Re: Old french 6 valve C tubas


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Posted by Chuck(G) on October 18, 2002 at 20:24:45:

In Reply to: Old french 6 valve C tubas posted by Brian on October 17, 2002 at 20:41:22:

To say that a 6-valve 3+3 C (not CC) tuba is the only sort of French tuba wouldn't be completely accurate. I've got an old (1913) French method book ("Grande Méthode de Basse et Tuba", Jules Watelle) for French C tuba and it's interesting to note that the critters identified as "Tuba d'Orchestre" came in 5 and 6 piston varieties. The curious thing is that in the 5 banger variety, piston 3 is tuned to lower the pitch by 4 semitones, piston 4 by 5, and piston 5 by 7 (to F) semitones. In the 6-valve version, piston 5 appears to be a semitone step with 6 getting the 7 semitone step. So the 6-valve tuba offered only slightly more range and some alternate fingerings over the 5 valve version.

It's also worth noting that there were also 3 and 4-valve C versions, but they're not identified as "Orchestral Tubas".



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