Posted by Josh Calkin on June 04, 2003 at 23:08:28:
In Reply to: Playing everything on the big horn posted by jeff on June 04, 2003 at 20:16:37:
In a way, you may have answered your own question:
"why not let the big horn do the job?" Because "it is easier to play the F tuba."
That being said, I think that all really great tubists certainly COULD play everything on the big horn. Technically, the tuba is just amplifying (vibrating sympathetically) pitches you buzz into the mouthpiece, and the horn really shouldn't matter much. True, the bass speaks more quickly than the contra and is easier to slot up high, but to a "really great" player, this shouldn't matter too much.
But the emphasis when playing is to make music. Removing the potential "obstacle" of the big horn (and I use the term obstacle in the nicest way possible), and making the technical side of the music easier will allow the tubist to concentrate more on making music.
Still, I like to mix it up a little and play things on both tubas. While my choice of instrument can depend somewhat on range and tessitura (I'm not quite up to John Willams on the big horn yet), I like to think of it more as matching the timbre of the tuba to the piece. To my ear, a piece like the Vaughan Willams Studies in Folksong sounds GORGEOUS on the big tuba, while an F is not quite fat sounding enough for me. Another student here agrees with me, but our teacher is a big advocate of the F tuba as THE solo instrument. In the end, the student won, and played the Folksongs on the big horn (YAY!)
The sound you want is the key. If you like to play everything on the big tuba, then go for it, by all means.
-J