Aerophor

In Cincinnati's radio station WLW there works a smallish, bespectacled man of 55 who plays the great tuba without ever huffing, puffing or straining himself red for breath. He is James Austin Houston, only U.S. tubaman who, despite mediocre diaphragm development, can perfectly sustain a note for 20 measures, make tuba music which could be represented graphically by a long, unbroken line instead of by telegraphic dots and dashes. Last week Tubaman Houston's secret became known: He uses a German wind-saving contrivance called an "aerophor" which cost him $40.

Tubaman Houston lets his right foot do some of the work that ordinarily requires mighty chest expansion, highly developed breath control. His foot, instead of idly marking time, operates a bellows which shoots auxiliary air up through a tube into his mouth. That the air may reach the mouth at lung temperature and humidity, the tube passes through a small tank of water heated by an electric light bulb. Mr. Houston admits that the aerophor presents its difficulties. It takes a big mouth to hold the forked tube on either side of the big tuba mouthpiece, a special facial-muscle technique to switch from lung to bellows air without interrupting the tone or affecting its quality. But hitherto players on the big horn have had to have the heart and lungs of athletes. Oboists and bassoonists need outside help even more because of their tiny, double-reed mouthpieces. The legend that all woodwind players eventually go mad is based on the fact that they must take in vast quantities of air, then let it out like a thread, very slowly and evenly.

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