ENTERTAINMENT
University Daily Kansan, October 18, 1984
Page 7
Musician seeks to end 'oompah' tuba image
By JULIE COMINE
Staff Reporter
Tuba players don't get no respect. Just ask Scott Watson.
"The tuba is the Rodney Dangerfield field of musical instruments," Watson said recently. "Everyone pictures the tuba player as that instrument. It was an ornament, an orophaphon, in the back of the band."
Watson, KU's music instructor of tuba and euphonium, wants to change that image.
"IM OUT TO demolish all the stereotypes about tubas," he said. "People have an affection for the instrument that you give there; there is a very serious side to the instrument."
This weekend, Watson and the midwest tuba players will pay tribute to their instrument in the second annual Octubafest, a five-day series of recitals, concerts and clinics sponsored by the department of music.
Denis Winter, a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard Band and professor of low brass at the University of Central Arkansas, Conway, Ark., will be the guest artist.
On Saturday, Winter will conduct a clinic for low brass students at 3 p.m. in 102 Murphy Hall and will perform a euphonium recital at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall.
On Sunday, the Midwestern High School All-Star Tuba Ensemble and Kansas Tuba Consort will perform at 3 p.m. in Swarthout.
WATSON WILL CONCLUDE the Oct-
ing session. We perform the performs a
triumph at 8 p.m. in Swarthout.
Watson, who is jolly but hardly fat, came to the University of Kansas as a graduate student in 1979. He organized the Octoberfest last year to recognize the tuba as a concert instrument — not just the "oompah-oompah" at the back of the band.
Joe Wilkins III/KANSAN
The tuba has come a long way since its debut in Germany in 1835, but Watson says many people still don't have their tuba facts straight.
"Yes, we can play the marching music of John Philip Sousa, but we can also play modern composers and older classical works," he said.
People should not assume that all instruments with broad, shiny bells are tubas, Watson said. There are tubas, and then there are euphoniums and sousaphones.
THE EUPHONIUM, which is about half the size of a tuba, has a musical range similar to a trombone.
“It's not a key member of the symphony orchestra,” he said. “About the only professional outlet for euphonium players is the military band.”
And what most people think of as tubas that ones overused instruments wrapped around
"Everyone pictures the tuba player as that fat, jolly guy who isn't very musical going 'oompah-oompah' in the back of the band."
"A rose is a rose is a rose" does not necessarily hold true for euphonium. The horn on the left is an E flat tuba, and the one on the right is a CC tuba.
over the shoulders of marching band members — are actually sousaphones, Watson explained.
sousaphone, named for Sousa, were developed in 1898, when one of the musicians in Sousa's marching band complained that he couldn't hold on to a tuba and march at the
Scott Watson, music instructor of tuba and euphonium
"A sousaphone, basically, is a tuba stretched into a more manageable shape for outside performances," he said. "The sound is louder, and the shape of the instrument directs the sound for use at football games and parades."
TWO YEARS AGO. Watson taught tuba and euphonium lessons to only six students. But this semester, Watson gives lessons to 17 students in his small practice studio on the third floor of Murphy Hall.
Some of his students plan to perform in orchestras or concert bands, he said, and some to have careers in music education.
"And then there are those engineering majors who just get a kick out of playing the tuba," he said.
Watson first picked up the tuba while attending junior high school in Tuscaloosa.
"I always wanted to be a jock, but somehow I ended up playing tuba," he said. "There was something about the size of the instrument — almost a mythical quality."
WATSON RECEIVED a bachelor's degree
in music from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1979, then got his master's degree in tuba performance from the University of Kansas in 1981.
"My favorite thing about the tuba is the sound," he said. "It is a combination of a pipe organ and a French horn. I just love to hear a wonderful low note fill the symphony hall."
But landing a spot playing tuba in a symphony orchestra isn't easy. There are about 30 major symphony orchestras in the United States, each with only one tuba player.
"The competition is stiff." he said. "When one of those orchestras has an audition, about 150 people will turn out, and at least 100 of those will be qualified."
When he's not giving tuba and euphonium lessons, Watson teaches a music history class for non-music majors and performs with other KU faculty in the Kansas Brass Quintet. He's also a member of U T B A. the Tubist's Universal Brotherhood Association.
"I love all kinds of music—classical, jazz, rock," he said. "I can't stand stuffy musicianship. You have to have fun with the music."
DAVID HOPPER COUNTY COMMISSION
DAVID HOPPER WILL WORK HARD TO SAVE YOUR TAX MONEY!
He will:
Work for a more efficient, cost effective government, with less duplication and more consolidation to SAVE YOUR tax dollars.
Work for sound management practices, such as centralized purchasing, which will SAVE a lot of YOUR tax money.
EARN the nearly $16,000 salary that YOU pay the County Commissioners. He will take his job seriously. He will keep in touch and keep informed so that he CAN SAVE YOUR tax dollars by making wise budget decisions based on sound reasons.
YOU CAN TRUST DAVID HOPPER TO BRING A FRESH AND HONEST APPROACH TO THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE!
Pd. Pol. Adv. Hopper for County Commission, Carol Brown, Treas.
ask
STARRING KEN RICHTERS
Put your foot (and your glass) down.
It's not easy to resist pressure. But if we are going to tackle the drinking
October 23, 8 pm
Audison Alderson
Tickets available for
$2.00 a SA Office
A $5.00 student
interested students will
begin at 5 pm
Nobody has the right to force a drink down your throat.
"What! You're not drinking?" When somebody asks, "What are you having to drink? nowadays most people assume drink 'makes alcohol' and consider it a friendly gesture. Most of us enjoy a drink once in a while, but there are times when YOU don't want to drink, or YOU feel you ve had enough. That's when the pressure to drink becomes so high that people will become quite hostile if you don't join them. Hey look, the last of the big drinkers!"
problem in this country, we must all have the courage to refuse the drink that's being forced down our throats. Consider that 25,000 traffic accidents in Kansas each year are alcohol related. 68% of all drownings are alcohol related. Consider also that 773,575 Kansans are directly effected by alcohol-related problems. More than half of the Kansans have a drinking problem. But, all the statistics come down to one thing: the drink in your hand and your responsible attitude towards it. It's our social attitudes that help cause the problems; it's by speaking out that you'll help them.
A ONE-MAN SHOW
Tell other people where you stand.
By having the courage of your convictions to speak out against behavior such as 'come on, just one more' you will encourage others to say the same thing. If you're not sure what to say, cut this out. The information may help you to state your case.
MARK
TWAIN
ON
TOUR
'Dialogue on drinking' is a program to help you do just that. Think and talk about the problems. If you have any specific comments, we'd like to hear from you. We believe that if enough people talk about the problems, we're that much closer to solving them.
Alcohol Awareness 1984 PLEASE IF YOU DRINK -- BE RESPONSIBLE. YOUR DRINKING IS A PRIVILEGE
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