San Francisco Classical Voice

Charles R. Bubb Jr., former first trumpet of the San Francisco and a noted teacher of both mathematics and the trumpet, passed away at age 88 in his home in Menlo Park on February 11, six days after learning that he had bone marrow cancer. Mr. Bubb was so widely and deeply admired by his colleagues that current members of the orchestra from which he had resigned in 1960 speak of him today with respect.

Raised in Mountain View, Mr. Bubb, Charlie, earned an A.B. degree in mathematics from Stanford University in 1934 and began working on his doctorate while conducting the Stanford Band. He himself had studied trumpet under Leon Barton, the San Francisco Symphony's second chair. Then he went to Rutgers University to teach, met and married Jane, his wife of 60 years, but finding the East uncongenial, returned to the West Coast. Mr. Bubb taught mathematics at the University of Oregon, also playing trumpet there. In 1939, he was the trumpet soloist for the World's Fair Band on Treasure Island. During World War II, he taught mathematics at UC Davis.

Hired by Pierre Monteux in 1944 to be the San Francisco Symphony's second trumpet, he was promoted through an unforeseeable sequence of events. The Symphony under Monteux was going to make recordings, the sessions made possible because the players agreed to work at scale rather than the higher recording rates. The first trumpet, "K....," went to Monteux and insisted on premium recording pay. When he could not be dissuaded, Monteux said, "Well, all right, Bubb will play it." And he did, beautifully, by all accounts, except that there was one mistake. When perfectionist Bubb apologized and grieved to the Maître, Monteux replied. "Don't worry about it. Everyone knows you play beautifully. They will think it's ‘K....'"

In 1960, unhappy with changes and assignments being made by Monteux's successor, music director Enrique Jorda, Mr. Bubb resigned. He promptly re-entered Stanford, earned a teaching credential and taught math at Woodside High School for the next 10 years. Meanwhile, he was still playing trumpet in single engagements and at the Carmel Bach Festival. After retiring from the Woodside High School faculty, he continued to tutor students in mathematics and trumpet.

His wife Jane passed away in 1998. He is survived by a son Charles Bubb III and daughter Susan Hickman. A round-robin e-mail about his passing has been circulating among colleagues, including tributes from Wendell Rider, principal horn, San Jose Symphony, and from Carole Klein, one of the prominent trumpet players who studied with him. Ted Parker, another trumpet player, recalled the late Phil Karp, San Francisco Symphony bassist, saying of a Charlie Bubb solo, "He played it like a god." To that, according to Laurie McGaw, another former SF Symphony trumpet player and Bubb student, Mr. Bubb, "his own most severe critic," responded , "‘but I never moved anybody.'"

Ralph P. Hotz, former third horn with the SF Symphony, another student of Mr. Bubb's who remained close to him until the last, appraised him as "one of the finest trumpet and cornet players that ever lived." The tributes single out the man's "greatness as player and as an individual," Hotz concluding that "he inspired unconditional love for him in those of us who were privileged to be part of his life."

_______________Robert Commanday

©2002, Robert Commanday all rights reserved