The Clear-eyed Helicon

 

To play a helicon,
the first wrap-around tuba,
a musician must make a serious commitment.
Such a large instrument requires
a good ear and a lot of breath control
since all its notes will be
the foundation of any band's music.

Likewise being a father,
and a husband, too, 
demands steadfast dedication
and conscientious practice. 
Raising a child requires a lot of patience
and at least one good eye
to keep a kid on the right path.

.

I think this no-nonsense fellow
knew something about personal discipline
as his photos are unusual examples
of a musician posed with the loves of his life,
his instrument and his family. 

These two small portraits came to my collection
united in their original tattered paper envelope
but separated from their family photo album
so I do not know their names, location, or date.
And unfortunately the photographer
left no mark either so I have to guess
that they are posed somewhere in America
in the late 1860s or 1870s.

The photos are tintypes, also called a ferrotype or melanotype,
which was a photographic process that used a thin sheet of metal
that was not actually made of tin but of iron (i.e. ferro).
It was coated with a collodion emulsion of silver halide  

that when exposed to light in a camera
produced a positive image
directly onto the metal plate. 
The resulting image is reversed
left to right like a mirror reflection.
This is evident in these two photos
because the valves of a helicon
are played with the right hand,
not the left as in the image.

Using digital software I can flip
the man's portrait to show his true likeness.

Now not only is his helicon in the correct position
but so is his right walleye too.
He appears to be in a photographer's studio
as his chair is in front of a painted interior backdrop
with a rumpled linoleum floor.
But it might have been taken outdoors
perhaps set up in the front yard of his home.

The man's family portrait with his wife and son
 was clearly taken outside as they are seated on a grassy lawn
and other neighboring houses are visible.  

Another useful clue for a tintype's orientation
is to see how buttons are arranged on a male garment.
A man's or boy's shirt or jacket almost always
has buttons inserted into holes on the left side
putting the seam edge on the right.

Here with the image reversed both father and son

now have their buttons done up correctly.
However mother's tight bodice buttons are also arranged
like her husband's with buttonholes on the left.
This is likely a dressmaker's convenience
that demonstrates how fashion
does not have hard and fast rules.

There's not much more to tell about this bandsman and his family
as what we see is only a brief moment in their lives.
It's likely that he earned a living at some other trade or business
as playing a tuba or helicon has never been a good way to make money.
His military style uniform is rather stylish
and suggests he was a member of a band
associated with a state militia.
But that was not like a regular army band
and would only be semi-professional work
performing for local parades and civic events.

Whatever his regular occupation
this helicon player seems to have done pretty well
to keep his son with nice shoes
and his wife in elegant dresses and hats.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where where the only rule
(a suggestion really)
is to leave only footprints behind.

Babes and Mutts

  

Kids can be a real handful. 
They always seem to be rushing around,
getting into stuff they shouldn't,
and generally making a mess for mom and dad.

Even when they're infants and less mobile
they still require a lot of attention
since babies fall over so easily.

 Dogs can be a nuisance too.
Equally as curious and suspicious as children
they are easily provoked into dashing about
on their more stable four-legged drive,

which gives them an advantage over toddlers,
and makes them much harder to catch. 

If only there was some way to keep kids and dogs
confined in some kind of portable safety device. 

Fortunately for parents and dog owners
both children and dogs
can be successfully trained
for proper social behavior
if you have the right equipment. 

A tuba.

This photo postcard shows two hefty babes stuffed into the bell of a tuba. They are posed with a parent clutching the tuba, an EE-flat three piston model, while seated on the stoop of what, presumably, is their home. The children are dressed in winter woolen wear with caps. The print is faded, which I have corrected a bit, and is marred by circular marks pressed into the image.  The postcard was never mailed but has a note on the back.

