Tuba

The tuba (Latin, "trumpet"; Template:IPAc-en; Template:IPAc-en) is a large brass instrument in the bass-to-contrabass range with a wide, bugle-like conical bore and between three and six (usually four or five) valves. It first appeared in 1835 in Prussia as the , an application of five valves to a bugle scaled up to [[Eight-foot pitch|12-foot (Template:Prime)]] F, providing a fully chromatic contrabass range with a deep, full timbre.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Subsequently, the Paris maker Adolphe Sax developed the E♭ and B♭ band tubas with piston valves as members of his saxhorn family by the 1850s, and Václav František Červený in Austria-Hungary developed contrabass tubas in Template:Prime C and Template:Prime B♭ with rotary valves in the 1870s.

As with any brass instrument, sound is produced with a lip vibration or "buzz" in the mouthpiece. A person who plays the tuba is called a tubaist or tubist, or simply a tuba player. In British brass bands and military bands, they are known as a bass player.

History

The early history of the tuba was the search for a practical valved brass instrument with a bass and contrabass voice, suitable for use in bands and the orchestra brass section.Template:Sfn Before the emergence of the first valves in the 1820s, brass instruments were either restricted to a single harmonic series like the natural trumpet or bugle, or used a slide like the trombone, or used keys and tone holes like the keyed bugle or serpent.

Origins

For the earliest low-pitched brass instruments, none of these solutions were ideal. Natural instruments can only approach diatonic or chromatic scales in their high register, bass trombones had long slides with handles which were unwieldy for rapid passages, and the timbre of the serpent was often criticized.Template:Sfn

To replace the serpent and its various upright derivatives, the Paris-based maker Jean Hilaire Asté invented the ophicleide in 1817, extending the keyed bugle into the bass register with a folded, bassoon-like form.Template:Sfn It was a sufficient improvement, in both intonation and timbre, that it was widely adopted in brass and military bands. It was also used in the orchestra particularly by French composers, most notably Hector Berlioz.Template:Sfn Although the ophicleide was initially successful, and serpents were still being used in bands and church ensembles, neither instrument could play much below C₂ into the contrabass range.Template:Sfn

The first tubas

In Prussia, the military bandmaster Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht required an instrument capable of a secure contrabass compass for his bands, and with the Berlin-based instrument maker Johann Gottfried Moritz invented the in F (Prussian patent 9121, granted 12 September 1835). It used five valves (forerunners of the modern Périnet piston valves) to provide a chromatic compass down to F₁, its first fundamental or pedal tone.Template:Sfn Berlin valves, invented by Wieprecht two years earlier, were capable of operating on the wider bore tubing of larger instruments than the earlier Stölzel and Vienna valve designs. This contributed to the Baß-Tuba being the first successful contrabass valved brass instrument.Template:Sfn The first tenor tuba was invented in 1838 by Moritz's son, Carl Wilhelm Moritz, which was a forerunner of the euphonium.Template:Sfn

Paris-based instrument maker Adolphe Sax, like Wieprecht, was interested in marketing families of instruments ranging from soprano to bass, and developed his saxhorn series of brass instruments, pitched in E♭ and B♭. Sax's instruments gained dominance in French military bands, and later in Britain and America. Their widespread success was a result of the movements of popular instrument makers, notably Gustave Auguste Besson, who moved from Paris to London, and Henry Distin, who started manufacturing them in London, and later moved his business to the United States.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The saxhorns in E♭ and B♭ constitute almost the whole instrumentation of the modern British brass band, with the addition of cornets, trombones and a flugelhorn.Template:Sfn Modern E♭ and B♭ band tubas are not far removed from their contrabass saxhorn ancestors, differing only in having a wider conical bore and often adding a compensating fourth valve.

