Dr. Loucky played a passage from the famous tuba part in Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique and Prof. Brown played the same passage on a modern large F tuba, highlighting the differences and similarities between the two instruments. As a collector and owner of an original ophicleide made during the mid-19th century, I was truly fascinated by this presentation.

Other ITEC Luminaries

One of the many clinicians at ITEC was English euphonium virtuoso Steven Mead, who, in my opinion, is one of the finest euphonium soloists on the scene today. I was able to thank Steven personally for the usefulness of one of his many clinics which I attended at last year's Midwest. Steven's clinic on his method of teaching low brass, which included a four-page handout that outlined the main points of his method, I have found to contain excellent, clear advice. Having heard Steven play in several different recital settings over the years, I have nothing but utter admiration for his mastery of his chosen instrument.

Of course, there were too many other clinics and concerts given during ITEC to be able to mention all of them, but it was great to see and talk with Roger Bobo, Sam Pilafian

TE Historic Collection Expands

One hundred forty, and counting; that is the current number of historic tubas we have here at The Tuba Exchange. This past year has seen the addition of some very interesting instruments to the collection. Three of the most interesting are a true double tuba made in Hamburg, Germany, by Carl Lehmann; a Holton short action sousaphone using a bizarre valve system we had never before seen; and an extremely rare Moennig BBb tuba, made approximately 1875.

The Lehmann double tuba is a fascinating instrument. It is an F and BBb tuba combined, and incorporates an almost 7" long rotary valve which adds all the additional lengths needed to the four valve slides to allow it to play in tune in the key of BBb. The F tuba side of the instrument is very good, while the BBb side is not as good because the instrument's size is more suited to an F tuba. It is 36" high, with a 14.25" bell. The workmanship is excellent. It is a beautiful example of what a mechanical genius wrestling with the problem of making a

workable double tuba can do.
The large Holton BBb sousaphone is also fascinating, with its own patented "short action" piston valve system. I had never heard of a Holton short action instrument. When I heard the description, I thought it was a Conn 20K sousaphone, the modern short action valve instrument still being produced and quite common. Imagine my surprise, when the owner brought the sousaphone to The Tuba Exchange and I discovered it WAS a Holton and it did have a "short action" valve system.

However, I was to be even more surprised when I removed one of the valves to see how Holton achieved a short action piston. To my astonishment, the piston had no ports going all the way through the valve as is found on a normal piston. Instead, what I observed was a piston that appeared to have two sections cut out of it, like half moons. On further inspection, I noticed that the slide tubes coming off the valves were squeezed almost flat at the point they were attached to the valves. Each "half moon" port in the piston lined up with two of the crimped slide tubes. What Holton did was to take a rotary valve, split it in half, and stack the two halves on top of each other in the piston. Very clever; and it almost works, except that in the very low register, the