Gertrude, Cliff and Bob  Sipe 

The reason I say parent is that I'm unsure whether it is mom or dad holding the tuba. The name order suggests that the child on left with the bow is Gertrude, with Cliff, the dad, center, and Bob the child on the right. But looking closely I'm also wondering if the adult may be a woman. The lower legs look like they are covered with a dress and an apron. The face also looks more feminine than masculine. Perhaps she is Gertrude and Cliff and Bob are the children. Or maybe Bob Sipe is the dad and he holds Gertrude and Cliff in his tuba. It's a puzzle that sadly Ancestry.com could not solve as the surname Sipe did not turn up any matches in those different combinations. But still it is a charming snapshot, though unplugging two infants from a tuba can't have been easy.  One of those babes is bound to complain. Besides no self-respecting tubist should ever use a pair of mutes together. That would just stop its bass tones altogether.  

My second photo is unusual because it's a rare use of a small canine as a tuba mute. This bandsman has his helicon, a type of bass tuba with plumbing worn over the shoulder, resting on the ground while his dog, a small boxer or large Boston terrier relaxes in the instrument's bell. Dogs usually can keep a good metronomic beat with their tail, and can sing howl along to the music, too. But these breeds often have docked tails which aren't as good as a Labrador or Collie. Their toenails also scratch the inside of the bell. But clearly in a pinch, a smallish dog can work as a tuba mute as well as any baby. 

On the front of this  postcard photo the musician signed his name: Stanley Paddack.  Unfortunately, though the surname is not common, there were no clear matches in Ancestry.com. If only we knew the name of the dog. Maybe Stanley is the dog's name and Paddack its master. Who knows. It's another unsolvable tuba mystery.

For more photos of babes in tubas and helicons
try these stories:

The Family Portrait
The Bassic Baby Carrier
Another Tuba Baby
Tuba Babies

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where no one can say no to a basket of puppies.

More Tinplated Brass, the Uniform Edition

 

American musicians used to pay strict attention
to the gleam of their brass buttons,
the fringe on their shoulder boards,
and the frill in their shako.

 

 

 

 Collars and cuffs,
 aiguillettes and epaulets,
braids and buckles,
all required fuss and bother to assemble
into a proper bandsman's uniform.

Today I feature a selection
of ferrotype photos—tintypes
of musicians in their best dress uniform.
It's a continuation of my story from earlier this year
The Tinplated Brass.

As we admire these outfits and instruments,
all members of the low brass family,
let us appreciate that each musician
has either just finished, or is about to commence,
marching in a long parade with their fellow bandsmen.

It would not be an exaggeration to say
that 19th century America
was one endless parade
of scintillating music played by men
in seriously flashy uniforms.

{click any image for a closer look}

 

The first ferrotype is of a bandsman dressed in a fancy cutaway jacket with tails, triple rows of buttons, striped trousers, and a plumed shako hat.  His instrument has a kind of flugelhorn shape with a large bell, almost a bass trumpet in size. He stands in front backdrop with a fake interior scene painted with a very poor sense of perspective

 

A ferrotype, or tintype photograph captures light through a camera lens as a reflection onto a photographic emulsion that was painted onto a thin metal sheet. It was typically made of iron but despite its name, never of tin. The exposure creates a positive image much like the reverse image we see in a mirror. It's very similar to the grey-tone images made by daguerreotype and ambrotype photographs. But like those early photography mediums the ferrotype was a singular unique image that couldn't be duplicated. Nonetheless the ferrotype photo proved popular with the public in the 1865-1885 era because it required very little preparation by the photographer and the result was very cheap to produce.

 

Because these photos produce mirror image, I like to flip them with digital photo software to show the musical instruments as they would really be played. In this case, all brass instruments, with the exception of my instrument, the French horn, are designed with valve keys played with the right hand. Here is the same bandsman now reversed.

 

 

* * *

 

 

This next portrait shows a trombonist dressed in a similar uniform as the previous bandsman. However this man's jacket has two ornamental braided cords, the aiguillettes, draped over his chest. This military decoration has no practical purpose though its placement is particular to regimental traditions. 

