Professors, Alumni Perform and Direct in Tuba Ensemble in New York

Gillmor, professor of history and science and professor of science in society, is a member of the Tuba Marching Band, directed by Wesleyan Professor of Music Anthony Braxton. Braxton’s band performed his own opus, “Composition No. 19,” a marching piece for tubas.

“It was quite a show, and quite a good, avant-garde thing to do in New York,” Gillmor says.
The “Bang on a Can Marathon” is a 10-hour eclectic super-mix of boundary-smashing genre-defying music by pioneering artists from around the world. It featured newly commissioned works by classical, electronica, jazz and rock artists. The New York Times heralded “Composition No. 19” as the “biggest spectacle at this year’s … marathon.”

With a baton in hand, Braxton led the tuba band with co-conductors and Wesleyan alumni Taylor Bynum ’98, James Fei ’99 and Matthew Welch ’01. Each conductor led a quarter of the band, with players horning with old European instruments called helicons, and sousaphones, tubas, mini-baritones and euphoniums.

Gillmor’s euphonium was rare. Most have three or four valves, but his 1940 Holton-brand has five, which allowed him to switch between two horn “bells” with the fifth key. It is one octave higher than that of a tuba.

“There were several real musicians there, some were symphony musicians, but most of us were not professionals,” Gillmor says. “Most of us were aspiring artists. It was a very geeky group.”

The uncomplicated melody of “Composition No. 19,” included fluttering notes, growls, 10-second solos, whispery sounds and several “blab, blab, blab,” sounds, Gilmore explains.

In addition to Braxton’s tuba band, performers included Julia Wolfe’s piece for six pianos; Yat Kha, a Tuvan-throat-singing Siberian punk band; Amiina, the all-female Icelandic ambient quartet; Bang on a Can drummer David Cossin with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche; Björk collaborators Matmos with So Percussion; Evan Ziporyn’s Gamelan Galak Tika; cellist Maya Beiser; the group Alarm Will Sound; and Aphex Twin, among others.

The show finished inside the Winter Garden. Braxton’s group, which is made up of tuba and low brass players from New Jersey, Connecticut and New York, had only two rehearsals prior to the performance, one the day before, and then again on the day of.