Ongoing History Daily: The olden days of bass, part 1

Before the era of electric instruments, the bass end of music was handled by big stringed instruments or large brass instruments like the tuba. We still have those stringed instruments, but in the mid-1920s, we began to see a decline in the use of the tuba.

Tuba players found themselves in the middle of a crisis. This is from an article in Billboard magazine on April 10, 1926. “All over New York, it has been noticed that with most of the prominent bands, the string bass, alias ‘bull fiddle,” alias ‘dog house,’ is replacing the tuba. [Band]leaders agree that the string bass has a far greater carrying power than the tuba and that it blends much more effectively. Practically all of the exponents of the tuba double in string bass, so the only inconvenience resulting from the switch will be the difference in sizes of the instrument cases, which, take our word for it, is plenty.”

More next time.