Neptune wrote:Rick Denney wrote:3. C tubas provide shorter tubing that is easier to make speak. Mostly baloney.
I would not say this is true in the high register.
That was the "mostly" part. Up there, the partials are as close together as the whole step between the two bugles, and so the C tuba will often play the same note on a lower partial with fewer valves. I recall drawing up a list of the notes that were thus affected, and in the "cash" register, there were maybe half a dozen notes so affected. In return, the Bb tuba for other notes uses less valve tubing than the C to achieve the required length, and most people believe that using less valve tubing is better. Seems a bit of a wash to me, or at least not nearly as significant as some portray. Here's that post:
viewtopic.php?p=217635#p217635
As to the preponderance of notes above the staff in orchestral music--maybe. In my case, when the notes go above the staff enough to matter, I will be using an F tuba. The reason is that most composers writing tubas parts in that range were writing for a bass tuba, not a contrabass tuba. A large C might be easier to manage up there than a large Bb, but it will still sound like a large contrabass.
Of course, if there's no overall disadvantage to using a Bb, then there is certainly no overall disadvantage to using a C. I just think that the differences between individual instruments probably count as much or more.
Rick "who has played lots of lumbering, out-of-tune C tubas, too" Denney
