Posted by Steve Marcus on March 05, 2003 at 11:28:09:
...a song is published about your tuba playing!
The Music Director at my church returned from the ACDA Convention with an octavo that “he saw and just had to buy for me:"
“Roger Bobo Plays the Tuba” by Brian Holmes, published in 2002 by Roger Dean Company.
This 3½-minute song, best described as “cute,” is scored for treble chorus, tuba, and piano. The tuba part has a range of FF-f and can easily be handled by an advanced junior high school player. It was commissioned by the Cantabile Children’s Chorus of Los Altos, CA, directed by Signe Boyer, and is dedicated to them.
According to the preface to the score, Brian Holmes is a physics professor at San Jose State University, where he specializes in the physics of musical instruments. He is also an active french horn player.
John Updike’s poem, published in 1961, serves as the lyrics and plays humorously with the words “tuba” and “Bobo.”
RECITAL
ROGER BOBO GIVES
RECITAL ON TUBA
--headline in The New York Times
Eskimos in Manitoba,
Barracuda off Aruba,
Cock an ear when Roger Bobo
Starts a solo on the tuba.
Men of every station—Pooh-bah,
Nabob, bozo, toff, and hobo—
Cry in unison, “Indubi-
Tably, there is simply nobo-
Dy who oompahs on the tubo,
Solo, quite like Roger bubo!”
--I understand that a choir in the St. Louis area is going to perform this. Has anyone else tackled this piece?