Soon I will be on the road again, Checking in at airports,
passing security, sitting long hours on transcontinental flights and enduring
jetlag. Of course, I really dislike this but otherwise I’m looking forward to these
trips, a new series of masterclasses, this time in North America and Europe.
This is one of my greatest pleasures in life.
RB
When I was
beginning to learn the tuba at age 13 (1952), I was extremely lucky to have
connected with a great teacher, his name was Robert Marsteller; he was first
trombonist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and a virtuoso euphonium
player. But he was much more than just that, he was a visionary. Not only was
he a great teacher of musicality and the basics of instrumental function, but also,
he was able to see the potential of the tuba, the tuba of the future. And the
tuba that he envisioned over 50 years ago was,
in fact, very close to the tuba that’s emerged into today’s world. This growth
process, this tuba evolution that Mr.
Marsteller predicted over a half century ago, is still in progress.
Never before has anything
like this happened in music history; a relatively new instrument arrives on the
scene, and in an incredibly short period of time, considering the big vista of
music history, evolves to the level that the tuba has become today... with virtuoso
artists in classical, popular, jazz, and almost all genres of music, a
formidable solo repertoire, and an amazing
collective energy amongst its aficionados. The tuba, just over a century old, is
the newest instrument to be accepted into the symphony orchestra community. Its
development has been huge, and there seems to be no end in sight.
Where will it go from here?
A difficult
question with no sure answer, but with over sixty years of retrospective I can
certainly make an educated guess, and my guess is that this tuba evolution is going to
continue.
But I’m preparing for a masterclass today, in today’s world.
Playing
a brass instrument, not only tuba, but any
brass instrument, is very much like singing. Of course, it’s similar because of
the use of air to make the sound, but more importantly it’s that the source of the sound is organic; the
sound comes from a part of our body. For voice, it’s the vibration of the larynx,
our vocal chords, and in brass playing it’s our lips that make the sound. We’ve
all seen how great singers prepare their voices by vocalizing before performing,
or even before just practicing; it’s exactly the same for brass players.
When
I lived in Florence, Italy, in the 1990s, I would occasionally play with the
Maggio Musicalli Orchestra, that’s Florence’s symphony and opera orchestra. One
of the projects I was involved in during that time was a production of several
performances and a recording of Verdi’s opera, Il Trovatore, with Luciano
Pavarotti singing the male lead, the part of Manrico. In my playing career I always enjoyed
arriving early for performances, so I could relax, have a cup of coffee, make a
good warmup, and to observe the performance
preparations of the great artists
that I’ve been privileged to work with. Maestro Pavarotti had three things he always did before a
performance. He would put on his makeup, in this case for the part of Manrico
in Il Trovatore. He seemed to enjoy talking to people and he would vocalize.
These vocalizations that he did were particularly interesting to me because one
of them was almost exactly what I had written several years before in my book
of brass warmups and exercises called Mastering
the Tuba.
My
joke is that it makes me very proud that Luciano Pavarotti used the Bobo Mastering the Tuba book as part of his
vocalizing --- or, in brass jargon, as part of his warmup routine!! Of course, that’s a joke, but then,
where did he find that same exercise? The fact is, many of these vocal
exercises have been around for hundreds of years and because they’ve been
proven to work so well for voice, and because of the strong similarities
between singing and brass playing, it’s only logical that these old vocal materials
were frequently borrowed and adapted by the brass teachers and players of the
time. Mastering the Tuba is no
exception; much of the material has
been adapted from those old vocal methods, and some from less old, brass
methods, which many originated from older vocal methods.
There
are really just two things involved in musical performance; first and always is
the music. Primeraly, knowing the way we want the music to
sound. Secondly, in order to realize the music as we hear it in our
minds ear, we need to develop and maintain the necessary instrumental skills.
For brass playing that would include breathing, articulation, embouchure and fingering.
Hopefully, the music will inspire us to develop those skills. Of course, in the
study of music performance we need to deal with both.
I’m
fortunate that in my masterclasses I usually attract advanced students and with
these advanced students, we usually concentrate on the musical aspects, but if working for that musical result requires
it, then we need to take a closer look
at those more fundamental skills.
Every
student is different, very different.
The interest, fascination and the joy of teaching is perhaps the most important
aspect of music. These differences occur with each individual, each
nationality, each municipality and each age group. This upcoming teaching tour
is going to be very enjoyable.
February
24, 2013, Tokyo
