Re: Early Tubas In U.S.


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Posted by Rick Denney on March 12, 2001 at 15:34:46:

In Reply to: Early Tubas In U.S. posted by Anon on March 12, 2001 at 15:14:44:

There was a maker of an instrument called the trombacello which in the 1840's was remarkably similar to the Wieprecht basstuba. It was pitched in F.

Saxhorn-style instruments arrived in the 1850's, though when of American make often had rotary valves with right-angle actions. These morphed into other-the-shoulder horns used in the time of the Civil War, pitched in Eb. Most of the American horns I've seen between those dates and the turn of the 20th century were saxhorn-style (top-action piston valved) Eb tubas. Examples of these include Henry Distin, Conn, Missenharter, and then a bit later Keefer, York, Holton, and so on.

What I'm curious about and have never seen anywhere is what sort of tubas were used in American orchestras between the Civil War and the 1920's. Before that time, ophicleides, English bass horns, and trombacellos were common, and after that time large contrabasses were used. August Helleberg had a contrabass rotary tuba in a photo that I seem to recall was from the turn of the century--it's the only picture of an American orchestral tubist that I've seen from that era. Does anybody know when the front-action piston-valved horn appeared? All the 19th-century horns that I've seen (and I own one) are of the saxhorn conformation.

Rick "who can't quite recall the name the trombacello's maker" Denney


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