seal is not sufficient to allow the low notes to pop out as well as they should. It is extremely fascinating, nonetheless. I wonder why more of these instruments were not made with this system. If anyone knows, please contact me.

We also are very fortunate to add to our collection a very rare instrument by Henry William Moennig, who made brass instruments in New York City from 1857 until 1883. The instrument we acquired is pitched in BBb with four rotary valves, and looks rather like a modern German style rotary valve tuba except for one major difference.

The key linkage, unlike the modern system, is composed of keys directly attached to each valve casing; and incorporates a string linkage to the valve. This system was used in the U.S. by brass instrument makers until approximately 1880.

After receiving the Moennig, I spoke with Mark Elrod, a noted authority on Civil War era brass instruments, and learned that our Moennig BBb tuba may be the earliest BBb tuba made in the U.S., dating from approximately 1875.

Other additions to the collection are (1) a beautiful 4/4 size four rotary valve model 103 BBb Alexander tuba, made by that well-known German firm which dates from the early 1960’s (2) a Cerveny model CBB 601-4, one

of the largest modern rotary valve BBb tubas made from the 1970s; and last but not least, (3) a giant Martin four piston valve BBb tuba dating from the 1940s that belonged to Leonard Jung, Retired Principal Tuba with the Navy Band. All three of these instruments play extremely well, especially the Alexander and Martin.

TE Receives Visitors -

Since our last issue, we have had several distinguished visitors to The Tuba Exchange:

Joseph Hebert, Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Loyola University of New Orleans, and formerly Principal Tuba with the New Orleans Philharmonic, visited our store while on a family trip. Joe is a superb BBb tuba player whose teachers include Ross Tolbert and Joe Novotny. I have known Joe since our time together at the Manhattan School of Music in 1965. Joe visited us to select some 3/4 tubas for Loyola. He chose the Weril J680L for his program. Joe personally plays one of our St. Petersburg model 202N BBb tubas which he has endorsed ever since we began offering them in 1994.

Lee Hipp, Principal Tuba for the San Antonio Symphony and Tuba Instructor at the Eastern Music Festival, held each summer at Guilford College,

North Carolina, brought two of his students at Eastern to visit The Tuba Exchange to try some of our F tubas. It is always a great pleasure for me to meet and hear promising students, and Lee's students were very talented.

We were delighted to have Leonard Jung, Retired Principal Tuba of the US Navy Band, visit us. Leonard, who is now in his 80's and still plays beautifully, contacted me because he had played one of our St. Petersburg tubas and wanted to purchase one for himself. His wonderful old Martin BBb tuba was too large for him to play comfortably. We agreed to trade Leonard's Martin towards a St. Petersburg model 202N. The Martin is now in our collection, and Leonard is the happy owner of a St. Petersburg 202N. For more from Mr. Jung, see his guest article in this issue on the King tuba that got away.

Traveling the farthest to come to The Tuba Exchange, Jorgen Arnsted, retired Principal Tuba of the Danish Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Tuba at the Copenhagen Music High School, paid us a surprise visit in October. Professor Arnsted was very impressed by our historic collection, and I enjoyed very much talk ing with him about historic instruments. Professor Arnsted studied at