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Tubists Critiquing Tubists

Last Updated (Tuesday, 13 May 2008 08:00)
Written by Roger Bobo
Sunday, 28 October 2007 07:27

Articles - Personal Essays

Frequently, because of my affiliation with TubaNews, my own web site and blog, I’ve been asked to review some the new tuba CDs arriving on the market. In fact, I have in the past done a few tuba CD reviews, and I found that I’m just too involved to write a tuba review without leaking some bias that I may have. I don’t do it purposely but I fear I do it. It’s just too close to home. I’m very comfortable reviewing other instruments, chamber groups or symphony orchestras, but not tuba.

Many years ago I presented a CD of a wonderful oboist to a friend who was also an oboist. I was shocked when the recording repulsed my friend because the soloist “Used the wrong kind of reed”. No amount of pointing out the fine musicianship or any of the other positive attributes could change the fact that from my friend’s point of view it was a terrible recording because the oboist “Used the wrong king of reed”. Of course, this is an extreme story but it can point out how our personal views could take away all creditability from our criticism.

I don’t think there is any tubist out there who would show such overt prejudice as my oboist friend but still I’m quite dubious if a performer on any instrument is the best choice to criticise another performer of the same instrument.

I have been very fortunate that in my career I have never experienced a bad review. However, the only times I’ve received even questionable reviews it has been form another tubist. Usually, it was something to do with my sound or my equipment; little comments like “He plays with an old fashion sound” or a “west coast sound” or “old fashioned equipment”. Perhaps all those things are valid but I’ve never accepted that such “in house” comments were appropriate to musical criticism. Perhaps the most mysterious critique I’ve ever received is on my recording of the Hindemith Sonata where the tubist critic pointed out that I had compromised the rhythm in a specific place. Well, I’ve listened to that recording many times looking for the compromised rhythm, maybe the critic was right but I just can’t hear it.

Certainly, I’m not questioning the integrity of the tubists criticising tubists, but I firmly believe the practice is dangerous. It is too close to home, and most of our tuba related opinions are too personal for valid criticism; it’s not unlike having a family member writing a criticism of our solo recital or CD.

In proof-reading this article an obvious question came to mind that needs to be addressed. What about the judging of competitions? Clearly, it’s the same issue and I suppose in a perfect and ideal world we should have singers, pianists, cellists and conductors be the judges of competitions. If we did that for tuba competitions then, of course, we would have to do it for piano, voice and violin competitions. Short answer; That’s just not going to happen! Longer answer; it opens the problem of screening non-tubists who are knowledgeable enough to judge a tuba competition; there are many great musicians in the world who, frankly, are ignorant regarding the tuba! Quickly, I should point out that there are many who aren’t ignorant. For competitions the tradition is too ingrained to change and speaking personally there are a few of us that view competition judging as part of our salary earning job description. I enjoy this work and for a very large majority of the time I see competition judges as fair and objective.

Regarding the reviewing of recordings I deeply believe we could realise higher quality reviews if we sought critics outside our very special tightly knit community.

- Tokyo, Japan