[Dixielandjazz] Verdi and Valves

[eupher dude]

Robert,
my understanding is completly opposite what you stated...Wikipedia (that definitive bastion of
all knowledge...) agrees with my understanding.
 
Verdi actually supported the valve trombone, one big reason was the space saving, so he could have more strings in the orchestra pit.  He did not really care for the tuba, so he wrote for the cimbasso, essentially a valved contrabass trombone.  Whether he liked the valve trombone or not, that was what was always used in his productions, in Italy at least.
 
But, I'm going to do some further research.  
 
Jazz content:
Playing every Friday nite with Bobby Grimm and Al Lehman, banjos, Pat Arana, trombone, and me on tuba at Sands Restaurant in South St Louis County, 7-10pm.
 
We're essentially trying to recreate the Your Father's Mustache and Banjo Palace days, from the Gaslight Square era.  They're doing the routines on tunes they did back then, which is fine except they forget to tell me what that routine is!  And here I am, trying to do what Red Lehr did back then.  Hmmm...anyone have a seatbelt that fits on a restaurant chair?
 
What a blast!  And, an honor to be playing with these guys.  It's also fun to give 'em crap about relative ages...sometimes it's nice to still be considered a youngster in the music, yet it's always nice to have a 20-something around and playing, too.
 
steve hoog

> One thing I know about valve trombones is that Verdi campaigned fiercely against 
> their presence in opera orchestras, I think because of?problems of pitch 
> in?Italian opera orchestra ensemble work?due to their widespread use and his 
> larger musical ambitions.