 

The instrument is a piston valve trombone, possibly in E-flat as it looks shorter than the standard B-flat models. It also has engraved designs on the bell. The image above is what the tintype looks like without any digital correction. Here is how it looks flipped horizontally and with better contrast.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The next bandsman's picture once lived in a 19th century photo case. The light ovoid halo around the image is the stain from the paper or metal matte. Ferrotypes often have irregular edges because they were cut from a larger piece of sheet metal. Some were as small as a postage stamp called "gem", and were intended to be displayed in a locket. Others were very large, 11" x 14" which necessitated a larger camera and special processing. These were of course more expensive. This one came in the most popular size called a "Bon-ton", approximately 2-3⁄8" × 3-1⁄2" (60 mm × 89 mm). It's about the same size as the carte de visite, or CdV which was introduced to the public in the 1860s at the same time as the ferrotype. But unlike the ferrotype the CdV is made with a negative that could be easily and quickly reproduced to make more copies of a photograph.

 

The bandsman's uniform is  a variation of the others and I think it's a style from around 1876, the Bicentennial of the United States, which was an event when every band in America, at least those from the northern states, wanted to look sharp when it joined in the celebrations. The instrument is a type of saxhorn with three rotary valves. It's about the same length as the previous valve trombone, an alto, I think, with a bell that points up. Here the image is reversed to show the man's right hand in proper playing position.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

This bandsman's portrait began my parade of ferrotypes and I have reversed it to show the difference between his tenor saxhorn and the previous alto saxhorn. Both have bells up but this instrument is longer with a larger bell so that it makes a lower pitched sound. It also has keys place atop the valves, called top action rotary valves TARV, where the other smaller saxhorn has side action rotary valves, SARV. Neither design is used on modern brass instruments.  

This fellow's picture is very clear and demonstrates how tintypes can have a very realistic quality despite the photo's dark appearance. Many early CdVs do not have this level of clarity where you can see the grain of the plume's feathers and the twist of the epaulet's fringe.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Most of my collection of musician ferrotypes are cornet players, the soloists of any band or orchestra in this era, roughly 1865–1890. But for this presentation I've chosen a selection of low brass instrumentalists. This tuba player's photo is originally fairly dark but when reversed and contrast corrected, we see his tuba the right way around, if upside down resting on the bell, and a pretty clear portrait with even a hint of rouge in his cheeks added by the photographer.

The uniforms are often misinterpreted as military type, which is only partly true. The styles and decorations resemble official army and sometime navy uniforms, but these were not musicians in the regular army. In the post-Civil War era, army regiments did not typically have full-time bands dressed like this. These musicians were not soldiers but represented semi-professional civilian bands that on occasion accompanied state volunteer militias, the precursors to the National Guard.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

My last ferrotype is of a pair of young brass players. One holds an SARV B-flat trumpet and the other "wears" a tenor helicon over his shoulder. Their uniforms are equipped with white belts and harness to hold a music pouch. They also wear wide brimmed hats instead of shakos with one side turned up and a dark feather on the crown. The boys don't look much above 16 or 19 years old, but their hats give them a rakish debonair look that must have impressed the girls as they marched by. Look closely at the helicon player and you can see a small cluster of flowers pinned to his jacket.

 

When image correction and reversal is applied, the letters WCB are revealed on their belt buckles and one music pouch. There is also a hint of pink on their cheeks, again applied by the photographer after the ferrotype was processed.

 

 

Prices for the early daguerreotype and ambrotype photographs of musicians tend to reach hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Yet ferrotype/tintype photos generally go for much less while displaying more variety in subjects. Unfortunately it is very rare to find any clues as to where and when the photos were taken, much less the identities of the musicians, as there was no place to write a note on the metal. Scratches on the back would only ruin the image's emulsion on the front.

 

There are more tinplated musicians in my collection
so stay tuned for another sequel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where no matter where you look
there's always something interesting to see.

Heavy Metal — The Helicon

 

It's all about the bass.
A primal tone that sends the beat to your feet,
and puts the Oom in Oompah.

 It's the fundamental of all sound
because the bass is the basis for all pitch,
the root of all harmonics.

In ancient times the physics of bass sound,
that is a longer vibration equals a lower pitch,
was understood but rarely experienced in all its musical power.
It wasn't until the invention of the tuba in the 1830s
that composers and musicians came to appreciate
the awesome depths of low vibrations.

