Word: tubas
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...musician knows, it takes a lot of brass to be a tuba player. Generally, tubas range in size from the B-flat tenor (10 Ibs., 151 in. of tubing), which is hugged to the player's chest and sometimes goes pah-pah, to the large, economy-size B-flat bass (29 Ibs., 387 in.), which is often worn somewhat like a life preserver and mostly goes oompah. One thing that tuba players have in common is a fear that audiences are laughing at them. To many nonmusicians, indeed, the tuba appears absurd -there is always some fellow...
Such a man is 43-year-old Phil Catelinet, one of England's foremost tuba players. Last week Phil Catelinet realized a secret dream of tubamen everywhere: he played a full-fledged tuba concerto with the London Symphony...
...Call. Catelinet, who started out as a child in the brass section of a Salvation Army band, now plays tuba for both London's Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Symphony. Six weeks ago, he got an important call. The London Symphony, preparing for its soth jubilee concert, had asked Ralph Vaughan Williams, Britain's No. 1 composer, to write a special composition for the celebration. Vaughan Williams just happened to have a tuba concerto * lying around, agreed to have it played if the orchestra had a tubaman up to the job. Would Catelinet like to audition for Vaughan...
Unhappily, there was a mix-up at the concert: Catelinet's place on the program was changed without his knowledge, and he had to wait in the wings, hugging his tuba, for 20 minutes. By the time they got onstage, both Catelinet and his instrument (which, like all cussed brasses, needs a lot of last-minute tootling to warm it up) had a case of chills. The orchestra broke into the concerto, and the tuba came in disconcertingly off cue. The whole first movement, in fact, sounded as if there were pigeons in the brass, alas...
...play, Flamingo, telecast on last week's Danger, was written by Steve Allen. The music for the featured song, Forbidden Love, was composed by Steve Allen. The leading man: Steve Allen. Allen admits to even greater versatility: "I can play the tuba, make up songs from any four notes struck at random, and do a lot of stupid little things like a tap dance with my fingernails." In addition, Allen records bebop fairy tales, is writing a novel ("It's about the crackup of a marriage"), is working on a critical analysis of his fellow TV comics ranging...