Thetuba (UK:/ˈtjuːbə/;[1]US:/ˈtuːbə/) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in thebrass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration – a buzz – into amouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modernorchestra andconcert band, and largely replaced theophicleide.[2]Tuba isLatin for "trumpet".[3]
A person who plays the tuba is called a tubaist, a tubist,[4] or simply a tuba player. In a Britishbrass band ormilitary band, they are known as bass players.
The addition of valves made it possible to play low in theharmonic series of the instrument and still have a complete selection of notes. Prior to the invention of valves, brass instruments were limited to notes in the harmonic series, and were thus generally played very high with respect to theirfundamental pitch. Harmonics starting three octaves above the fundamental pitch are about a whole step apart, making a useful variety of notes possible.
Theophicleide used a bowl-shaped brass instrument mouthpiece but had keys and tone holes similar to those of a modernsaxophone. Another forerunner to the tuba, theserpent, was a bass instrument shaped in a wavy form to make the tone holes accessible to the player. Tone holes change the pitch by providing an intentional leak in the bugle of the instrument, but this system has a pronounced effect on the timbre. By using valves instead, the tuba could produce a smoother tone, which led to its popularity. Tubas were mostly used by French composers, especiallyHector Berlioz, who famously used the ophicleide in his compositionsSymphonie fantastique andBenvenuto Cellini. These pieces are now normally performed on F or CC tuba.
Adolphe Sax, like Wieprecht, was interested in marketing families of instruments ranging from soprano to bass, and developed a series of brass instruments known assaxhorns. The instruments developed by Sax were generally pitched in E♭ and B♭, while the Wieprecht "basstuba" and the subsequentČervený contrabass tuba were pitched in F and C (see below on pitch systems). Sax's instruments gained dominance in France, and later in Britain and America, as a result of the movements of popular instrument makers such asGustave Auguste Besson (who moved from France to Britain) and Henry Distin (who eventually found his way to America).[6]
Thecimbasso is also seen instead of a tuba in the orchestral repertoire. The Italian wordcimbasso, first appearing in the early 19th century, is thought to be a contraction used by musicians of the termcorno basso orcorno di basso (lit.'bass horn'), sometimes appearing in scores asc. basso orc. in basso.[7] The original design was inspired by the ophicleide and the bassoon.[8] The cimbasso is sometimes used in historically accurate performances and is commonly called for infilm andvideo gamesoundtracks.
Anorchestra usually has a single tuba, though an additional tuba may be requested. It serves as the bass of the orchestralbrass section[9] and it can reinforce the bass voices of thestrings andwoodwinds. It provides the bass of brass quintets and choirs (though many small brass ensembles will use theeuphonium orbass trombone as the lowest voice). It is the principal bass instrument inconcert bands,brass bands andmilitary bands, and those ensembles generally have two to four tubas. It is also a solo instrument.
Tuba section (known as "bass section") in aBritish style brass band, consisting of two E♭ and two BB♭ tubas
Tubas are found in various pitches, most commonly in F, E♭, C, or B♭. The key of a tuba depends on the fundamental pitch of the instrument, or fundamental note in the series ofovertones (also calledpartials) available without anyvalves being pressed. Tubas in different keys use different lengths of tubing. The main tube of a B♭ tuba is approximately 18 feet (5.5 m) long, while that of a C tuba is 16 feet (4.9 m), of an E♭ tuba 13 feet (4.0 m), and of an F tuba 12 feet (3.7 m). The instrument has aconical bore, meaning the bore diameter increases as a function of the tubing length from the mouthpiece to the bell. The conical bore causes the instrument to produce a preponderance of even-orderharmonics.
A tuba with its tubing wrapped for placing the instrument on the player's lap is usually called aconcert tuba or simply atuba. Tubas with thebell pointing forward (pavillon tournant) instead of upward are often calledrecording tubas because of their popularity in the early days of recorded music, as their sound could more easily be directed at the recording microphone. When wrapped to surround the body for cavalry bands on horseback or marching, it is traditionally known as ahelicon. The modernsousaphone, named after American bandmasterJohn Philip Sousa, resembles a helicon with the bell pointed up (in the original models as the J. W. Pepper prototype and Sousa's concert instruments) and then curved to point forward (as developed by Conn and others). Some ancestors of the tuba, such as the militarybombardon, had unusual valve and bore arrangements compared to modern tubas.
