Renaissance to Baroque The tuba we know today being made fully of brass has descended and developed quite extensively over the past couple of centuries starting out in Europe within the Renaissance and Baroque periods In these periods an instrument constructed of a curved or straight wood body a ID: 399378
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Slide1
Timeline History of the TubaSlide2
Renaissance to Baroque
The tuba we know today, being made fully of brass has descended and developed quite extensively over the past couple of centuries starting out in Europe within the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In these periods an instrument constructed of a curved or straight wood body and a mouthpiece, the Cornett, was the predecessor of the modern day trumpet. This instrument was the base model for the construction of the Serpent. The Serpent is the great grand father of the tuba. The Serpent, not in the same family as the
cornett
but related by design, included the addition of a brass mouthpiece and sometimes a lead pipe. The body of the instrument was curved wood with some openings and keys similar to woodwind instruments. The shape of the wooden body of many Serpents was bent to restrict the overall length/inconvenience of the instrument thus making the lower half look like a snake or like the name of the instrument, a serpent. Slide3
Renaissance to Baroque
Above: a picture of
cornetts
.
Right: a picture of a Serpent
Although the
Cornetts
were designed, updated and used many centuries before the serpent, the serpent started finding it’s way into ensembles in the 1700’s. