Why was 3 valves thought sufficient?

[Mark E. Chachich]

I think that Bloke nailed this one when he said needs, price.

Look at an old York catalog and you will find four valve tubas for extra money.

Mark

[windshieldbug]

Why was three valves thought sufficient?

Because they were, then. Its like asking why were violins strung with gut strings, why didn't they make bass trombones, or why did they make guitars without amps? People worked with what they had, and the instrument has evolved.

Some of the earliest tubas were 5 & 6 valved, then they became happy with just 3, because eventually they made any brass instrument diatonic within its main range. Tubas started by being able to play in any well-tempered key, and then brass manufactures began to expand the range of the instrument.

Just be glad we're not still playing keyed instruments!

[tubamirum]

French Horns are conical, and yes, pitch is very controlable with the hand.

[Shockwave]

Three valves have been sufficient for all the tuba music I've come across. Horns from the 19th and early 20th century were designed to be tuned by lip, but as the loudness requirements increased over the years they were designed to resonate more strongly and in the process lost a lot of the pitch flexibility. On a good old instrument, once you are used to it, you just have to think of a pitch and it magically comes out with a nice tone. Old cornets were played by virtuosi without any of the slide adjustment mechanisms found on modern trumpets, and old tubas worked just fine with 3 valves. WIth a bit of practice, false tones sound better than low valved notes, at least in an ensemble. The downside is that once you have trained yourself to play one particular horn, other horns will play out of tune for you. I suspect that back then people played just one instrument and stuck with it.

-Eric