A Rare Beast

Murray Crewe describes the lineage of his very rare contrabass trombone in this video made during the intermission of a PSO concert.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• PSO
• blogs
• Murray
• Crewe
• contrabass
• trombone
• Bartok
• Concerto
• for
• Orchestra

[58scallop]

is there any way I could get in contact with Murray Crewe? I am interested in making a wooden replica of this similar to my other playable wooden instruments.

[unidaddy]

@58scallop If you go to the Pittsburgh Symphony website and look up Murray in the musicians section I think there's a link to his e-mail address. Good luck! I have to admit that I though this comment was a hoax from a friend........I looked at your video of the carved horn and was astounded!!! Unbelievably impressive work!!

[contraplayah]

i didn't even know those existed lol. thats one mean trombone.

[GunzTheDuel]

i dont think you can really replace it since the sound is different. The tuba has a larger and fuller sound (cause of the bore size and the tuba being conical). A good example would be in "Ride of the Valkyries" when the entire brass section plays the melody.

[putzgadol]

i had the honor to play alongside mr. crewe during a pso "community side by side" where

an amateur musician sits next to a member of the pso.

not only is he a remarkable classical trombonist, he is an outstanding jazz player. more

importantly he's jus a nice guy who liked my jokes

[guitarboyemk]

@ExternalGod actually tenor and bass trombone are both pitched the same. Swedpander is correct. What makes a bass trombone is in fact a larger bore/bell, or in some cases, the addition of a second trigger along with the size differences. Bass and tenor are both pitched in Bb. What makes this contrabass unique is the fact that it's in BBb, the same as a tuba, when they are usually pitched in F.

[venskus2009]

he cant play that on his bass trombone? i dont play bass trombone, but ive heard people on youtube cleanly drop an octave below that... i guess since he had it, he used it? still pretty damn awesome.

[ExternalGod]

Besides all the other crap I'm curious how much this thing would be worth in USD? I'm almost scared to know.. Especially since he put it on the FLOOR.. I'd have it in a glass case even when I'd be playing it lmao.

[ExternalGod]

Oh and without the Gb loop on bass trombones you can't produce a B1 natural. It will be a FALSE TONE.

[ExternalGod]

Swedpander

You are full of crap learn what you're talking about. Large bore tenor trombones have a bore of .547(usually) and have an F attachment... An extra loop on the side of the bell.

Just because the bore size is larger doesn't make it a BASS tenor or whatever you're saying they both are pitched exactly the same. Bass trombones are pitched lower than a tenor (duh) and contrabass an octave lower than bass. Now please go kill yourself.

[EdwardDLeonard]

I love that you looked in Bravo Franco first!

[pedropedaltones]

@Swedbander Ok, thanks for the lesson. You learn something new every day

[Swedbander]

@pedropedaltones A tenor-bass trombone is a trombone with the tube length (pitch) of a tenor trombone, but with the bore, bell and mouthpiece of a (true) bass trombone. It also has valve(s) to make it able to play the full range of the bass trombone. Today the tenor-bass (in Bb) is so common, and the true bass trombone (in F, Eb or G) so rare, that pretty much everyone calls it just bass trombone.

An analogy would be the contrabass trombones in F, which technically are bass-contrabasses.