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’.