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Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 15:38:04 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: Re: [CB] Please Talk Me Down.
>I'm going to need some help here. Please, somebody, talk me down so that I
>DON'T BUY AGAIN!! *sob*....Man, did you come to the wrong place... ;-)
>You see, every once in awhile I get this awful hankering to learn the tuba.
>Never mind that I tried to learn trombone and didn't get very far, and that
>I had a small tuba here for awhile and didn't get too far on that,
>either....never mind that I'm basically a percussionist who also plays EEb
>contra alto clarinet and has owned a great bass sax in the past.
>You see, every once in awhile I get this urge to get a Conn Jumbo
>Sousaphone. I think they are so damned beautiful and I can envision myself
>sitting at the back of our local Klezmer Orchestra playing some of those
>great Frailach bass lines.The tuba, per se, is a great instrument. I've always admired the
tone, power, and presence that even a single tuba develops (when
played well). I have an old Eb myself, not that I've taken the time
to properly learn it. (Someday! ... my favorite refrain...)The best thing I can think of is: (a) get yourself a good tuba
(sousaphones included), and (b) sign up for a band that rehearses
regularly (and will accept you as a beginner on the tuba/sousaphone).
Taking lessons is also a good idea, but I find that nothing motivates
me to practice and learn an instrument faster than having to play it
in front of my peers on a weekly basis ;-)Now, can anyone think of a way to convince the SJWS that they need
for me to play reed contrabass periodically?Grant
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green
ecode:contrabass http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 16:07:09 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] More AcousticsAnother interesting item in Echoes: apparently, one can use a
parametric speaker array to generate a modulated ultrasound beam that
"self-demodulates" at a defined spot, producing an audible signal.
Speakers that you alone would hear, or an easily localized speaker.
More reading at http://sound.media.mit.edu/~pompei/spotlight/.
Unfortunately, it appears that the lower limit (currently) for sound
reproduction is around 300 Hz (well above the contrabass range). So
far. It will be interesting to see how far they can extend the
technology (imagine having a good, true bass speaker that didn't take
up half your living room).Enjoy!
Grant
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green
ecode:contrabass http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------From: LeliaLoban
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 20:40:39 EST
Subject: [CB] Odd bass clarinet in Boston
I wrote about my visit to the musical instruments gallery in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
> The wind instruments include ...[snip]...a serpent that
> may be the one Doug Yeo has played in Boston concerts;Tom Izzo wrote,
>>Doug plays his own. He has three Church Serpents, a Serpet (Tenor Serpent),
>>a Worm (Soprano), and George, The Anaconda (Contrabass Serpent).
>>He did demonstrate the museum's Serpents in their Serpent Night at the
>>Museum last year, but plays his own in the BSO & BPO.Thanks very much for the information! I also wrote about a strange, compact
bass clarinet, shaped like a section of intestines. Tom Izzo wrote,
>>That wasn't the "Russian Bassoon" was it?I doubt it. The Nicola Papalini instrument I saw was labelled as a bass
clarinet on the information card in the display. It had the typical clarinet
mouthpiece setup with a single reed, not a bocal with a double reed, so it
clearly was not a bassoon and it would surprise me if anyone has called it a
bassoon. It didn't really look like a clarinet, either, but it looked even
less like anything else!You mentioned Doug Yeo's site,
I love his site! It includes a number of pictures of him playing the serpent
in the same gallery I visited, but I couldn't find the serpentine bass
clarinet in any of his pictures. In some of them, he's set up *facing* the
case with that clarinet. The photographer was probably standing right in
front of it. In those photos, the cases visible behind Doug Yeo are full of
instruments from Asia, South America and Africa, on the opposite wall from
the clarinets and other Western European instruments.I wrote,
> From the bulges, I couldn't tell whether the single piece of
> wood on the outside might conceal a labyrinth of separate chambers inserted
> down the bore, as in a racket. I couldn't guess at how to finger a scale.
> Has anyone here played this instrument or anything like it?Eric Mumpower wrote,
>>>I've seen this instrument several times. My understanding of it was that it
>>>was constructed from a single block of wood, split in half, hollowed to have
>>>a single highly-serpentine bore which winds its way from the mouthpiece to
>>>the bell, and then reassembled. (Much like a Serpent, only with many more
>>>turns and with the loops of bore adhered to one another by the virtue of the
>>>wood between them never having been removed.)Eric's description makes sense to me. The instrument was definitely made
from a single block of wood, not jointed in sections like a conventional
clarinet. The block had been split in half lengthwise and then put back
together. The descriptive card didn't say whether the inside of the block
had been carved as the bore or whether something else had been put inside,
but putting something inside would create all sorts of potential problems
with lining up the holes, preventing leaks between outer and inner walls, and
so forth. I think Eric's description sounds more likely. BTW, according to
some people on the klarinet list, there's another Papalini bass clarinet like
this one, in a museum in Brussels.Lelia
(Hoping to get back to playing bass sax next week . . . . Last month, I fell
on the sidewalk, pulled some muscles and bruised some ribs. Taking a deep
breath was not fun for awhile. I'm not entirely sure I can lift the bass
yet, but I'm getting there.)
---------------------------------------------------------Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 18:09:05 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: Re: [CB] Odd bass clarinet in Boston
> >>That wasn't the "Russian Bassoon" was it?
>
>I doubt it. The Nicola Papalini instrument I saw was labelled as a bass
>clarinet on the information card in the display. It had the typical clarinet
>mouthpiece setup with a single reed, not a bocal with a double reed, so it
>clearly was not a bassoon and it would surprise me if anyone has called it a
>bassoon. It didn't really look like a clarinet, either, but it looked even
>less like anything else!Actually, the Russian bassoon isn't a bassoon - doesn't have a reed
at all. It was a predecessor to the ophicleide, more closely related
to the "bass horn". Both the Russian bassoon and the bass horn were
essentially serpents in the general shape of a bassoon (straight up
and down, rather than serpentine), having a cup mouthpiece instead of
a reed. The Russian bassoon differed from the bass horn in that it
sometimes had a bell shaped like a serpent's head (sometimes with a
vibrating metal tongue). There are pictures of bass horns (in metal
and wood) on Doug Yeo's website at
http://www.yeodoug.com/serpentnight.html (the "Serpent Night" page).
Grant
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green
ecode:contrabass http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------From: "Tom Izzo"
Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 01:53:26 -0600
Subject: Re: [CB] Odd bass clarinet in BostonLelia.
>
> Thanks very much for the information! I also wrote about a strange,
compact
> bass clarinet, shaped like a section of intestines. Tom Izzo wrote,
> >>That wasn't the "Russian Bassoon" was it?
>
> I doubt it. The Nicola Papalini instrument I saw was labelled as a bass
> clarinet on the information card in the display. It had the typical clarinet
> mouthpiece setup with a single reed, not a bocal with a double reed, so it
> clearly was not a bassoon and it would surprise me if anyone has called it a
> bassoon.
No the so called "Russian Bassoon", is not a double reed instrument, but
officially is a member of the Aerophone (Brass) family even though can be
made of wood.
It was the instrument built roughly between the Serpent & the Ophicleide,
played with a "cup" mouthpiece looking from a distance like a Bassoon, but
really more resembling a straightened Serpent.It had a short history, mercifully. :-)
Tom
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