Part 1 appears in the ITEA Journal!

Article three on The Harvard Tuba!

The third, and final, article on The Harvard Tuba came out in this week's edition. Here's the cover:

This installment is all about the glorious restoration of this amazing instrument, which was completed back in June. Here's the first page of the article:

Article two on The Harvard Tuba!

The second article of three, telling the story of The Harvard Tuba, was published today. Here's the cover of the issue:

This article represents the heart of my research on this historic horn, and I'm thrilled to see it finally published! Here's the beginning of the first page:

Harvard Band's 100th - with tuba!

Last night, the Harvard Band celebrated its 100th anniversary, and in their montage concert featured a work written especially for their newly restored giant tuba - "Caprice for a Great Big Tuba" by Lewis J. Buckley. Performing on the beast was Mike Roylance, principle tubist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The tuba is brought out at 1:01:40, and the performance begins at 1:05:25 - click here to watch it on YouTube.

Here are a few images of the historic performance (taken from the video):

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:

It's the Blue Band time of year again!

A new home for The Harvard Tuba

The 130-year-old giant tuba, known as The Harvard Tuba, has lived in a corner of the Harvard Band room since late 1948. Needless to say, it got banged around!

And when the restoration of this amazing instrument was completed in July, it was temporarily returned to its old corner:

But finally - whew! - a custom-crafted display case has been installed, where this historic horn will live for the next 130 years.

If you're thinking of paying it a visit, know that it is still in the Harvard Band room (after all - they "stole" it fair and square!), but at least now it is protected and presented as the prized possession that it is. Long live this prodigious beauty!

Oh, and just to be clear on how big this horn really is, here's the earliest known photograph of the beast at Harvard - taken sometime between 1948 and 1950. And, I should add, these are the likely suspects of the aforementioned "theft." That story will have to wait until my article on the history of this tuba comes out in a week or two. Stay tuned!

The restoration of the Harvard Tuba

Here are some of the best photos of the restoration of the Harvard Tuba that was completed by Dillon Music last month. To begin with, we see Matt Walters, back in February, contemplating the difficult work to be done:

Among the most obvious things that needed to be fixed were the bell, the second valve slide, and the valves:

Matt worked from the inside out, in order to always have a reference point. Here is how the work began, using bean bag chairs to cushion the instrument:

So far, so good! Matt seemed encouraged!

The bottom bow, it turns out, weighs almost 18 pounds - and makes a nice fashion accessory, as Steve Dillon discovered:

But alas, the stylish belt buckle was returned to the bottom of the horn:

Now, about that very messed up bell - it started with a mild annealing process, to soften the brass as it was burnished and rolled out:

It continued with a modified rig to roll the bell:

Finally, Matt added a little hand burnishing:

Thank God, the bell survived all of that manipulation - and Steve didn't miss the opportunity to preach it with style!

After polishing it up, the bell went back on:

And then Matt added a few final touches:

Oh, and one last thing - a new, proportionally correct mouthpiece was created!

And there you have it! Here is Matt and Steve with the newly restored Harvard Tuba!

And finally, here is the entire team that did the work - from left to right, Fred Harvey, Evan Judson, Matt Walters (hiding behind the horn), Vladimir Friedman (who created the mouthpiece), Steve Dillon, and Perry Sutton:

This amazing instrument was then carefully hauled back up to Harvard (those bean bag chairs came in handy again!), where it was put back in its corner of the band room (the following photos are courtesy of Mark Olson, director of the Harvard Band):

It now awaits its new display case, and the opportunity to be played in concert for the first time in October, in celebration of the Band's 100th anniversary.

The full story of this horn's glorious restoration will appear in an upcoming edition of The Brass Herald, written by yours truly.

Dizzy Dean on Sousaphone in 1934

I stumbled upon this photograph today, showing Dizzy Dean, of the St. Louis Cardinals, appearing to play the Sousaphone before a 1934 game. Play ball (and tuba)!