LoyalTubist wrote:Today, when the Ravel transcription of Pictures is played, a euphonium player is hired to do the Bydlo movement.
That is probably true some of the time, but most of the time, the Bydlo part is either played by the tuba player on F tuba or euphonium, or by one of the trombone players on euphonium. Rarely is a specialist euphonium player hired, by my observation.
The French C tuba is about the same size as a euphonium, with about the same bell dimensions and about the same bore. I don't know what mouthpiece was intended to be used (by French players, not by others trying to figure the instrument out). I have never heard a live performance where this instrument was used, but I somehow doubt that it will produce the power needed to balance modern trombones are trumpets, which are far larger and played much more powerfully than when the French C tuba was in common use. Playing in the octave below the bottom of the bass clef would require combinations of four or five valves on that instrument, and surely all that smallish cylindrical tubing would push the timbre in the trombone direction. Plus, the players needed the bulk of their training in the use of the pedal register, where they spent most of their time.
We should remember that the euphonium (as it would now be called) was probably the instrument used in British and French orchestras following the ophicleide. The British orchestral F tuba was an upgrade in size and sound by comparison. The six-valved French C tuba was, I suspect, a modification needed to make the euphonium work throughout the literature. The Germans used an F tuba from the start, and apparently at least some American players used an Eb (of the small Distin variety) in the period following the use of the ophicleide. The contrabass tuba was a specialty instrument used in Germany, and then in America (which was influenced by the German tradition partly because of August Helleberg). I don't see any such trend of the use of contrabass tubas in England and France until much later. In the case of England, it was in the 60's or 70's when George Wall was using a BBb Alex kaisertuba and Fletcher started using a CC Holton. It was even later when Mel Culbertson first brought big contrabass tubas to French orchestras, and the CC found its way into French teaching along with the C tenor tuba.
Rick "thinking the C tenor tuba would be out of place with the typical 10-inch bell bass trombone with no leadpipe and a tuba mouthpiece as is now common in orchestras" Denney