The helicon is thought to have first appeared in Russia in the mid-1840s, and first patented in 1848 in Vienna by Stowasser. Like the Ancient Roman buccina, its tubing is wrapped under the right arm with the bell resting on the player's left shoulder. The helicon also became popular throughout Europe and North America, particularly for its suitability for marching and mounted bands.Template:Sfn

Early American tubas

In the United States saxhorns had become popular by the mid-19th century, particularly in military and brass bands. In 1838, the New York maker Allen Dodworth patented his "over-the-shoulder" (OTS) instruments, with bells pointing backwards over the player's left shoulder, that included an E♭ bass model.Template:Sfn This design allowed soldiers, usually marching behind the band, to better hear the music. Demand for bugles and OTS saxhorns grew, particularly in the early 1860s during the American Civil War, and tens of thousands were made in the United States or imported from Europe. After the war, the bands and their music remained popular, and manufacturing demand remained strong.Template:Sfn From these ensembles and musicians emerged the American drum and bugle corps tradition,Template:Sfn and the mixed-winds concert bands popularised by Patrick Gilmore and John Philip Sousa.Template:Sfn

In 1893, Sousa, unhappy with the sound from his BB♭ contrabass helicon tubas, had the Philadelphia instrument maker J. W. Pepper build a helicon with an upward-pointing bell, to better diffuse the sound. This sousaphone model was later made by the American manufacturers Holton and C. G. Conn, who some time in the early 20th century turned the bell forward to create the iconic modern form.Template:Sfn

The tuba in Italy

The Italian word , thought to be a contraction of the term (Template:Lit.), first appeared in scores as c. basso or c. in basso in the 1820s. Initially the cimbasso was a form of upright serpent or bass horn, but over the course of the 19th century the term was used loosely to refer to the lowest bass instrument available in the brass family, including the ophicleide and early Italian valved instruments such as the pelittone and bombardone.Template:Sfn The Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, dissatisfied with the sound of these instruments, commissioned a valved contrabass trombone, built in the 1880s for his late operas.Template:Sfn By the early 20th century this instrument, which he and Giacomo Puccini called simply the trombone basso in their scores, had disappeared from Italian orchestras, replaced by the tuba. The modern cimbasso, commonly called for in film and video game soundtracks, was revived from Verdi's instrument, via the German contrabass trombone in F, in the early 1980s.Template:Sfn

Construction

In organology, the tuba is classified as a bass valved bugle. The valved bugles are a large family of brass instruments that includes the euphonium, flugelhorn, and the wider-bored members of the saxhorn family, distinguished by having valves and a wide conical bore.Template:Sfn The conical bore of bugles is wider than other conical brass instruments, like the horn or cornet, or the cylindrical-bore trumpet and trombone. The bore diameter increases as a function of the tubing distance from the mouthpiece. This causes the instrument to favor lower spectral content, producing a mellow, warm timbre. The wide rate of taper of the last portion of the tubing leading to the bell, combining with the bell's large diameter, amplifies these lower frequencies and produces a deep contrabass sound.Template:Sfn

Sizes

Tubas are made in four pitches. The length of tubing (with no valves engaged) determines the fundamental pitch of the instrument. The smaller bass tuba is built in 12-foot (12′) F or 13′ E♭, while the larger contrabass tuba is built in 16′ C or 18′ B♭. Often the contrabass tubas are called "CC" or "BB♭" tubas, based on an English variant of the Helmholtz pitch notation no longer in use, and the bass–contrabass distinction is not always used by composers or musicians.

File:MIMEd 2131. Higham tuba in F.png

"Barlow" model British F tuba (University of Edinburgh)

The original 1835 in F survives as various much-modified models of F tuba. It is commonly used by professional players as a solo instrument and, in America, to play higher parts in the classical repertoire, often parts originally written for F tuba. In most of Europe, the F tuba is the standard orchestral instrument, supplemented by the C or B♭ tuba only when the extra weight is desired. Wagner, for example, specifically notated the low tuba parts for Kontrabasstuba, which are played on C or B♭ tubas in most regions. The traditional tuba in Vienna is in F with six rotary valves, in two groups of three for each hand. In Britain from the late 19th century until the 1960s, the standard orchestral tuba was in F, with four or five piston valves, and a narrower bore profile closer to the euphonium.Template:Sfn

The E♭ tuba often plays an octave above the B♭ tubas in brass bands, where it is commonly built with three top-mounted piston valves and a fourth compensating valve on the side. In the United Kingdom, the E♭ tuba began to displace the old British F tuba in the 1960s, and is still found in British orchestras today, although some players are favouring larger C instruments since the 1990s.Template:Sfn

