Tuba
The tuba (Latin: trumpet) is a recent addition to the orchestral world having only been patented in 1835 by Wiebrecht and Moritz in Germany. It emerged to replace the serpent and ophicleide for low brass parts.
The defining characteristics of the tuba are that it is a brass, valved, wind instrument that has a conical bore and deep, cup-shaped mouthpiece.
The number of valves on a tuba has never really been standardised since they can have as few as three and as many as six but four or five valves are the most common configuration.
Due to the bulk, the vertically coiled tuba is held upright against the player's chest, with the bell facing upwards towards the right shoulder or left shoulder depending on the type of tuba being used. A harness supports the weight of the tuba when players are standing or marching. Some tubas have their tubing formed into circular coils and are known as helicons. The most instantly recognisable helicon is the sousaphone, so named because it was designed to be a member of Sousa's band in 1899. It remains popular in American marching and military bands with some use in jazz ensembles.
The tuba family relationships are somewhat confusing since they include, not only the tubas that concertgoers would immediately recognise as the huge, gleaming brass instrument alongside the trombones but also Wagner tubas that aren't tubas and saxhorns and flugelhorns that are.
The tuba recognised immediately by brass band, orchestra and military band enthusiasts has three family members. The Bb tenor tuba is the euphonium that plays such a major role in brass and wind bands but a very limited role in orchestral work. Orchestral bass tubas appear in four categories: F, Eb, C and Bb. Depending on geographical location, musical culture and demands of the repertoire either one of these bass tubas may be used. The F tuba is popular in France, the Eb in Britain, the C in North America and the Bb in parts of Europe. There also exists a EEb bass and BBb bass that have the same pitch as the corresponding Eb and Bb. The extreme depths achieved by these instruments pose problems of tuning. As more valves become engaged so there becomes a tendency to fall out of tune. This problem was first addressed by adding tuning slides that were adjusted by the left hand. This method, though successful, was clumsy and it was David Blaikley in 1874 that introduced a compensating system that efficiently solved the problem. This system automatically brought into play the required additional length of tubing when certain combinations of keys were depressed.
Wagner tubas are not tubas! Neither do they have anything to do with Wagner apart from the fact that he was the first to use such instruments. So, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, words "means just what I choose them to mean - neither more nor less."
Wagner tubas are not tubas because, through having a narrow bore and a funnel-shaped mouthpiece like that of the horn, they do not match the required criteria for tubas. That they should be named after Wagner rather than the Czech inventors Cerveny and Kralove thirty years previously is because he wished to provide eight-part harmony for horns in the Ring of the Nibelung. To the existing four horns he added two tenor and two bass Wagner tubas. The length of tube and resultant harmonic series mirrored those of the corresponding horns. Wagner also employed a double bass tuba that actually was a tuba since it did have a conical bore and cupped mouthpiece.
R Strauss, Bruckner and Stravinsky also wrote for the Wagner tuba.
Saxhorns and flugelhorns sound as if they are unrelated to tubas but they are because they do have the conical bore and cupped mouthpiece. There are seven members of the saxhorn family but it is the three lowest members that can be considered tubas because of their low bass range. It was the saxhorns that eventually formed the backbone of the British style brass band.
There is little difference between the saxhorn and flugelhorn other than the latter has a slightly wider bore than the former. (The solo voice flugelhorn in brass bands is a Bb saxhorn.)
Being such a latecomer to the orchestra, the tuba does not have an extensive repertoire but it is gradually growing as composers begin to recognise the qualities of this instrument. Some composers such as Dvorak, not understanding the individuality of the tuba merely wrote for it as a double for the bass trombone at an octave lower thus forming a sort of orchestral low brass quartet. It was orchestral composers such as Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Bruckner and Rimsky Korsakov who recognised the potential of the tuba and their works opened the way for more appreciation of its idiosyncratic qualities.
Solo repertoire took longer to emerge and the first concerto for tuba by a recognised composer was one of great beauty composed by Vaughan Williams. Hindemith, Salzedo, Malcolm Arnold, Penderecki and John Williams have written other notable solo parts for tuba.
Tubas are now well established in orchestras but it is in brass, military and wind bands that they encounter a fuller more rewarding repertoire. They are ever present in American marching bands both as standard tubas and helicon sousaphones. There is a growing repertoire for the brass quintet containing two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba and also for the ten-piece brass ensemble pioneered by Philip Jones in which John Fletcher originally played the solo-voiced tuba.