Posted by Greg Crider on July 07, 2001 at 23:12:16:
In Reply to: Euphonium: Bb or C??? posted by Ben Garrison on July 07, 2001 at 15:44:10:
Unless you have a really strange euphonium, your instrument is probably in Bb. A lot of the confusion over brass instrument keys comes from the fact that bass clef instruments are all concert pitch, but treble clef instruments are in concert pitch only if they are C instruments. In general, all bass clef instruments do not transpose (except up an octave for string bass, bass guitar, and contrabassoon), but most treble clef instruments have transposed parts except for C instruments (most piccolos, most flutes, oboes, C melody saxes, and C trumpets [mostly an orchestral instrument]).
Since euphonium is written in treble and bass clef, it gets more confusing. Most trumpets are Bb instruments, and their pitches are transposed when writing parts. An open low C on trumpet (the lowest open tone) produces an actual Bb, which is why most trumpets are called Bb instruments. The lowest C on a French horn actually produces an F, which is why horns are called F instruments. Playing a C on an Eb treble instrument produces an actual Eb. So playing a C on a treble clef C instrument produces a C. The advantage of this is that transposition in treble clef allows players to play an entire family of instruments using one set of fingerings. For example, the saxophones have C melody, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxes all using the same set of fingerings, even thought the C melody sax is actually pitched two octaves and a step above the bass sax.
This often confuses people who are used to treble clef transpositions when referring to bass clef instruments. Bass clef instruments do not use transposed parts; normally, changing key on a bass clef instrument requires learning a new set of fingerings. Simply being in concert pitch does not mean that all bass clef instruments are in C like it does in treble clef; it means that the lowest open tone of the instrument determines the key. For example, the lowest normal open tone (discounting false tones) of a Bb tuba is a Bb, while the lowest open tone of an F tuba is an F, and so on. The question then becomes, "is it worse to have to transpose all of that music, or is it worse to have to learn all of those new fingerings?"
With euphonium, in bass clef you use a set of fingerings where Bb is actually Bb, and a written pitch is what it seems. If you play euph in treble clef, the pitches are transposed up an octave and a step, so the fingerings coincide with the trumpet fingering system. The standard range open tones are C, G, C, E, G, and C, but the actual pitches they produce are Bb, F, Bb, D, F, and Bb, even though trumpet and euph sound an octave apart. This is done to make it easier to convert trumpet players to euphonium, and for no other reason.
On the other hand, British brass band charts are transposed for all instruments, and even tubas read from treble clef trumpet fingerings, which gets to be a nightmare for parts writers. All of the parts are transposed for a wealth of Bb, Eb and F instruments. If you're in a standard U. S. band, part writing and reading are a bit simpler.
To get a final answer to your question, are you playing in treble or bass clef. If you use treble, play a low C on the horn and a C on a piano; if they match, you have a C euphonium, which would be pretty strange. If you get a Bb on the piano when playing a low C, you have a Bb instrument. If you read bass clef, your lowest open tone determines the key, so if you get an open C, you have a C euphonium. I doubt that it will happen.