All together now - six tubas at once!

It's always fun to stumble upon something related to your research when you're not even looking for it - which is exactly what happened the other day, while I was mining for more information on Herman Conrad, who ended up being the world's first Sousaphonist.

Before Conrad was with Sousa, and playing the Sousaphone, he was with Gilmore's Band, playing a rather spectacular BBb helicon bass (the Sousaphone, by the way, was a modified helicon). But a few years before he immigrated from West Prussia to join Gilmore, the great bandmaster was having fun with his tuba section.

Here's what I stumbled upon, which is a listing of part of the program of a concert of Gilmore's Band in St. Louis on October 6, 1886. Notice the second feature:

"Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" was a favorite solo for tuba, or trombone, back in those days, but this time Gilmore took it to the next level. Not only did he have all four of his tuba players in the band play it, but he added two more, to make it six!

Listman, Reiter (probably Reuter), Fahning, and Mirenda are likely the four seen in this photo of the band from Manhattan Beach in 1884:

While I can't be sure, I'm guessing that's Conrad Listeman directly behind Gilmore's fancy music stand, as he was his star bass player since at least 1874. And the guy behind him, to the right, looking off to the right, with his bushy mustache, is perhaps the Italian, Domenico Mirenda, who was recruited by Gilmore the year this photo was taken, 1884.

In fact, let me digress for just a moment on Mirenda, as I found an article on him from 1890, that clarifies that Gilmore had never before met a more talented bass player. He is another one of those "forgotten giants of the tuba," as I have dubbed Conrad. Check out his story, and esp. Gilmore's assessment of him as a musician:

The two guys on the left of both Listeman and Mirenda in the photo would probably be Anton Reuter, a German, just like Listeman, and J. Fahning, who, a year later, perhaps because he was tall (it seems), ended up playing the monster helicon that Herman Conrad, who was ridiculously tall himself, ended up playing when he joined the band (that horn is nowhere to be found in this photo of the band; it appears to have been added the following year, 1885).

Those four guys are definitely identified as members of Gilmore's Band at the time of the concert (although all but Mirenda left after 1886). I'm less sure about Hennesssey and Wernig. Were they pulled in just for this spectacle? Perhaps! But either way, it must have been fun to hear all six of them playing the solo in unison. I wonder if Gilmore brought them to the front of the stage for that?!