During the American Civil War, most brass bands used a branch of the brass family known assaxhorns, which, by today's standards, have a narrower bore taper than tuba—the same as truecornets andbaritones but distinct fromtrumpets,euphoniums, and others with different tapers or no taper. Around the start of the Civil War, saxhorns manufactured for military use in the USA were commonly wrapped with the bell pointing backwards over the player's shoulder, and these were known asover-the-shoulder saxhorns, and came in sizes from cornets down to E♭ basses. However, the E♭ bass, even though it shared the same tube length as a modern E♭ tuba, has a narrower bore and as such cannot be called by the nametuba except as a convenience when comparing it to other sizes of the saxhorn.
Most music for the tuba is written in bass clef in concert pitch, so tuba players must know the correct fingerings for their specific instruments. TraditionalBritish-style brass band parts for the tuba are usually written in treble clef, with the B♭ tuba sounding two octaves and one step below and the E♭ tuba sounding one octave and a major sixth below the written pitch. This allows musicians to change instruments without learning new fingerings for the same written music. Consequently, when its music is written in treble clef, the tuba is atransposing instrument but not when the music is in bass clef.
The lowest pitched tubas are thecontrabass tubas, pitched in C or B♭, referred to as CC and BB♭ tubas respectively, based on a traditional distortion of a now-obsolete octave naming convention. The fundamental pitch of a CC tuba is 32 Hz, and for a BB♭ tuba, 29 Hz. The CC tuba is used as an orchestral and concert band instrument in the U.S., but BB♭ tubas are the contrabass tuba of choice in German, Austrian, and Russian orchestras. In the United States, the BB♭ tuba is the most common in schools (largely due to the use of BB♭ sousaphones inhigh school marching bands) and for adult amateurs. Many professionals in the U.S. play CC tubas, with BB♭ also common, and many train in the use of all four pitches of tubas.[10]
Comparison of euphonium (left) and tuba (right)
The next smaller tubas are thebass tubas, pitched in F or E♭ (a fourth above the contrabass tubas). The E♭ tuba often plays an octave above the contrabass tubas in brass bands, and the F tuba is commonly used by professional players as a solo instrument and, in America, to play higher parts in the classical repertoire (or parts that were originally written for the F tuba, as is the case with Berlioz). In most of Europe, the F tuba is the standard orchestral instrument, supplemented by the CC or BB♭ only when the extra weight is desired.Wagner, for example, specifically notates the low tuba parts forKontrabasstuba, which are played on CC or BB♭ tubas in most regions. In the United Kingdom, the E♭ is the standard orchestral tuba.
The euphonium is sometimes referred to as atenor tuba and is pitched in B♭, one octave higher than the BB♭ contrabass tuba. The term "tenor tuba" is often used more specifically to refer to B♭ rotary-valved tubas pitched in the same octave as euphoniums. The "Small Swiss Tuba in C" is a tenor tuba pitched in C, and provided with 6 valves to make the lower notes in the orchestral repertoire possible. The French C tuba was the standard instrument in French orchestras until overtaken by F and C tubas since theSecond World War. One popular example of the use of the French C tuba is theBydło movement inRavel's orchestration ofMussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibition, though the rest of the work is scored for this instrument as well.
Larger BBB♭subcontrabass tubas exist but are extremely rare (there are at least four known examples). One four-valve example was exhibited by maker Bohland & Fuchs in 1928, its bell 50 inches in diameter, its height 110 inches, its weight 200 pounds.[11] Two were built by Gustave Besson in BBB♭, one octave below the BB♭ contrabass tuba, on the suggestion of John Philip Sousa. The monster instruments were not completed until just after Sousa's death. Later, in the 1950s, British musicianGerard Hoffnung commissioned the London firm of Paxman to create a subcontrabass tuba in EEE♭ for use in his comedic music festivals. Also, a tuba pitched in FFF was made inKraslice by Bohland & Fuchs probably during 1910 or 1911 and was destined for the World Exhibition in New York in 1913. Two players are needed; one to operate the valves and one to blow into the mouthpiece.
