Posted by Chuck(G) on October 17, 2003 at 13:28:20:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Learn Baritone? Or not? posted by Rick Denney on October 17, 2003 at 11:39:30:
Go back to the Library of Congress Music for the Nation collection and you'll see that in 1875, there were Bb tenor horns, Bb baritone horns, Bb basses, all having the same fundamental pitch. The Bb tenors and baritones both belonged to the saxhorn family and differed mostly in bore and proportion (the so-called "half-tube" and "whole-tube" saxhorns). The Bb bass, as far as I can determine more closely corresponds to what we'd call a euphonium. To further muddy the waters, Conn was at the time advertising tenors, baritones, basses and euphoniums, all in either upright or "helicon shape".
The British baritones and tenorhorns (Eb alto horns to us) are probably the closest thing to saxhorns we have in modern times. The rest of what we play tends to follow the flugelhorn geometry, no matter what we call them, if we leave out the "trombonium" and the like.
With all the various names for brass instruments of the same general shape and pitch, no wonder there's confusion!