Posted by Rick Denney on July 27, 2003 at 01:59:44:
In Reply to: What's it mean????? posted by Stupid Tuba Player on July 26, 2003 at 21:42:18:
As Don says, it's an artifact of an obsolete naming convention for octaves. But it applied to the BBb only, and I suspect C tubas were called CC to make sure people realized they were contrabasses like BBb tubas. I think that's the same reason Besson uses EEb--to say that their Eb compensating tuba can do what a contrabass does, even though it is a bass tuba. Nomenclature often emerges as a series of small decisions made for the wrong reasons that stick just because they help (a little) in keeping things sorted out.
Personally, I would prefer that we say "Contrabass tuba in Bb (or C)" and "Bass tuba in Eb (or F)". But nobody asked me.
Rick "who thinks the size system is even more confusing" Denney