This Da Vinci quote was
really not new a new concept to me. In the years between 1956 and 1960 while
attending the Eastman School of Music. I was boasting once to my old teacher in
Los Angeles, Robert Marsteller, that I had a fellow student, a trombonist, in
Eastman who was reputed to be a better student than the famous Gordon Pulis,
the first trombonist of the New York Philharmonic in the 1940s. Mr.
Marsteller broke into laughter and said “God help the student who isn’t better
than Gordon Pulis was when he was a student”. Robert Marsteller was a man of
vision.
I’ve always been quite
aware that there were two levels of tuba playing in my life, the one that
existed in my mind and the one that existed in my hands, With the physical
encumberments of breathing, embouchure, tonguing and fingering, regardless of
how much I worked, never reached the level of that tuba in my mind. It’s
interesting that after I played my last concert in 2001, that tuba perceived in
my mind continued to develop in a more musical direction without those physical
encumberments of actually playing.
There was, however,
something else happening in the tuba world that was broadening my tuba vision.
A new generation of tubists was emerging that was abundantly realizing the
words of Da Vinci. Through the last decade I have seen increasingly numerous
students ‘surpassing their teachers’ and from my personal vista I have heard
students in Asia, North America and Europe even surpassing that perceived tuba
that existed only in my musical mind, in fact, much of my lately acquired tuba
awareness has come from those students.
Our world of Tubadom is a
superb microcosm of the changing world we live in. The growth, the awareness
and the excellence seen in our art is truly amazing, but although nothing like
it has ever happened before in music history, it’s just an example of
what we see in our daily lives. Computer science, cell phones and automobiles
are other examples of improvements coming so fast it’s nearly impossible for us
to keep up.
There is a vast difference,
however, between the progress in technologies and that of our small, isolated
and idealistic world of the tuba. The world today needs better computers,
better cell phones, and more efficient cars. But there is another powerful motivation regarding computers,
cell phones, cars and the other vast growing necessary products appearing in
our world; the better these products become the more money there is to be made.
The development of the tuba
is quite different and inspired by a different kind of energy. Our level of
performance, the vision of what can be, the teaching, the institutions that
promote our instruments and its performance are all primarily inspired by the
fact that we love music and we love this instrument; that’s a very powerful
energy. The instrument manufactures are, of course, happy with our idealism and
happy to provide us with the equipment we require; we are lucky to have them and
our idealism means more profit for them.
It’s dangerous to take too
much time reflecting on our accomplishments of the past. Even so, it’s quite
appropriate to reflect, a little retrospect is good; it can show us a
clearer direction to continue this historical success.
Amsterdam, March 25, 2009
Revised July 12, 2012,
Tokyo