In addition to the length of the instrument, which dictates the fundamental pitch, tubas also vary in the overall width of the tubing sections. Tuba sizes are usually denoted by a quarter system, with4⁄4 designating a normal, full-size tuba. Larger rotary instruments are known askaiser tubas and are often denoted5⁄4. Larger piston tubas, particularly those with front action, are sometimes known asgrand orchestral tubas (examples: the Conn 36J Orchestra Grand Bass from the 1930s, and the current model Hirsbrunner HB-50Grand Orchestral, which is a replica of the large York tubas owned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). Grand orchestral tubas are generally described as6⁄4 tubas. Smaller instruments may be described as3⁄4 instruments.
Nolan Derrick plays the tuba/sousaphone, showing a different series/model of tuba/sousaphone
No standards exist for these designations, and their use is up to manufacturers, who usually use them to distinguish among the instruments in their own product line. The size designation is related to the larger outer branches and not to the bore of the tubing at the valves, though the bore is usually reported in instrument specifications. The quarter system is also not directly related to bell size, though there is typically a correlation.3⁄4 tubas are common in American grade schools for use by young tuba players for whom a full-size instrument might be too cumbersome. Though smaller and lighter, they are tuned and keyed identically to full-size tubas of the same pitch, although they usually have 3 rather than 4 or 5 valves.
Tubas are made with eitherpiston orrotary valves. Rotary valves, invented by Joseph Riedl, are based on a design included in the original valve patents byFriedrich Blühmel andHeinrich Stölzel in 1818.Červený ofGraslitz was the first to use true rotary valves, starting in the 1840s or 1850s. Modern piston valves were developed byFrançois Périnet for thesaxhorn family of instruments promoted byAdolphe Sax around the same time. Pistons may either be oriented to point to the top of the instrument (top-action) or out the front of the instrument (front-action or side-action).
Piston valves require more maintenance than rotary valves – they require regular oiling to keep them freely operating, while rotary valves are sealed and seldom require oiling. Piston valves are easy to disassemble and re-assemble, while rotary valve disassembly and re-assembly is much more difficult and is generally left to qualified instrument repair persons.
Tubas generally have from three to six valves, though some rare exceptions exist. Three-valve tubas are generally the least expensive and are almost exclusively used by amateurs, and thesousaphone (a marching version of a BB♭ tuba) usually has three valves. Among advanced players, four and five valve tubas are by far the most common choices, with six-valve tubas being relatively rare except among F tubas, which mostly have five or six valves.
Tuba with four rotary valves
The valves add tubing to the main tube of the instrument, thus lowering its fundamental pitch. The first valve lowers the pitch by a whole step (two semitones), the second valve by a semitone, and the third valve by three semitones. Used in combination, the valve tubing is too short and the resulting pitch tends to be sharp. For example, a BB♭ tuba becomes (in effect) an A♭ tuba when the first valve is depressed. The third valve is long enough to lower the pitch of a BB♭ tuba by three semitones, but it is not long enough to lower the pitch of an A♭ tuba by three semitones. Thus, the first and third valves used in combination lower the pitch by somethingjust short of five semitones, and the first three valves used in combination are nearly a quarter tone sharp.
The fourth valve is used in place of combinations of the first and third valves, and the second and fourth used in combination are used in place of the first three valves in combination. The fourth valve can be tuned to lower the pitch of the main tube accurately by five semitones, and thus its use corrects the main problem of combinations being too sharp. By using the fourth valve by itself to replace the first and third combination, or the fourth and second valves in place of the first, second and third valve combinations, the notes requiring these fingerings are more in tune. The fourth valve used in combination with, rather than instead of, the first three valves fills in the missing notes in the bottom octave allowing the player to play chromatically down to the fundamental pitch of the instrument. For the reason given in the preceding paragraph some of these notes will tend to be sharp and must by "lipped" into tune by the player.
