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Well the piece was written between 1866 and 1870. So it is possible for the intention to have been almost anything. I did find a reference that stated it was only published in piano form. I'm sure it must have been scored for performance. Maybe one of the resident scholars can chime in.

I bet it was written with a Bass Saxhorne in mind, way to early for the French Tuba in C. It could generally be construed that the tuba part was an after thought to bolster a small bass section in a ballet pit, but the bones are playing and most of Delibes music has very florid tuba parts. It seems like a "handful" for an ophicleide. I have played the piece once on a big CC and wished I had played F at that point in my career. What a workout. I am suprised this hasn't shown up on any auditions. Loud, high, lots of notes, leaving almost no place to breath and plenty of places to crash. I have to ask because this happened to me: Did you get turned around at all by the percussion on 3 and 1? I had the hardest time NOT playing the piece in 2 back in the day until it got to the running 8ths after the 8 or so bars rest. Man was that embarassing until I got it worked out in my head. Cheers. I like his music alot.

Chuck

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displays a 1878 Courtois Eb with four valves. My own 1870 Besson 3+1P non-comper in Eb is slightly smaller with its 0.634 (or is it 0.632?) bore. Both were considered large contrabass tubas in their own days in France and England.

The other samples of of that Besson model having been told of here only have 3 valves. It may be a coincidence that the lowest note in the bass themes of the Mazurka appears to be A (I only have had access to the composer’s own piano reduction). That A would be the lowest non-pedal note on a 3 valve Eb tuba.

I would have liked to know the exact year when the French C tenor tuba was introduced in the French orchestras. My earliest source telling of that type of instrument is from 1913. The text implies that the 6 valve version was fairly new, but that it has be preceded by a 5 valve version without the 2nd semitone valve, which was placed as valve #5 with the purpose of being a transposition valve for odd keys.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

ben wrote:....but in my head I hear a lighter, more compact sound as ideal. Maybe a small alex f would be great, I have a 621 yammie, but it's not the color I hear.

Just saw, that you have the Yamaha YFB-621, which is not leagues away from, what I suspect being the original instrument. Could the 621 be made mode compact in sound with a more shallow mouthpiece?

Klaus

I've played this several times. The first few times on Eb and the last time on F. Works well on either bass tuba, nice tune with the trombone.....

Russ Dickman

I always play this on F tuba. Last 2 times, I used the little Yamaha, but I have used my Piston Gronitz, too.