Orchestral excerpts for French C tuba

[@philippecriqui8606]

Très interessant, à chaque musique son caractère propre et son tuba. Bravo et merci pour vos démonstrations superbes

[@fosvandermeer8470]

It is great to hear the excerpts from Pictures at an Exhibition! They sound great on one single instrument.. I am actually fine with orchestras using an euphonium for Bydlo, but was just wondering if any of them use the euphonium for the whole work. It should be doable since it shares the range with the French tuba. I guess the player would use a bigger mouthpiece.

[@jackamck]

Thank you for your kind words! I have recorded the excerpts in comparison with a euphonium, you can hear them here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYfbpJSFi5mNers In my opinion, the euphonium has neither the bore profile nor the bell design to do justice to the sound colours possible with a French C tuba in the high or the low register. A bigger mouthpieces can help the playability of the lower register, but it doesn't change the resultant timbre.

[@fosvandermeer8470]

That is very interesting. It sounds like the French C tuba has a bigger mouthpiece and bore than the euphonium. The euphonium would probably gain more low end from a bigger mouthpiece, although it may mess up the intonation @@jackamck

[@jackamck]

@@fosvandermeer8470 Yes, I believe that increasing any parameter of the mouthpiece that could potentially have a noticeable effect on timbre (i.e. the throat and/or backbore) would have pretty a pretty devastating impact on intonation and pitch control.

[@raymondhorton9668]

Impressive demonstration! A masterful player!

[@walfredswanson]

Impressive to hear an actual French tuba. I can see where it has its place, and its lower range is surprisingly fuller than I imagined it would be. The curse of playing tuba is that there is not and never has been a "standard", yet we're expected to do a great deal in terms of individual sound and ensemble balance. Prokofiev and Berlioz ophicleide parts in the same program? Good luck.

[@jackamck]

Yes, indeed! Personally I hope that tubists in the future put more emphasis on exploring the variety of instruments (and instrumental timbres) written for by composers, and less on trying to master everything on the horns immediately available to them.

[@R4MUSICxVx]

Sounds like a mix between bass saxhorn with a little bass trombone

[@ДенисКостин-ф1х]

Sometimes sounds like, corno. In a Stravinsky

[@stefanalexanderlungu1503]

Sounds appropriate for Symphonie Fantastique.

[@u2b83]

Mouthpiece looks larger than a euph mpc. (Almost like a Besson-shank Eb tuba mouthpiece, or a 1G/bass trombone)

[@zachpoure]

Oof these couesnon instruments definitely weren't on tune, I've tried a A.Courtois one which was far more in tune, but u managed to make the old Couesnon sound great though!

[@jomarluke]

I forgot to ask: What mouthpiece are you using on the horn? The ranges sound great, especially the low ones!

[@jackamck]

Hello! Honestly, I can't remember precisely, unfortunately I didn't document this. But I believe it was an original Couesnon that came with the instrument. St Cecilia's Hall and Arnold Myers have produced a full inventory of the mouthpieces in their collection if you are interested!

[@somebody9033]

the player is great, the instrument's intonation is yucky. nice tone though!

[@jackamck]

Haha thanks! For an old museum object that only sees the light of day once every decade or so, I think it's not bad!

[@seth094978]

I played a reproduction of a slightly different one, and I was shocked by how flexible the intonation was. I was able to lip notes more than a half step without even really trying. Easiest low C# I've ever played, though. The evenness from the pedal C to the 6-4-2 C# was astonishing.

[@ethandymkowski1118]

@@jackamckhow are you able to get your hands on museum instruments and actually play them?

[@jackamck]

@@ethandymkowski1118 The staff at this particular museum were very generous in letting me use their objects for research purposes.