Re: Re: question on C (not CC) tuba's


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 14, 2001 at 23:16:33:

In Reply to: Re: question on C (not CC) tuba's posted by Steve Dedman on January 13, 2001 at 15:46:51:

The French C tuba was certainly the standard instrument in French orchestras in Ravel's time, so it makes sense that he would have written it for that instrument.

I've played on a French C tuba, and it was heavier than a euphonium, and had a lot more valves, but it was still more like a euphonium than a tuba. But I played it with a euphonium mouthpiece, and that may make all the difference. My question several threads down about which mouthpiece a French C tuba used met with no definitive answer.

But the bore of a French C tuba is no larger than a modern euphonium. And in the lower register, well-represented in Pictures, that instrument must have had a "unique" sound with five or six valves in play and about a mile of cylindrical tubing. I've seen pictures of several, and there was no graduated bore there a-tall.

Rick "who would still like to have one" Denney


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