Strictly Oompah: Article one on The Harvard Tuba!

Friday, October 11, 2019

Article one on The Harvard Tuba!

This was just published yesterday - the first of three articles on The Harvard Tuba. This one is a kind of teaser for the topic, with the next two detailing its colorful history and glorious restoration. Fun stuff!

The subtitle above is not exactly correct. The Harvard Tuba is not "the world's largest tuba," but rather the world's largest fully-functional tuba that can be played by one person! But even still, it's a beast!

Here's the title and opening paragraph of the article:

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Sousa on the Sousaphone

"The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form know as a 'Helicon.' It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind." (John Philip Sousa, Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1922, p. 8)