Tubby the Tuba

Anyone fortunate enough to have lived through the age of ‘steam radio’, Uncle Mac and Children’s Favourites, the mellifluous voice of Danny Kaye telling the story of ‘Tubby the Tuba’, accompanied by Victor Young and his concert orchestra, will be a cherished memory. If you are unfamiliar with the tale, Tubby becomes disillusioned with only playing ‘Oompah’ in the orchestra. Then a frog teaches him a melody within the compass of the instrument. Tubby finally gets the opportunity to show the range of the tuba and the orchestra joins in with great enthusiasm.

The American composers Paul Tripp and George Kleinsinger were inspired to write the story when, having thanked the musicians following a performance of one of their compositions, the tuba player said ‘You know, tubas can sing too’. That night, in December 1941, Paul and George put pen to paper and Tubby was born. However, it wasn’t until after the war that their creation was shared with the world via a 78rpm recording. Since then, ‘Tubby the Tuba’ has been translated into more than 30 languages and [played by many of the world’s orchestras.

In the organ world, tubas have fared a little better than inn many orchestral scores. Three ‘Tuba Tunes’ for the ‘king of instruments’ come to mind. One by C. S. Lang is published by Chester, but perhaps the most famous is that by Norman Cocker.

 Whilst Tripp and Kleinsinger took inspiration from the brass orchestral instrument, Cocker, as organist of Manchester Cathedral, had at his disposal the ‘Tuba Magna’ – a rank of pipes played at high pressure. Unfortunately these pipes were not included in the organ’s rebuild of 1979. The enclosed ‘Orchestral Tuba’ remains, but to quote one critic, ‘is not nearly vulgar enough!’. Cocker’s reputation as a versatile organist lives on. He was often to be seen rushing from the cinema, where he was also organist, to the Cathedral and back again wearing carpet slippers. In his Tuba Tune (Ref MO4 £5.75), Cocker combines the grandeur of the church organ with the showmanship of the cinema organ. Cocker’s Tuba Tune is performed here on the Harrison an Harrison organ at the Temple Church, London by James Vivien in a short film produced, engineered and edited by David Hinitt.

An organist in the same mould as Norman Cocker was Reginald Porter-Brown. His Tuba Tune (Ref H395 £6.00), of only medium difficulty, was a firm favourite in concerts for many years before being published by Stainer & Bell in 1998 – some sixteen years after his death. Born in 1910 in the village of Worsbrough Dale near Barnsley, Porter-Brown became organist at Manchester’s Piccadilly Theatre at the age of twenty-one. In 1935 he opened his first BBC broadcast with the tune that was to become his musical ‘signature’, ‘Oh Mr Porter’.

Samuel Sebastian Wesley

Writing in 1875, Samuel Sebastian Wesley could look back on a period of over forty years as a cathedral organist:

I left London when very young for Hereford, intending to compose chiefly for the Church but . . . there is not only no reward for this but, far worse, such efforts bring an artist of eminence into conflicts with the insufficient means for performing music at Cathedrals: this state of things is the natural result of such an anomaly as that of one professional calling being wholly supervised by another – viz., Musicians by Clergymen, with no other laws for order than those of Henry the Eighth’s time and the common law which treats organists as the servants of the Clergy so that no recognition of the Musician as an Artist and gentleman has any place in a Court of Law.

Despite achieving fame as a performer, respect as a composer and a degree of notoriety for his views on the reform of cathedral music, Wesley never enjoyed the recognition or the position in English musical life he felt he deserved. His final years, spent in Gloucester (where he wrote, there was ‘no great demand for any peculiarly experienced musical ability’), were clouded by feelings of bitterness and regret that he had neither escaped from the artistic isolation of a provincial cathedral, nor succeeded in his lifelong battle to raise the standard of cathedral music and the status of musicians.

S. S. Wesley was born in London in 1810. His father, Samuel Wesley (son of the hymn writer and co-founder of Methodism, Charles Wesley), was one of the foremost organists of his day. Through his influence, his son gained admission to the choir of the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, in 1817, where Samuel Sebastian received a general, but rudimentary, musical education.

After leaving the Chapel Royal in 1826, Wesley held several organists’ posts, and, by the end of the decade, was beginning to make his mark, not only as an organist but also as a composer. The celebrated Musica Britannica series has now devoted three volumes to his anthems, which demonstrates how prolific he was in this field. The latest volume is, like its predecessors, edited by Peter Horton (Ref MB89 £90.00). Volumes I and II are still available (Ref MB57 £96.00 and Ref MB63 £86.00). All three volumes contain extremely informative notes. Samuel Sebastian died in Gloucester on 19th April 1876.

Although (one hears!) differences of opinion can still exist between organists and clergy, Nigel Ogden has some encouraging words for organists in the notes contained in At Your Service — Fifteen Practical Voluntaries for Church Organists (Ref H456 £5.75). Church organists are among the most versatile of musicians. They create the musical glue that holds together our worship, and because each occasion of prayer and than ksgiving is a real event and not a formula, so that anything can happen and quite often does, they must also have the instincts of a musical stage manager. At a moment’s notice they may be required to create or change the mood of a service, or indeed be ready to paper over the cracks!

Astronomer and Musician

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (always known as William) was born in Hanover on 15th November 1738 into a musical family. His father was a bandmaster in the Hanoverian Guards, and it was at the Garrison School that William received his education, excelling in mathematics, languages and music.

