[Dixielandjazz] Re: Double Bass

[Mike Durham]

And the sousaphone was originally designed "bell up" (ie with a horizontal 
bell) which was fine until the band tried playing in wet weather. The big 
horn was promptly dubbed "Mr Souza's rain-catcher", and was then 
reconfigured with the forward-pointing bell we know and love today.

Mike "pedantry - I can do that!" Durham

>From: TBW504 at aol.com
>To: koerthchkz at zeelandnet.nl
>CC: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Double Bass
>Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 07:23:18 EST
>
>The term double bass (the terms double bass, bass violin, and contrabass 
>are
>interchangeable) usually refers to the string bass, as opposed to the brass
>bass or tuba (note that a sousaphone is really a tuba adapted for marching)
>Whereas the string bass, the lowest pitched instrument of the violin 
>family,  is
>normally of a standard size the tuba is found as a number of varying sizes
>ranging from the baritone horn or saxhorn, and including the bombardon - a 
>tuba in
>Eflat, to the usually encountered Bflat tuba, and the huge double Bflat 
>tuba.
>It is a technically complicated subject with endless instrumental 
>variations,
>the orchestral tuba developed for Richard Wagner for instance. Personally, 
>I
>use the term bass to denote the stringed instrument; brass bass for 
>anything
>made of metal; and electric bass for the bass guitar in modern usage. 
>Pedantry
>corner: Allan Jaffe played a helicon with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band 
>as
>well as a more conventional tuba. By the way, I looked up helicon in a
>dictionary of music and it said that it was a bass trumpet. Now there's an 
>opportunity
>to amaze your friends. Wait for a lull in the conversation before 
>announcing,
>"Of course Alan Jaffe's walking bass on bass trumpet whilst technically
>anachronistic nevertheless underpins the temporal progress of any duple 
>meter."
>Brian Wood.
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