thing in terms of constant dollars. A hundred years is a reasonably long time for this metal thing to have survived without more than a few nicks.
I really love old Sinaloan banda music (such as), so I've been thinking that the tuba figures in my destiny in some way. It's a bit of a lateral from the bass, though a hell of a lot more work to play it seems. But you can't get to that perfectly raucous sound without some effort.
As luck would have it, I have a student who is a baritone horn player and he has graciously offered me some guidance and a lesson or two.
One thing I have already learned is how to clean it. Turns out that you just stick the thing in the bathtub. It makes sense, but I hadn't thought of that.
Owning a tuba thrusts you into a whole realm of oddity. You can't bring it anywhere without getting into a lot of conversations, that is for sure. There seem to be horn players all over the place, and the tuba draws them like an electromagnet. Many of them are a tad nutty in addition to being eager to talk. I also went to a cramped old timey local horn repair shop (which I never knew existed before, though I have driven by it hundreds of times) to get some pads and whatnot, and everyone in there seemed less charmingly nutty than stark raving insane. In a good way.
Now that the tuba is cleaned up and good to go further misadventures no doubt await.
A bit of searching reveals that this Marceau tuba was built in Czechoslovakia and marketed by a French company (hence the name) and, even more interesting to me, sold in the Sears Catalog circa 1900. I happen to have a copy of the 1908 Sears catalog (no surprise), and so looked it up and sure enough, there it is, the nickel plated Eb 15" bell Contrabass:
.jpg)
I had no idea it was in E flat when I bought it. Truthfully, I didn't even know horns came in different keys. Or that an E flat European tuba is hard to find a mouthpiece for since they have smaller shanks. I probably should have gotten a Bb since that is my preferred singing key. Then again, it's likely I won't be singing too much while playing the tuba, know what I mean?
So Eb it is. For now I am using a trombone mouthpiece. Those of you from the Madison days might remember my neighbor Rocky selling me a trombone for 5 bucks (only days after my old one was hurled into the woods at the Charlotte bluegrass festival, which is a long story). Somehow I have held onto it for all of these years, and now it turns out to have been a good thing.
The Marceau tuba sold for $28.60 in 1908, which is $652.31 in 2007 dollars, according to this inflation calculator. That means I did ok on this thing in terms of constant dollars. A hundred years is a reasonably long time for this metal thing to have survived without more than a few nicks.
I really love old Sinaloan banda music (such as), so I've been thinking that the tuba figures in my destiny in some way. It's a bit of a lateral from the bass, though a hell of a lot more work to play it seems. But you can't get to that perfectly raucous sound without some effort.
As luck would have it, I have a student who is a baritone horn player and he has graciously offered me some guidance and a lesson or two.
One thing I have already learned is how to clean it. Turns out that you just stick the thing in the bathtub. It makes sense, but I hadn't thought of that.
Owning a tuba thrusts you into a whole realm of oddity. You can't bring it anywhere without getting into a lot of conversations, that is for sure. There seem to be horn players all over the place, and the tuba draws them like an electromagnet. Many of them are a tad nutty in addition to being eager to talk. I also went to a cramped old timey local horn repair shop (which I never knew existed before, though I have driven by it hundreds of times) to get some pads and whatnot, and everyone in there seemed less charmingly nutty than stark raving insane. In a good way.
Now that the tuba is cleaned up and good to go further misadventures no doubt await.
Comments
Anyway, just happened to stumble onto your blog (searching for images of anti-italian persecution in the late 1800's, nonetheless).
You might check out the tuba-euphonium Yahoo group, they provide great info on some of the most obscure things. =)
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/TubaEuph/