Posted by Rick Denney on February 21, 2003 at 10:39:40:
In Reply to: 8va heros posted by JS on February 20, 2003 at 23:02:11:
Some science:
When the note is dropped an octave, the timbre changes, and there are a whole new set of overtones in the sound. A low Bb is 58 Hz, which will give you hearable overtones every 58 Hz or so up the line about nine octaves. The 58-Hz spacing of those overtones is what tells the listener, "Low Bb, here".
When you play the pedal Bb, the fundamental is 29 Hz, and you have hearable overtones every 29 Hz or so up about 15 octaves or more. All those intermediate overtones add "texture" to the music. Most of the time, "texture" is a euphemism for "mud". It's especially bad when the overtones aren't in tune, which they usually aren't unless the player is exceptionally good.
And Fred Young tells us that the fundamental is nearly completely absent in these notes, and we hear them only because of the close spacing of those overtones. I have found this to be the case with my own experiments.
Some philosophy:
I have been known to drop an octave on the final chord of a chorale, usually in a brass quintet arrangement that was kept high in deference to someone with an instrument that would not go low effectively. I'm not talking about contrabass pedals here, but about notes like low F's. But it has to pass THE test: Does it contribute to the music?
So often we do things because we can, and not because we should. The conductor's complaint is not my boundary--I want to play such that the conductor never has cause to complain. My personal threshold is much higher than what will cause him to stop the band and chew me out. If it ever comes to that, then I feel like I failed, especially if it was a choice and not a limitation that caused the chewing.
I did drop an Eb down to a clean false tone in a Christmas concert, on the final chord of a chorale that just sounded like it needed it. The conductor looked at me and gave me a little smile (you can't fool a conductor when he is a tuba player). I think there have been about, maybe, two instances in the last three years where I would have gotten the smile instead of the furrowed brow. I'd rather err on the side of doing it too rarely.
We also played Eternal Father, Strong to Save a year or two ago, and I played it all in the octave written. Why? Because that's where I sounded best, and therefore that's what contributed to the music most. We invited a guest to play with us on that concert, and he had those low notes in his arsenal, and he played them, but only after we discussed it. Always the arbiter is what is best for the music.
Often, these acts are the result of someone who thinks they are too good for the band they are playing in. Aside from usually being wrong, it hurts those of us to do our best and take our community band as seriously as we can. The returning college kids in the Summer mentioned by someone else are the case in point. "Let's go play in the community band--it will be fun and we can show those old people how it's done!" Those "old people" may not be as technically gifted, but they surely do not enjoy being shown "how it is done."
Rick "firmly with Joe on this one" Denney