The C tuba is used as an orchestral and concert band instrument in the US, but B♭ tubas with rotary valves are the contrabass tuba of choice in German, Austrian, and Russian orchestras. In the United States, the B♭ tuba is the most common in schools, largely due to the use of B♭ sousaphones in high school marching bands. Many professionals in the US play C tubas, with B♭ also common, and many train in the use of all four pitches of tubas. The B♭ saxhorn-style tuba, with three top-mounted piston valves and usually a fourth compensating valve on the side, is standard in British brass bands.

Quarter designation

Even within instruments of the same pitch, tubas also vary in size: the overall width of the tubing sections, the bell diameter, and rate of bell taper. The size is usually denoted in quarters, with 4/4 designating a normal, full-size tuba.Template:Sfn Smaller instruments, often student or intermediate models, may be described as 3/4 instruments. Often with only three valves, these are common in schools for use by young players where a full-size tuba may be too large. Larger instruments are denoted as 5/4, or 6/4 for the largest tubas, sometimes known as grand orchestral tubas. These include the Conn 36J "Orchestra Grand Bass" from the 1930s, and the replicas by several manuacturers of the large York tubas owned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The designations have no standardised measurements. Between manufacturers, they do not correlate to tubing bore diameters or bell diameters reported in instrument specifications, so they are only useful for making comparisons between models within a single manufacturer's catalog.Template:Sfn

Other sizes

The euphonium, pitched in 9′ B♭ a fourth above the bass tuba in F, is sometimes referred to as a tenor tuba, particularly by British composers. This term can also refer more specifically to the German , a similar instrument in B♭ with rotary valves.Template:Sfn These instruments are used to play tenor tuba parts, and often ophicleide parts and the high tuba parts written for the small French tuba.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The small French tuba is based on the bass saxhorn, built in 8′ C with six piston valves. This instrument, standard in French orchestras in the late 19th century until at least the 1950s, was expected by French composers of that time. A notable high exerpt from the orchestral repertoire is the tuba solo in the "Bydło" movement in Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, though the part also descends into the low register in other movements, to low F♯₁.Template:Sfn

A small number of very large novelty subcontrabass tubas have been built, and five playable instruments with functioning valves survive, mostly in museums. Two in 36′ B♭, an octave below the B♭ contrabass, were built by Gustave Besson on the suggestion of Patrick Gilmore, and one survives in the Harvard University Band where it was restored and features occasionally in concerts.Template:Sfn Another with four valves now owned by Amati Kraslice was originally exhibited by the Czech maker Bohland & Fuchs in 1928. In 1956, one of two 32′ C tubas built c. Template:Trim by the German maker Rudolf Sander featured in the first comedy Hoffnung Music Festival.Template:Sfn In 2010, a fully playable Riesentuba in 36′ B♭ with four rotary valves was built and resides in Germany at the Markneukirchen Musical Instrument Museum.

Variations

The development of tubas took place in several regions throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, which has resulted in many different forms with different bores, bell tapers and sizes, and different types and number of valves.Template:Sfn Broadly, tubas can be divided into two main groups.Template:Sfn

The saxhorn-derived, "French style" tubas have piston valves mounted vertically and operated from the top of the instrument ("top action"), and from the player's viewpoint the leadpipe from the mouthpiece is attached to the left side of the bell, with the valves and tubing positioned to the right of the bell. These are common in France, Britain, and throughout the British Commonwealth, particularly in brass and military bands. The "German style" tubas, derived from the Baß-Tuba and later Červený Kaiser tubas, have the leadpipe attached to the right side of the bell, and the tubing and valves to the left, with the valves mounted in the middle and operated from the front ("front action").Template:Sfn German style tubas usually have rotary valves, although American models based on early 20th century York tubas use piston valves, oriented horizontally so the finger buttons are operated in the same position.Template:Sfn In either group the valves are operated by the right hand, although saxhorn-style instruments with a fourth compensating valve often place the fourth valve on the side, operated by the left hand.Template:Sfn

A tuba with its tubing wrapped for placing the instrument on the player's lap is sometimes called a concert tuba. In the early days of recorded music in the 1920s and 30s, recording tubas were made with the bell pointing forward () so their sound could more easily be directed towards the recording microphone.

