Tuba
Tuba refers to a family of
lip-vibrated, upright,
valved,
metal wind
instruments with a folded tube of wide, conical bore. It was designed to
fill an urgent need in brass bands for a satisfactory bass to the valved
bugle. Although the tuba was soon built in sizes ranging from an
unsatisfactory B-flat soprano to various enormous double basses, only the
baritone in B-flat (along with the wider-bored euphonium) and the basses
in F, E-flat, CC, and BB-flat survive. In 1835, Berlin instrument maker
Johann Gottfried Moritz, working with bandmaster Wilhelm Wieprecht,
patented the first bass-tuba, completely distinct from the valved
ophicleide, for use in German bands. In 1845, Adolfe Sax, working in
Paris, patented a homogenous family of tubas under the name Sax-horn;
these were subsequently adopted by French bands. Sax and other makers
patented slightly different models under other names; the result was a
confusing array of tuba instruments in all sizes. Among them the Viennese
helicon bass (1849), with its circular coil formed to rest on the player's
shoulder, provided an appropriate bass for the marching band and inspired
the American sousaphone (1898). Also noteworthy are the 9-foot and
12-foot Wagner tubas in B-flat and F respectively; made with left-hand
valves and relatively narrow bore and played with deep conical mouthpieces
by French hornists, these instruments provide a new color midway between
the mellow horn and the more aggressive tuba. Since the composition of
Wagner's Ring, these instruments have been used in other large orchestral
scores. Tuba is also the Roman name for the Etruscan-Grecian salpinx, a
straight, wide-bored, conical, usually bronze trumpet, ending in a slight
flare and played with a detachable ivory mouthpiece.
Click here for information about WHS Tuba section