I sent an email to the originator of the travel/micro tubas-the Tornisters--to VF Cerveny for Thomas, and here is his/their reply--very interesting--FYI-mark
Hello Mark,
You are right, Tornister Horns were made for the Austria-Hungarian
Military and the meaning of the name is Backpack. They were carried by
the Cavalery and Infantery on the Backs.
Cerveny made Tornister Tubas in Bb, Eb and F. I have never seen or
heard of a Tornister C Tuba. Since the C pitch was not common to the
Austria-Hungarian Monarchy, I believe there were no C Tornister Tubas.
Furthermore he made also Bb Baritonehorns (Euphoniums) and also
Bb Tenorhorn. All these Instruments were 3 valves, I have never seen a
4 valves. Beside that Cerveny made also Tornister Bb Bass Fluegelhorn
with 4 valves. We don't know exactly when the production started and
ended, we just can assume, that these instruments came on the market
around 1885-1890 and ended in the production with WWII, means about
1938, but the main business for these horns ended after Monarchy came
to the end 1918. I guess these horns were made not just for the
Military, but noone except Military would use them. First of
all for optical reasons. but mainly for sound reasons. For the
purposes of the Military, these horns had to be wraped very compact
and in small bore because of the weight, so the sound was good for
playing somewhere in the field, but not for concert use. Thats why,
the main business came to end end after the WWI.
The Inscription CERVENY & SOHNNE - ZU KONIGGRATZ IN BOHMEN was the
common label for instruments sold to Austria.
Best regards
Thomas.
