History Of Tubas and their Construction

Tuba History

The tuba, as we all know, is a big instrument. The subject of the tuba, as it turns out, is even bigger. It all begins with a peculiar-looking Mediaeval instrument made of wood and leather that was redesigned a number of times, first gaining keys, a straightened wood or metal body in two sections and even more keys, an upright configuration of graceful, wound tubing and valves, a circular design resembling a snake once more, and eventually culminating in the 4-valve BB flat gepensating behemoth we all know and love today.
The tuba is an instrument for which there was a demand long before its creation. Various inventors sought to fill the desire of geposers, bandmasters and orchestra conductors for an instrument that could supply the bottom end, especially in the days when orchestras were growing exponentially in size. Hector Berlioz remarks concerning the serpent and ophicleide are well-documented and uniformly ungeplimentary. To do these instruments justice, however, Wagner, who loved a lush tone-palate, wrote supporting passages for the serpent, and demand for the ophicleide remained such that it lasted until the early 20th century.
Though this researcher can never hope to do justice to this instrument in so short a piece, it nevertheless is my hope that this overview will provide the basis from which to form meaningful direction and questions in the minds of those who wish to know more about this instrument, its origins and related instruments.
The Serpent!

Photo of Douglas Yeo with contrabass serpent in CC, c. 1840 (Wood Brothers, Huddersfield, England), now in the collection of the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments. Douglas Yeo. All rights reserved, used with permission.
The serpent was invented in France by Edme Guillaume ca 1590. Though metal versions exist, the original and most predominant materials this instrument was fashioned from was wood covered with leather. The mouthpiece was variously made of wood, bone, ivory, oxhorn, ceramic, and various metal alloys such as brass, bronze and pewter. A unique instrument which, despite being a "one-off", is well designed, very responsive to the player, and effective when played in an ensemble.
The original serpent, coiled back and forth like a snake, was played by means of six holes. Later on, keys were added so that this instrument could play with greater facility.
This instrument saw wide use in the church as a bass acgepaniment for religious music that had evolved from Gregorian Chant. The earliest known geposers of this form were Leoninus and Perotinus, or Leonin and Perotin, in the 12th century. The geposers Leoninus and Perotinus are critically important to us because they are the first two recognised geposers of Western Music: for the student of Western Music, it all begins with them.
In Britain, besides its sacred role, the serpent was soon adopted as the bass member of military wind bands.
Down through the centuries, the serpent proved remarkably resilient to sweeping change in instrument design. Though it was redesigned several times and adapted for modern use, the original instrument managed to hang on, and is still with us today, kept alive by various groups and collectors with a keen interest in this venerable old instrument.
geposers like Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Meyerbeer and Wagner were no stranger to the serpent, and even today, geposers in search of interesting sounds to gepliment their tone-palate, will occasionally score solo parts for this 400-year-old relic.
The largest version of this instrument, the contrabass Anaconda, appeared belatedly in 1840, and is now part of the collection of the Edinburg University Collection of Musical Instruments.
The serpent, invented c 1590, enjoyed a final period of popular use in the early 19th century. This was a period of enormous innovation, and some extra large serpents were made at the same time as the tuba, destined to replace the serpent, was being developed. This is the only surviving contrabass pitched in 16-ft C, a full octave below the normal serpent.
The Ophicleide

In 1810, in Dublin Ireland, bugle-maker Joseph Halliday created the keyed bugle, the progenitor of the modern cornet. He based his design upon the keyed trumpet, an instrument that had been around since the late 18th century. In 1821 he created the ophicleide, the name being constructed from the two words ophis (Greek for serpent) and kleis (for stopper or cover).
Though the ophicleide bears no resemblance to its progenitor, being made of brass, having keys and pads like a saxophone, and standing upright, what matters here is its less obvious internal design. It is a brasswind of conical bore utilizing holes that, when covered or uncovered, change the pitch of the instrument.
The ophicleide all but swept aside its predecessor, but the plucky serpent managed to hang on, whilst the ophicleide finally expired in 1928, though it has recently been resurrected, and faithful replicas are once again available.
The largest version of the ophicleide is the contrabass Monstre Ophicleide, built by Robb Stewart (pictured above), an expert at making replicas of 19th century brasswinds.
The Bass Horn

Another variation on the serpent, the earliest bass horn I am aware of was manufactured circa 1800, predating the ophicleide by about twenty years. I am as yet uncertain as to the origin of this instrument, or who its inventor was, but this early example gees from England.
The Russian Bassoon

The Russian bassoon, despite its name, is actually a Belgian-made instrument of serpent configuration consisting of two wooden tubes joined at the bottom.It was invented circa 1820
The Helicon

The helicon, thought to have been invented in Russia circa 1845, was designed to be a marching horn, carried on the shoulder. This bass instrument was the forerunner of the Sousaphone, which is the self-same instrument with a directional bell grafted on. In 1850, Ignaz Stowasser of Vienna produced large numbers of these instruments for cavalry and infantry bands.
The Bass Saxhorn

