Posted by James W on May 10, 2001 at 04:09:53:
In Reply to: Re: When did F become Eb? posted by DanN on May 10, 2001 at 01:49:24:
Actually, Sax's complete set of saxophones consisted of piccolo sax's in Bb/C, sopraninos in Eb/F, sopranos in Bb/C ...(etc.)... down to contrabass in F/Eb (currently the largest sax in production, LA SAX have an Eb contra on their website, and if memory serves they are made by Orsi in Milan) and subcontrabass in 16ft C or 18ft Bb, but as far as I know no working example has ever been built.
For some reason, Sax split his instruments into two groups - Eb/Bb for band use and C/F for orchestras (which never really took off, as most orchestras seemed quite happy without a saxophone section, although c "melody" sax's are still available if you want them).
His line of saxhorns followed the same idea, and the popularity of brass bands in the UK led to the near total dominance of the Eb/Bb series over here. As the previous post said, nearly all British tuba players start in brass bands playing Eb, and then add the BBb when they are older (larger - those 994's are heavy). Personally I never even saw a CC until I had been playing for 9 years, and I have still never played an F tuba, and am not really in any hurry to try (although I'd quite like a quick toot out of curiosity). Until I met players from abroad, I always thought CC was a speciality instrument, or a lightweight option for when you couldn't get your BBb to a gig.
James.