Fans may rave about the tuba players in the UC Berkeley Marching Band. Technically, though, they’re playing sousaphones — and the Cal Band calls them “basses.” Whatever you call them, though, those strutting, dancing band members are as famous for their footwork as their music.
Now Anton Bobrov, a senior econ and statistics major and Burlingame High alum, explains it all, from tuba history to Cal Band lore.
Q: What’s the difference between a tuba and a sousaphone?
A: Actually, they are musically identical. The coiled length of a tuba is condensed, so it can be held within one person’s arms (while) sitting in a chair. The problem is that concert tubas are particularly difficult to hold, play and march in front of — they need support.
So, around the turn of the 20th century, John Philip Sousa invented the sousaphone, which basically just uncoils the tuba around the body of the player, allowing the individual playing the instrument to more easily disperse the weight around their body.
Q: So why do band members refer to the sousaphone as the bass?
A: I want to be honest with you: I don’t know why they are called basses either. Before this interview, I started asking a bunch of alumni if we know why we call ourselves basses. And all of them said, “Huh. That’s a good question. I’ve never thought about that.” They started going down the line, asking older people that they knew, and they all said, “I don’t know.” The best conclusion that anyone came up with is “Well, it’s the bass part in the ensemble, is it not?” So, that’s currently the lore that I think best explains it.
Q: What’s your musical background?
A: I’ve always loved music. I took piano lessons, starting from four or five years old, and made sure that I joined every single band in school that I could. I even got into a fight with my dad once because I wanted to take jazz band, but that would mean not taking Spanish. It was just a natural progression to get into marching band.
Q: The sousaphone is a heavy instrument — 18 to 50 pounds. Don’t you get physically tired marching around with it?
A: It’s exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time. Berkeley’s campus is on a hill. Our stadium is at the very, very top of the hill. And our band room is at the bottom of the hill. So, on a typical game day, we perform in Sproul Plaza to fans, then march up through campus on our way to the stadium.
That climb is so tough.
There was a game against UC Davis at the beginning of a year — I think it was still August — and it was 90 degrees outside. And we wear wool uniforms. We were covered in sweat — drenched.
But the second that we march through the north tunnel of Memorial Stadium, and we start our pre-game formation, suddenly all that tiredness, all that feeling of fatigue just vanishes. You’re in the zone, and you are performing.
Q: The Cal sousaphone players are known for their high-energy performances…
A: Of any marching band, we are the only one that I know of where the sousaphone line struts across the field. At the end of every pregame show, the basses break off from the rest of the band to strut across the field. Legs at near 90 degrees, we circle the end zone and join up with the rest of the band to complete our famous script C-A-L. We don’t only strut after our pregame show, but also at the end of nearly every performance.
Q: What else makes the Cal Band unique?
A: Our band is a lot different than any other university band that you might know of. Cal Band is entirely student run. We only have one full-time employee, and that’s our director, Matt Sadowski. Everything else is planned by the students and run in committees.
Q: Cal’s big rival, of course, is Stanford. What are your feelings about the Stanford Band?
A: I love the guys. Unlike any other band in the world, they are rowdy, ruthless, brash, but ever so entertaining. If there is one group comparable to Cal Band in terms of energy and spirit, it would be the Stanford Band, even if they don’t always sound so great. If you see the Stanford Band and their scary tree fumbling around, you know you are in for a musical journey. As we say in the PAC-12, “no matter the outcome of the game, the band always wins” — unless you are playing USC.