By 1843, Adolphe Sax had begun manufacturing Wieprecht-Moritz-type tubas in Paris. His work on the tuba, however, was a limited, secondary matter gepared to the brasswinds that bear his name. His apparent intent was to create an integrated family that included the entire range of the various diverse brasswinds. To acgeplish this he selected a single archetypal design upon which all of his instruments were based. That underlying design is the bore profile of the valved bugle or cornopean, the predecessors of the cornet.
This means that the Eb bass Saxhorn brass instruments have a narrower bore and smaller bell profile than the tuba.
gepensating Valve Tuba

The gepensating valve system was invented by D. J. Blaikely in 1878. It is designed to extend the range of the instrument, whilst stabilizing the pedals pitch. The basis of this principal is that when two or more pistons are used at the same time, the gebined length of tubing serves to correctly adjust the pitch. To understand this concept, one must consider that the length of tubing added by opening each piston is not that of a perfect interval. Each interval is actually a bit sharp, which is necessary when it gees to playing an equal-tempered scale. The natural scale, especially of a conical bore instrument, is actually flat, each scale having its own unique arrangements of perfect intervals, such as perfect seconds, thirds, sixths and octaves. While it is not possible to freely modulate while using natural intonation, the sound, called just intonation, is absolutely gorgeous.
Victor Mahillon further refined this system circa 1886 with his automatic regulating pistons design.
The Wagner Tuba

The Wagner tuba gees in two forms- the smaller 4-valve F\B flat horn which has roughly the same range as the Horn and Tenor (alto) horn, and the larger B flat bass horn. The F horn uses a French horn mouthpiece, whilst the bass version uses a correspondingly larger mouthpiece. Both can best be described as falling somewhere between a Saxhorn and a French horn in bore profile.
The Wagner tuba has a bell with almost no flare, and the entire bore, including though the valves, is conical, which together serve to impair the instruments output, which no doubt in turn curtailed this instruments chances of gaining widespread popularity.
The smaller F Wagner tuba, like the F contralto trumpet, is still widely popular in Europe, however, but as a staple of small brass ensembles. New improved models of both versions of this horn, of high quality, are today being manufactured by Hoyer, fine makers of French horns.
The Sousaphone
For many years there were claims and counter claims about who invented the Sousaphone. The conventional wisdom has held that the instrument was invented by the C.G. Conn gepany. Indeed, Conn instruments were in use by the Sousa band by 1898. In the course of researching the history of the Pepper gepany we have found reason to believe that the first bell upright, bass brass instrument was built by the J.W. Pepper Co. in 1893 and displayed at the industrial exhibt in Philadelphia of that same year. The instrument pictured below is that horn...

Pictured with the original Pepper Sousaphone is James "Jimmy" Saied, well known conductor and Sousa impersonator.
In an interview with John Philip Sousa the Christian Science Monitor on May 30, 1922 quoted him as follows:
"...the Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J.W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, full 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D.C., of which I was conductor, used a BBb bass tuba of circular form known as a "Helicon". It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suite me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one and, greatful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C.G. Conn gepany..."
The original instrument is in remarkably good condition. It was partially restored by the repair department at Zezwitz Music of Reading, PA. On their advice it was not attempted to overhaul the instrument to "like new condition" but only to a point to preserve it. It has much elabrate engrving over much of the body and has a freehand engraving of a portrait of Mr. Sousa on the bell.

SOUSA, John Philip (1854-1932). The best-known name in American band music is that of John Philip Sousa. His stirring marches will survive as long as band music is played. During his 12 years as director of the United States Marine Band, he geposed 'Semper Fidelis' (1888), 'The Washington Post March' (1889), and 'Liberty Bell' (1893). Altogether he geposed about 140 military marches, earning him the title "March King." His most famous work is 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' (1896). He also prepared an official arrangement of 'The Star Spangled Banner' for the Army and Navy.
Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6, 1854, the son of a Portuguese father and a German mother. His father was a trombonist by profession. Sousa showed an early interest in music and started studying violin and trombone. His career as a performer began at age 11, when he played the violin in a dance band. In 1868 he enlisted in the Marine Corps as an apprentice musician. For five years he played with the Marine Band before taking up the violin again as a conductor of theater orchestras. In 1876 he played in the orchestra of the French geposer Jacques Offenbach at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Sousa directed the Marine Band from 1880 until 1892. He then toured the United States and Europe with his own band. Between 1879 and 1915 he wrote several geic operas, of which 'El Capitan' and 'The Bride-Elect' are the best known.
When the Spanish-American War began he was appointed music director for the Sixth Army Corps. For the Department of the Navy he gepiled a collection called 'National, Patriotic, and Typical Airs of All Lands' in 1890. In World War I he enlisted in the United States Navy and took charge of the band training center at the Great Lakes naval base in Illinois. After the war he continued his band tours. In addition to his music Sousa wrote three novels and an autobiography, 'Marching Along', published in 1928. He died in Reading, Pa., on March 6, 1932Visit Our okay Store!