Wagner tuba? pic

[Dean E]

From the CSO's Facebook photos of their 2009 European tour. Sorry I do not know any more details. Could this be the historical, borrowed Wagner tuba?

The pic is copyrighted, but attached here for academic discussion purposes only. Here is the link:
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 3243_n.jpg" target="_blank" target="_blank

[imperialbari]

Yes, could be the 5th through 8th horn players in a Bruckner symphony flashing two tenor tubas in Bb and two bass tubas in F.

Klaus

[eupher61]

I think the historic instrument you're thinking about is the Tenor Tuba used in the premier of The Planets. I don't remember any discussion about a Wagner tuben...but, of course, I could be totally wrong. Wouldn't be the first time.

[imperialbari]

Even if Wagner tubas are for horn players to play via horn mouthpieces, they have been up here from time to time. They mostly are written in quartets of two Bb tenors with a main bugle about as long as with the euphonium and two F basses with main bugles the length of F tubas. Their notation is a mess, which shall not be discussed here.

From this site you will find links for Wagner tubas by various makers:

http://www.osmun.com/prod/instruments.htm

A few makers provide 3 types:

Bb tenors with 4 non-compensating valves

F basses with 4 non-compensating valves

Double tubas in Bb and F, which differ from maker to maker. Some are full doubles, some are compensating doubles. For true believers these double tubas are not able to deliver the true quartet sound, even if they formally are able to play all notes required. The problem is, that these doubles all are based on the main conical bugle of the respective maker’s Bb tenor models. The F sides are all cylindrical extensions of a too short conical bugle for true bass purposes.

Some orchestras have sections made up of two double tubas for the tenor parts and two bass tubas for the bass parts. This makes good sense, as each pair of parts are blown through the right main bugles. And the tenors will be able to play some tricky low range entries in tune with less trouble.

I appears like Mirafone tried to introduce the single Bb tenor Wagner tuba into the US marching bands some 40 years ago. The purpose was intended to give a better alternative for horn players to march than mellophones. The attempt failed in the long run, but very occasionally these Mirafones will pop up on eBay.

Klaus

[Dean E]

I searched the archives and found the previous discussion concerning the CSO borrowing a tuba--a C French tuba.

This was a fantastic experience. My wife and I really enjoyed all the history that was brought to life in the first half of the program. The performance in the 2nd half was exceptional and quite stirring. My wife and I had a great time hanging with some friends there as well.

I was able to get this photo of Larry Zalkind and Gene Pokorny on my cell phone after the show:



Cheers.
Roger

[Bob Kolada]

Does anyone have a picture of a French tuba next to a Bb euph?

[eupher61]

ah...that was Pictures, wasn't it? They did something similar with The Planets, but I never saw a photo of that horn. I think this French C tuba was borrowed from a private collection, is that correct??

[Dean E]

ah...that was Pictures, wasn't it? They did something similar with The Planets, but I never saw a photo of that horn. I think this French C tuba was borrowed from a private collection, is that correct??

There were several posts providing good details about the leads on French C tubas. The simplest way to read them is to do an advanced search for author Northern.

Apparently the CSO planned to archive one of the performances to its site, but I didn't search there.