Tubas for marching

Standard tubas can be played whilst standing and marching, which is the usual practice in British brass bands and military bands. For player comfort and to avoid serious injury, a strap joined to metal rings on the tuba or a leather harness for the bottom bow are used to take the weight, via an over-shoulder strap or waist band.

In North America, most marching bands use the sousaphone, which is designed to be easier to hold and play while marching. The earlier helicon, on which the sousaphone is based, is still used by bands in Europe and other parts of the world.

Some tubas, known as marching tubas, are capable of being converted into a marching configuration, where it rests on the left (or occasionally, right) shoulder with the bell facing directly in front of the player. The leadpipe can be manually screwed on next to the valves, or can swivel between the marching position and a normal upright "concert" position. Some marching tubas, the contrabass bugles, are made only for marching. These were invented in the 1960s for use in modern drum and bugle corps. Originally built in Template:Prime G with only two valves, since 2000 they are built with three or four, in Template:Prime C or Template:Prime B♭.

Valves

Tubas are made with either piston or rotary valves.Template:Sfn Rotary valves, patented in Prussia by Joseph Riedl in 1835, were first used on tubas in the 1850s by the Austro-Hungarian maker Václav František Červený. The modern piston valve, developed by François Périnet in 1839, had by the 1850s replaced the Berlin valves used on early saxhorn instruments.Template:Sfn

Pistons can be top-action, oriented vertically so the buttons are operated from the top of the instrument, or front-action or side-action, oriented horizontally so the buttons are at the front of the instrument, operated from the side.Template:Sfn Piston valves require regular oiling to keep them freely operating, while rotary valves are sealed, and seldom require oiling. Piston valves are easy to dismantle and reassemble, while rotary valves disassembly and reassembly generally requires an experienced instrument technician.

File:Tuba Melton Meinl Weston.png

C tuba with five rotary valves

Tubas usually have four or five valves, but can range from three to six. Three-valve tubas are usually inexpensive student models or smaller marching instruments to conserve weight; the sousaphone usually has three valves. Among professional players, four and five valve tubas are the most common. F tubas usually have five or six valves,Template:Sfn including the six-valved (Vienna concert tuba) used in Austria.Template:Sfn

A valve works by adding a loop of tubing of a certain length to the main tubing of the instrument, thus lowering its fundamental pitch. On modern tubas, the first three valves work the same way as other valved brass instruments: the first lowers the pitch by two semitones (whole step), the second by one semitone (half step), and the third by three semitones (minor third).

Fourth, fifth, and sixth valves

The fourth valve lowers the pitch by five semitones (a perfect fourth), and used instead of the combination of valves 1 and 3 which is too sharp. When tuned properly, it helps solve the intonation of valve combinations of valves 1, 2, and 3. Using valve 4 with valves 1, 2, and 3 extends the range down to the fundamental pitch, but as with other valve combinations, some of these lower notes will be too sharp.

The fifth and sixth valves, if fitted, provide alternative fingering possibilities to improve intonation, particularly in the octave between the fundamental pitch (pedal tone) and the second partial, and for smooth trills and ease of playing. Usually, the fifth valve is tuned to two and a half semitones (flattened whole step), and the sixth to one and a half semitones (flattened half step). In C tubas with five valves, the fifth valve may be tuned as a flattened whole step or as a minor third, depending on the instrument. The B♭ rarely has a fifth valve, but if fitted is tuned similarly to that of a C tuba.

