[quote=dereklaserbeam;%2Fbloards%2Fgbs%2Ftopics%2Ffeeling-a-bit-lonely%2Fposts%2F886] imo classical music didn't come into its own until 1835. the year of the motherfuckin tuba baby! [/quote] Whoa. Hold on. Let's get a couple things straight here. Not to derail the thread. But first of all the Classical period *ended* with Beethoven's death, either 1824 or 27 I'm not sure and I'm eating a sandwich with one hand so I can't open a new wikipedia tab to check, and by the year 1835 that was the heydey of Berlioz and by then also Schumann was growing always growing and becoming better musician then. I dont really think the tuba really has much to do with what was now the Romantic period in music which ended in the year 1900 also but many new instruments were invented in the 1800s including the saxophone and also the valve trumpet as well and even the very peculiar ophicleide even. some of the greatest works of music were also composed during this period including all of Wagner's repertoire which was very interesting and pushed many boundaries as well as his near contemporary Brahms with his "composer's composer" style of writing (he was a master of counterpoint and a "composer's composer") and a also Mahler with his great epic Symphonies and even on this "side of the pond" Foster and The March King John Phillip Sousa (not to mention Charles Ives was already writing crazy stuff in the late 18's as well but hes considered a modernist composer and died in the 1950s) but yeah anyway these couldh ardly be called "Classical" in any real historic sense of the word other than the fact that we consider them "classic" in the clolloqual (sp?) way of speaking these days. i have to admit yes the 1800s were great and really saw the blosseming of what the seed of people like Mozart and Beethove sewn and these flowers grew into the great Repertoire which we now know and love as Romantic Era music. Also lets not forget about Schubert he was ahead of his time (actually he was a contemporary of Beethoven technically and died in like 1827 i think but we still count him as a Romantic composer as he was ahead of his time despite his death date) Also one final note: Bach is NOT CLASSICAL and niether is anyone who wrote music Pre 1750 or Post 1824 or 27 (eg Debussy Handel etc etc) and i really have to hammer this fact despite the fact that his music sounds like classical and if you listen to it actually no it doesnt and it is very harmonically pure compared to many of the devises used by later composers (for example distant modulations from say a neopolitian chord a la Schubert for example) and people make this mistake all the time but I just want to clear that up for you. I don't know if that answers your question but i don't see how the tuba has much to do with this thread or classical music