A fifth and sixth valve, if fitted, are used to provide alternative fingering possibilities to improve intonation, and are also used to reach into the low register of the instrument where all the valves will be used in combination to fill the first octave between the fundamental pitch and the next available note on the open tube. The fifth and sixth valves also give the musician the ability to trill more smoothly or to use alternative fingerings for ease of playing. This type of tuba is what is most found in orchestras and wind bands around the world.
The bass tuba in F is pitched a fifth above the BB♭ tuba and a fourth above the CC tuba, so it needs additional tubing length beyond that provided by four valves to play securely down to a low F as required in much tuba music. The fifth valve is commonly tuned to a flat whole step, so that when used with the fourth valve, it gives an in-tune low B♭. The sixth valve is commonly tuned as a flat half step, allowing the F tuba to play low G as 1-4-5-6 and low G♭ as 1-2-4-5-6. In CC tubas with five valves, the fifth valve may be tuned as a flat whole step or as a minor third depending on the instrument.
Some tubas have a compensating system to allow accurate tuning when using several valves in combination, simplifying fingering and removing the need to constantly adjust slide positions. The most popular of the automatic compensation systems was invented by Blaikley (Bevan, 1874) and was patented by Boosey (later,Boosey and Hawkes, which also, later still, produced Besson instruments). The patent on the system limited its application outside of Britain, and to this day, tubas with compensating valves are primarily popular in the United Kingdom and countries of the former British Empire.
The Blaikley design plumbs the instrument so that if the fourth valve is used, the air is sent back through a second set of branches in the first three valves to compensate for the combination of valves. This does have the disadvantage of making the instrument significantly more "stuffy" or resistant to air flow when compared to a non-compensating tuba. This is due to the need for the air to flow through the valves twice. It also makes the instrument heavier. But many prefer this approach to having additional valves – or to the manipulation of tuning slides while playing – to achieve improved intonation within an ensemble.
Most modern professional-grade euphoniums also now feature Blaikley-style compensating valves.[12]
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 asfalse 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 theWilliam Kraft pieceEncounters II, which is often played using a timedflutter tongue rather than by buzzing the lips. The fundamental of this pitch borders oninfrasound andits overtones define the pitch in the listener's ear.
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 areMeinl-Weston (Germany) and Miraphone (Germany). Asian brands include theYamaha Corporation (Japan) and Jupiter Instruments (Taiwan).Holton Instrument Company andKing Musical Instruments are some of the most well known brands from the United States.[14]
Some tubas are capable of being converted into amarching style, known as "marching tubas". Aleadpipe can be manually screwed on next to the valves. The tuba is then usually rested on the left shoulder (although some tubas allow use of the right shoulder), with the bell facing directly in front of the player. Some marching tubas are made only for marching, and cannot be converted into a concert model.
Most marching bands opt for thesousaphone, an instrument that is easier to carry since it was invented specifically for this and almost always cheaper than a true marching tuba.[15] The earlierhelicon is still used by bands in Europe and other parts of the world.Drum and bugle corps players, however, generally use marching tubas orContrabass bugles.
Standard tubas can also be played whilst standing and marching, which is the usual practice inBritish brass bands andmilitary bands. With the comfort of the player in mind, companies have provided harnesses that sometimes use a strap joined to the tuba with two rings, a 'sack' to hold the bottom of the tuba, or numerous straps holding the larger parts of tubing on the tuba. The strap(s) goes over the shoulder like a sash or sit at the waist, so the musician can play the instrument in the same position as when sitting.
The tuba has been used injazz since the genre's inception. In the earliest years, bands often used a tuba for outdoor playing and adouble 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 theNew Orleans jazz scene. The tuba was used most frequently with theLouis Armstrong groups and prominent in the albumHot Five.