Compensating valves

Most high-end saxhorn-style tubas in E♭ and B♭, instead of providing a fifth or sixth valve, provide a compensating system on the fourth valve to adjust intonation when using valves in combination. This reduces the need to constantly adjust tuning slides while playing, and also simplifies fingering. The compensating piston valve was invented in the 1870s by David Blaikley, the factory manager at Boosey & Co., who patented it in 1878.Template:Sfn The tubing of the fourth valve is re-routed back through the other three valves to add an extra set of small correcting tubing loops.Template:Sfn This achieves correct intonation in the lower range of the instrument when using the fourth valve.Template:Sfn

The patent limited its application outside of Britain, and tubas with compensating valves are mainly found in Britain and British Commonwealth countries. Compensating valves can make the instrument significantly more "stuffy" or resistant to air flow when compared to a non-compensating tuba, and it also makes the instrument heavier.Template:Sfn

Materials and finish

The tuba is generally constructed of brass, which is either electro-plated with silver or coated with a thin transparent lacquer.Template:Sfn Unfinished brass will eventually tarnish and must be periodically polished to maintain its appearance.

Manufacturers

There are many types of tubas that are manufactured in Europe, the United States, and Asia. In Europe, the predominant models that are professionally used are Meinl-Weston (Germany) and Miraphone (Germany). Asian brands include the Yamaha Corporation (Japan) and Jupiter Instruments (Taiwan). Holton Instrument Company and King Musical Instruments are some of the most well known brands from the United States.

Performance

Notation

In orchestras, concert bands, and US military bands, the tuba is written at concert pitch in the bass clef as a non-transposing instrument, like the orchestral trombone, cello, and bassoon. High passages are seldom written in tenor clef. Tuba players reading music in bass clef must therefore learn the valve fingerings for each different size of tuba. Players are used to reading at least four leger lines above and below the bass staff.

In British brass bands, all instruments except the bass trombone are transposing instruments using the treble clef notation popularized in France by the instrument maker Adolphe Sax for his families of instruments.Template:Sfn Thus the tuba parts are notated in treble clef, sounding an octave and a sixth below written for E♭ tuba, like the baritone saxophone, or two octaves and a second for B♭ tuba, like the contrabass clarinet. This allows band musicians to change instruments without having to learn new fingerings for the same written music.

<score lang="lilypond"> \relative {

   \cadenzaOn
   \clef treble \key c \major
   c'8[ ^ \markup \tiny "written, transposing" d e f] g4 c

s4 \bar "

Brass band transposing treble clef notation, and the resulting concert pitch for tubas in B♭ and E♭

Concert band music sometimes provides tuba parts in E♭ and B♭ treble clef as well, to accommodate players from either background, although professional players are usually familiar with either notation.Template:Sfn

Range

The written range of the tuba is large, partly because different sized instruments have been used at different times and in different regions. The CC or BB♭ Kontrabaß tubas called for by Wagner and later German composers could scarcely reach middle C, while the range of the euphonium-like French C tuba built an octave higher in early 20th century French music ranges from its pedal F₁ to the C₅ above middle C. On any tuba, the range from F₁ to C₄ (middle C) is easily accessible, but the full working range from contemporary solo repertoire includes the pedal range to at least B♭₀, and extends up to at least C₅.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

<score lang="lilypond"> {

   \new Staff \with { \omit Score.TimeSignature }
   \clef bass \key c \major \cadenzaOn \omit Stem
   c,,1 _ \markup \tiny "C₁"
   \glissando
   a' ^ \markup \tiny "A₄"
   \grace c4 ^ \markup \tiny "↑"

}</score>

Range of the tuba; higher and lower notes are possible.

Higher notes are possible since the upper range is limited only by the fitness of the players' embouchure, although notes above the bell cutoff frequency around the tenth harmonic are difficult to centre and continuous glissandi are possible, making valve fingering largely redundant.Template:Sfn The wide bore profile of the tuba means that pedal notes are easily produced, compared to other brass instruments.Template:Sfn

Resonance and false tones

Some tubas have a strong and useful resonance that is not in the well-known harmonic series. For example, most large B♭ tubas have a strong resonance at low E♭ (E♭₁, 39 Hz), which is between the fundamental and the second harmonic (an octave higher than the fundamental). These alternative resonances are often known as false tones or privileged tones. Adding the six semitones provided by the three valves, these alternative resonances let the instrument play chromatically down to the fundamental of the open bugle (which is a 29 Hz B♭₀). The addition of valves below that note can lower the instrument a further six semitones to a 20 Hz E₀. Thus, even three-valved instruments with good alternative resonances can produce very low sounds in the hands of skilled players; instruments with four valves can play even lower.

