Question for Scandinavian Tubists!

[Z-Tuba Dude]

For anybody who lives (lived) in any of the Nordic countries:

Are there any key traditions for tubas in Scandinavian countries, like there are in Germany, England & France?

I am specifically thinking of Denmark, but I am curious about the other countries as well.

I am hoping that somebody who lives there can shed some light…

[bort]

Times like this, I miss Klaus. @imperialbari

[barry grrr-ero]

I believe CC tubas are pretty common in the Danish orchestras. I also believe their park bands and military bands have used 4 valve compensating Eb tubas quite a bit. I get the impression they're not too dogmatic, and will let you use whatever works for the job. I could be wrong.

[TubArild]

In Norway, it is common to start with eb tuba when you start playing.
In Norway, it is common to start with eb tuba when you start playing.
I Norge er det vanlig å begynne med eb tuba når du begynner å spille.
In Norway, it is common to start with the eb tuba when you start playing.
I Norge er det vanlig å begynne med eb tuba når du begynner å spille.
In brass bands it is common to use 2 eb and 2 Bb tubas. In wind orchestra, any tuba will work. In The 80¨s and 90¨s the goal was to Get a Cc tuba, but that may have changed. when I learned to play I started on a small besson eb tuba and switched to Bb tuba when I was 15 years old. When i bought my first tuba it was a cc tuba.

[finnbogi]

In Iceland, young tuba players generally start with Eb or BBb tubas - and most of the tuba players in our wind bands play either of those.
The Iceland Symphony Orchestra is the only full-time professional orchestra. The tuba player there plays CC and F tubas - by choice, not by demand.
The rest of us use what we have.

[Snake Charmer]

Sweden once had a very own brass tradition with some very special tubas, similar to France and England in their speciality.
The swedish brass making started ca. 1845, when craftmen trained in Berlin came back home. They started making instruments for the new military bands, for there was no tradition for wind music before. The horns they made were very similar to the ones produced in Berlin before 1840, specially the Moritz F-tuba was a template for the swedish tuba production. They changed the fingerings, but the original design with 3+2 Berlin valves was produced until the 1950s! Sometimes rotary valves were used and there were tubas with only 3+1 valves, but the main layout was kept until ca 1960, when Ahlberg&Ohlsson as the main manufacturer stopped production. F-tuba was the standard horn, but there were also helicons and Bb-tubas in the same layout. Since then tubas from other countries were imported.
I am lucky to have a 1909 Svenska Blasinstrumentfabriken F-tuba. Being very light she has a beatiful sound, very strong low register (with a rock-solid low C!) and the Berlin valves work great.