I spent a lot of 2023 in archives and found a document, written by Friedrich Wilhelm Wieprecht in 1835 (same year he invented the tuba). It describes the fingerings for his tuba, and I suspect this may be the very first tuba fingering chart. I thought it might be nice to share:
Screenshot_20240113_101945.jpg
In summary, Wieprecht developed the tuba so that a valve combination could be used to access all 12 notes of the scale in the second partial. These valve combinations were:
- F2: open
- E2: 1
- Eb2: 2
- D2: 1+2
- Db2: 1+2+4
- C2: 5
- B1: 5+4
- Bb1: 5+3
- A1: 5+4+3
- Ab1: 5+4+3+2
- G1: 5+4+3+1
- Gb1: 5+4+3+2+1
Heinrich Stozel invented the first valve in 1814 and used it in a 2-valve configuration on his horn, then quickly adapted it for the trumpet. The two valve configuration was the main brass configuration until Francois Perinet developed today's 3-valve system in 1829. The two valve system was:
- Whole tone below the mother-tone
- Half tone below the mother-tone
The Wieprecht tuba clearly draws inspiration from Stozel's 2-valve scheme. He even worked directly with Stozel in 1827/1828 to develop the Berlin valves that were used on this tuba. Open-bugle, this tuba plays F2 in its second partial. Wieprecht calls this the "mother-tone". The first valve is used to extend the length so that the tuba is a half-tone lower. The second valve extends it so that the tuba is a whole tone lower.
Wieprecht introduces the concept of a "2nd mother-tone", by using the fifth valve to lower the tuba by a fourth to get C. He then repeats the two-valve concept with the 3rd and 4th valve lowering the pitch from C by a half, and full tone. You could call these valves the long-whole-tone and a long-half-tone. Wieprecht's 5-valve configuration is therefore:
- Half tone below F (mother tone)
- Whole tone below F (mother tone)
- Whole tone below C (2nd mother tone)
- Half tone below C (2nd mother tone)
- Fourth below F (C, the 2nd mother tone)
The reason why I'm posting this is there seems to be a problem with this fingering. For example, when going from Ab to G, Wieprecht swaps the short-whole-tone valve to the short-half-tone and expects the pitch to decrease. If I crunch the numbers for the valve lengths and the resulting pitches, I get :
- F2: in-tune
- E2: in-tune
- Eb2: in-tune
- D2: 11 cents sharp
- Db2: 2 cents flat
- C2: in-tune
- B1: in-tune
- Bb1: in-tune
- A1: 11 cents sharp
- Ab1: 19 cents flat
- G1: 147 cents sharp
- Gb1: 122 cents sharp
It's hard to call it a G when it's 147 cents sharp. What's up with that? Have any of you tried playing a G1 or Gb1 on a replica of the Wieprecht tuba? Maybe there is a reason we don't use Wieprecht's valve configuration today. Was Wieprecht simply in a rush to beat the valved ophicleide?
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