Once the principles of bass acoustics
were adopted by brass instrument makers
the tuba's plumbing became longer and longer.
So long that its weight and size became too unwieldy
for most normal-sized players to carry
when their band marched in a parade.
A practical solution was required.

By the 1860s brass instrument manufacturers
came up with a design for tubas that could be worn.
By coiling the tubing serpent-like around the player
and resting the instrument's weight on their shoulder,
the bass tuba was now comfortably portable.

They called this ultimate brass vibe
the Helicon.

It required a lot of heavy metal.




* * *

My first musician has inserted himself
into the Central European version of a helicon.
It is about 18 feet in length with
four rotary valves to add
an additional 4 feet of tubing.
It is a design that originated
in the same Bohemia region of Austria
where many brass instrument makers
developed the first tubas and other low brass instruments.
My post from May 2016 entitled Austrian Plumbing
features two early photos of helicons from about 1865.

This helicon player wears a simple uniform
with short jacket, riding trousers, and high boots.
Since he has no military insignia, I think he is a civilian bandsman.
His postcard has a written date of 27 XI 1946
and I suspect he is Austrian or German. 

* * *

The next grizzled old helicon player
looks German or Austrian
but was photographed in America
by The Empire Studio of Canton, Ohio,
probably around 1895.
On the back of the card he is identified as "Grandpa."
He is sitting outside in the shade of a pergola,
wearing an American style helicon
pitched higher than the first one, and therefor smaller,
perhaps a tenor helicon in B-flat
which is about the same 9 foot length as a trombone.

Helicons were built in different sizes with different pitch centers so that the instrument family together could encompass a larger range of notes. The saxophone family is another instrument group that is still produced in different sizes. Here are two pages from a 1904 catalog of the music instrument collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York that illustrate the seven sizes then available for the American helicon.
 

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art digital collection
1904 Catalogue of the Crosby Brown collection
of musical instruments of all nations : Europe vol. 1

Helicons and tubas, along with French horns belong to the conical brass sub-group. The plumbing of these instruments has a longer conical flare which gives them a stronger dynamic contrast. Trumpets and trombones have mostly cylindrical tubing which respond differently to the player's lip vibrations.

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art digital collection
1904 Catalogue of the Crosby Brown collection
of musical instruments of all nations : Europe vol. 1

* * *

The next helicon player wears a stylish uniform
with plumed hat and fringed epaulets.
He is unknown, as is his photographer, Callahan,
whose imprint has no location.
The three valves on his helicon, possibly a baritone size,
are smaller and less robust than the Austrian instruments.
This musician may belong to the band of a State National Guard.

* * *

My next helicon bandsman is Canadian
as the photographer is Maitland of Stradford, Ontario.
This young bandsman wears a plumed shako
similar to the musician in the previous photo,
but I think this man is likely a member of a town band.
He "wears" a bass helicon which has numerous dents and dings.
Like the other cabinet card photo, it dates from the 1890s,
the golden era of marching bands.

* * *

My last helicon player holds a monstrous contrabass helicon
with a bell nearly 36 inches in diameter.
He is dressed in a uniform with colorful embroidery
and a military style cap.
 

This large photo is mounted on extra large cardstock
but there is no photographer or location marked.
However the back does have a date and name:
Taken in July 1909
Uncle Oscar

Helicons, tubas, and other members of the low brass group, like euphoniums, tenorhorns, etc. come in such a bewildering variety of sizes and pitches, that even for a horn player like myself it is often too confusing to make a proper identification. But I think I know big brass when I see it, and this hefty helicon is definitely in a super-heavyweight class. In my attempt to research "giant tuba" I came across one of its so-called inventors. Surprisingly it was not John Philip Sousa, whose eponymous sousaphone was derived from the helicon and is the marching tuba most familiar to the public today. Sousa's first sousaphone was made for him in 1893 by James Welsh Pepper, a music publisher and instrument maker in Philadelphia. But he was not the only bandmaster to dream up the idea of an improved great bass helicon.