Posted to England with his regiment in 1756 to guard against a possible French invasion — the Seven Years War was raging —William learnt English and was determined to become a musician at the close of hostilities. Initially he earned money by copying music, but then took up several appointments around the north of England before moving to Bath as organist at the new Octagon Chapel. He was invited to become oboist in Linley’s famous orchestra which played daily in the Pump Room at a time when Bath was the most fashionable place for the gentry.

Herschel and his sister Caroline — herself a singer — moved into 19 New King Street in September 1777. Here they stayed for two years before moving to a house in Rivers Street.

Although William was professionally a musician and composer, he had always been fascinated with astronomy. His first recorded observations date back to February 1766 when he looked at Venus and an eclipse of the moon. Initially a casual hobby, astronomy began to take over. Learning the skill of making and polishing lenses and mirrors, William constructed his own telescope. Finding his Rivers Street home unsatisfactory, Herschel returned to 19 New King Street, and before the move back was complete, he set up his telescope in the garden. There, on 13th March 1781, he discovered the planet now known as Uranus.

Ironically, this discovery put paid to Herschel’s sojourn in Bath. William’s fame spread and in the spring of 1782 he was summoned by fellow Hanoverian, King George III (a keen amateur scientist), to Windsor, and to bring with him his latest telescope which was far superior to anything then at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The King and Queen, together with other members of the Royal Family, were able to observe Saturn and Jupiter as well as other celestial objects. Herschel was granted a Civil List pension of £200 per year by the King on condition that he live near Windsor and make himself available to show interesting celestial objects to members of his family and their guests. Thus Herschel’s musical career and his connection with 19 New King Street came to an end and the City of Bath was the poorer for it.

However, the musical genes persist, and a descendant of William, Anthony Herschel Hill, is also a composer. Among Anthony’s compositions published by S&B are Four Pieces for Cello and Piano (Ref H178 £6.00); Four Pieces for Double Bass and Piano (Ref H202 £6.30); Two Pieces for Viola and Piano (Ref H179 £6.00) and Ubi Caritas for SATB (Ref W129 £2.15).

19 New King Street is now The William Herschel Museum.  www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk

Creationist Theory

As a result of an article in the Autumn edition of The Bell about musician/astronomer Sir William Herschel (1738–1822), we have heard from his great, great, great grandson, Anthony Herschel Hill, with the suggestion that Joseph Haydn may have been inspired to write the oratorio The Creation following an encounter with Herschel.

Soon after his discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, Herschel moved from Bath to be nearer Windsor at the request of King George III in order that the Royal Family could use his telescopes to view the heavens. In Slough, Herschel constructed a 40ft telescope — so large that it appeared on Ordnance Survey maps. It was here that the meeting took place between the astronomer and Haydn in 1792. The Creation was completed in 1798.

Welcome

To begin this blog we will be including some of the most popular articles that have featured in Stainer & Bell's award winning newsletter 'The Bell' - started 25 years ago in 1987.

Below is a brief history of Stainer & Bell, together with details about our current areas of activity. For a more detailed account of the fascinating Stainer & Bell story, we have compiled a series of pages to mark our first 100 years.

The Birth

Founded in 1907, Stainer & Bell Ltd is a small, independent, family run business, specialising in the publication of quality music and books.

There was neither a Mr Stainer nor a Mr Bell. Tradition has it that the six original partners chose the firm's name because it had a creditworthy ring to it. However, a direct family link with the present management team can be traced back to 1912.

Childhood

Composers published in the early years included Charles Villiers Stanford, Percy Buck, Harold Darke, Thomas Dunhill, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Works by all these writers are still in print, and we are especially pleased to publish many works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, including A Sea Symphony, Toward the Unknown Region, Five Mystical Songs and A London Symphony.

Adult Years/Parenthood

Later, the publishing pedigree was enhanced by the acquisition of Augener, famous for its practical editions of the classical masters; Joseph Williams, one of the oldest British publishing houses, founded in 1808; and Galliard, bringing to the parent company a fine range of cello music.

Carefully nurtured over many years, the catalogue now contains some of the richest treasures from three centuries of British musical achievement, including works by Frank Bridge, Alan Bush, Geoffrey Bush, William Byrd, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Gordon Jacob, Hubert Parry, Henry Purcell and Peter Warlock, and acclaimed tutors and textbooks by Dorothy Bradley & Raymond Tobin, Adam Carse, Neil Mackay, Stewart Macpherson and William Squire.

The four principal contemporary composers in the catalogue are, Morgan Hayes, Bayan Northcott, Rhian Samuel and Roger Steptoe. Their challenging range of songs, concertos and other instrumental pieces is complemented by exciting new educational works from the younger generation of specialist music teachers such as Peter Lawson, Patric Standford and Jeffrey Whitton.

The company has had a number of homes over the years, but in 1991 it moved to Victoria House, a spacious turn-of-the-century building in North London. Up-to-the-minute technology ensures that music in a wide variety of styles is speedily invoiced and despatched to numerous countries throughout the world.
Click on the picture of Victoria House to come in and meet the staff.

100th Birthday...

2007 saw the company celebrating its 100th birthday. A healthy, vibrant and lively centenarian, S&B is actively involved in a diverse range of publishing activities. New hymnody, scholarly volumes, jazz publications, educational music, 'light' organ music and CD-ROMS, combine with the extensive back catalogue to make the rich musical resource that is the Stainer & Bell catalogue.