The lowest note in the widely known repertoire is a 16 Hz double-pedal C₀ in the William Kraft piece Encounters II, which is often played using a timed flutter tongue rather than by buzzing the lips. The fundamental of this pitch borders on infrasound and its overtones define the pitch in the listener's ear.

Jazz

File:Riverside Stompers - Martin Stanzel solo - Dieter Bietak 2007.jpg

"Kaiserbass" (tuba in B♭) and cornet

The tuba has been used in jazz since the genre's inception. In the earliest years, bands often used a tuba for outdoor playing and a double bass for indoor performances. In this context, the tuba was sometimes called "brass bass", as opposed to the double bass (string bass). Many musicians played both instruments.

This practice was mostly used in the New Orleans jazz scene. The tuba was used most frequently with the Louis Armstrong groups and prominent in the album Hot Five.

In modern jazz, it is not unknown for their players to take solos. New Orleans style brass bands like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the Rebirth Brass Band use a sousaphone as the bass instrument. Bill Barber played tuba on several Miles Davis albums, including the sessions compiled as the Birth of the Cool and Miles Ahead. New York City-based tubist Marcus Rojas performed frequently with Henry Threadgill. Starting in 1955, Stan Kenton made his fifth trombonist double on tuba, namely on ballads to make use of the tuba's distinct warm, enveloping sound.

Repertoire

A symphony orchestra typically includes a single tuba, although a second is sometimes called for in large works, such as Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring (1913), and Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 (1927). The tuba serves as the bass of the orchestral brass section, and it can reinforce the bass voices of the strings and woodwinds. It provides the bass of brass quintets and choirs, although sometimes a small brass ensemble will use the euphonium or bass trombone as the lowest voice.

Since the mid-20th century, a considerable body of repertoire has amassed for tuba as a solo instrument,Template:Sfn both with ensemble or piano accompaniment, and unaccompanied.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The tuba is the principal bass instrument in concert bands, brass bands and military bands, usually two to four in number. Brass band music has two parts, for E♭ and B♭ tubas respectively, often referred to as basses.Template:Sfn Tubas are also used in marching bands, drum and bugle corps and in jazz bands.

Well known and influential orchestral parts for the tuba include:

• Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition – Bydło, Night on Bald Mountain
• Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Eine Alpensinfonie, Till Eulenspiegel, Ein Heldenleben
• Shostakovich: All symphonies, except the Fourteenth
• Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Petroushka
• Edgard Varèse: Déserts
• Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lohengrin, Ride of the Valkyries, Faust Overture
• Sergei Prokofiev: Fifth Symphony, Romeo and Juliet
• George Gershwin: An American in Paris
• Silvestre Revueltas: Sensemayá, La noche de los mayas, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca
• Gustav Holst: The Planets
• Gustav Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, and 8
• Ottorino Respighi: Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome
• Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Hungarian March
• Paul Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis
• Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 2
• Anton Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, and 8

Notable concertos have been written for the tuba by many composers, including Ralph Vaughan Williams (Tuba Concerto), Edward Gregson, John Williams, Alexander Arutiunian, Eric Ewazen, James Barnes, Joseph Hallman, Martin Ellerby, Philip Sparke,Template:Sfn Kalevi Aho, Josef Tal, Bruce Broughton (Tuba Concerto), John Golland, Roger Steptoe, David Carlson, Jennifer Higdon (Tuba Concerto), and Marcus Paus (Tuba Mirum).

See also

• Subcontrabass tuba
• Roman tuba
• Wagner tuba

External links

• ITEA — The International Tuba Euphonium Association
• Template:Sister-inline
• Template:Sister-inline
• TubeNet, TubaForum.net — online forums
• The Vincent and Ethel Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection — Durham, North Carolina
• History of the Tuba Podcast — Jake Kline & Jack Adler-McKean
• International Tuba Day — first Friday in May
• Tuba Christmas — official site for the annual Tubachristmas concerts
• Template:Cite EB1911