Another giant tuba was made in 1897 by the C. G.Conn Company, at one time the largest manufacturer of musical instruments, for the British-American bandmaster, Frederick Neil Innes (1854–1926). Innes began his  career playing trombone with the band of the Royal Life Guards. In 1880 his talent brought him to America to take the position of solo trombone in Patrick Gilmore's band. By 1887 he was directing his own band which proved to be one of greatest concert bands to  tour the nation. But despite the number of fine musicians that he employed, his band still lacked something. It needed more bass.

Nashville Tennessean
18 July 1897

_ _

An article appeared in the 18 July 1897 edition of the Nashville Tennessean, where Innes was  performing a series of concerts. The headline read:

INNES'  GIANT TUBA
Largest Horn Ever Made
and the Famous Leader Invented It.
_____________Takes Place of Four Basses
_____________
Grett was the First Man to Blow
the Big Instrument, and the
Only One Who Can Make
Music With It.

Nashville Tennessean
18 July 1897

Frederick Innes had previously made improvements to trombone design by conceiving of a valve to assist the slide action. This would not be unexpected of someone who was a virtuoso of the trombone. But as a band leader like Sousa, he felt there was a deficiency in a band's collected instrumental sound that  needed some new kind of bass horn. It was while recuperating from an illness that he devoted his energy to design a extra long BBB-flat helicon. He persuaded Charles G. Conn to make one at his band instrument  factory in Elkhart, Indiana. 

It was finished in time for the summer season of 1897. Innes' principal tuba Mr. Grett was supposedly the only musician capable of mastering it. The Nashville newspaper published a picture of it. It may be even larger than the one encircling Uncle Oscar, but it is definitely in the heavyweight class,

_ _ _

The Nashville paper also included a picture of Frederick Innes's Concert Band with 43 bandsmen. Mr. Grett and his monster tuba stand at the back center.

Nashville Tennessean
18 July 1897

Uncle Oscar's splendid uniform is much too elaborate for a local town band. Few bands in 1909 would have a musician who could afford such a large instrument anyway, so I'm convinced he was a member of a professional band. Looking closely at his cap reveals a badge with an eagle and two America flags. Above are letters that are not entirely legible, but I think they read:

BBB Show or B&B Show?

If the later, then Uncle Oscar might be the star tuba player
of the Barnum & Baily Circus Band,
which did not merge with the Ringling Bros. Circus until 1919.
More research is needed before I have a sure answer,
but a circus would definitely be the place
to hear the mighty bass blast of a giant helicon.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where some heavy lifting may be required.

Helicons and Pigs

Schmückt den Saal mit grünen Zweigen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Tretet an zum bunten Reigen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Auf und nieder, immer wieder!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Singt die alten Weihnachtslieder!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

Zündet an die Weihnachtskerzen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Hell und warm wie eure Herzen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Laßt die Weihnachtsglocken klingen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!
Und euch frohe Botschaft bringen!
Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!

Schneller weg das alte Jahr vergeht,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Heil die Neuen, ihr Jungs und Mädels!
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Lachend, alle zusammen schluckend,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
Ohne Rücksicht auf Wind und Wetter,
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

Frohe Festtage
und
Prosit Neujahr!!!

This  wonderful card with its embossed musical pig was posted on 31 December 1906 to someone living in the small German village of Gahlenz which is about 20 kilometers east of the Saxon city of Chemnitz. For some reason pigs are considered symbols of good luck in Germany and appear on many postcards offering good wishes for the new year. The bass helicon, or helikon in German,
is the European equivalent of the American Sousaphone. Its long brass plumbing wraps around the player allowing a comfortable posture while marching. Or dancing. I don't think by itself the helicon is a symbol of anything except loud noise.

However this is not my first story of a talented pig. In my post Educated Sheep and Musical Pigs from March 2016, the animal trainer Prof. Blaek Doblado toured America in 1909 with a musical pig named Louie who could also play the bass horn. A case of life imitating art? Or vice versa? Unfortunately I have yet to find a picture of Louie so we will just have to use our imagination.

By a happy coincidence I do have a photo postcard
of a man playing a bass helicon.
He might easily pass
as a model for this postcard.

His name, location, and date are unknown
but I suspect he is a civic bandsman from the 1920s-1930s
who came from somewhere in central Europe.
Perhaps Austria, Germany,
Poland, or Czechoslovakia (as it was then known).

YouTube provided a very suitable video
so that we can hear what a helicon sounds like.
Stefan Huber, trombone, and Manuel Winbeck, helicon,
from LaBrassBanda
play their version of a Christmas classic.
Feliz navidad

***

***

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where I wish all my blogging friends
very good cheer for the New Year!

Austrian Plumbing

A man of pride.
That's the person I see in this photograph.
It's in his self-confident stance with one arm akimbo.
It's in his simple but crisp uniform complete with medals.
It's definitely in his tall bowler hat worn with a jaunty tilt.
And if you look close, it's in the three signet rings on his right hand
that steadies the bell of his great brass instrument,

the helicon.

My estimate is that this proud helicon player posed for his photograph sometime between 1865 to 1875. The photographer of this small carte de visite was J. A. Sequardt, printed on the lower border. On the back is the photographer's elaborate imprint showing a checkered imperial eagle and medallions celebrating three pioneers of photography: Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), and Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877).


Herr Sequardt's photo studio was at No. 159. I. Stock in Prossnitz, also known as Prostějov, which is now in the Czech Republic. In the 19th century, Prostějov / Prossnitz was a small city in Moravia, a Czech province of Austria, hence the use of two languages in the imprint. Wikipedia notes that it is known for its fashion industry.

The Coat of Arms of Moravia
Source: Wikimedia

The Helicon is a bass brass instrument made with the same length of tubing as the more compact tuba. Typically the B♭ helicon is 18 feet (5.5 m) long. Four rotary valves add more tubing for another 12 feet that allows the instrument to reach all musical pitches. Unlike the tuba, the helicon's plumbing is designed to be worn around the player giving him a comfortable position for marching or while riding a horse in a mounted band. This musician's uniform coat has epaulets, but I would not label him a military bandsman as he may be a member of a civilian town band. Notice that there is a high shine on the helicon and the musician's shoes too. At the top of the bell is a shield emblem for the instrument manufacturer.

 Kaiser Franz Joseph I. von Österreich , 1877
by Edmund Mahlknecht (Austrian, 1820–1903)
Source: Wikimedia

Today Austria is a small country, but for centuries it was the largest nation in central Europe, ruled by the House of Habsburg and containing dozens of ethnic peoples and languages. Kaiser Franz Josef was its ruler from 1848 to his death in 1916, which covers both the beginning of photography and the development of modern brass instruments with valves. To judge by this 1877 painting of Kaiser Franz Josef wearing hunting garb and a bowler hat, he and the Prossnitz low brass musician shopped at the same haberdasher.

This young Austrian boy, aged 12 or maybe 14, is wrapped inside a helicon that is less circular and shaped more like a smooched doughnut. The instrument has four rotary valves and a bell with a straight conical flare. He stands in the photography studio of A. Obersteiner of Graz, which is a large city in the Styria province of Austria, about 240 miles southwest of from Prostějov/Prossnitz. The capital city Wien is about halfway between. It is known for its six universities.


At the lower left corner, someone wrote the year and possibly month, 1879 Julie (?). It is one of the oldest photos in my collection. The studio imprint on the back of the cdv has a simple design for the initials of A. Obersteiner at Annenstrasse No.12, Graz. Only a short walk from the studio and across the river Mur, is the Akademisches Gymnasium a grammar school founded in 1573 by Charles II, Archduke of Austria. The boy's suit and tie gives him the look of a young scholar, so he may a low brass player in a school band.

The lad looks somewhat self-assured
as he grapples with his ungainly instrument.
The helicon has a bit of polish but mostly has a dull patina of tarnish.
The bell looks like it was made of a red copper metal
and has a large medallion of the manufacturer.
 

I imagine Herr Obersteiner asking the boy
to play a tune on his helicon.

Ommpah, ommpah, ommpah.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where a good shepherd always keeps close watch over his sheeps.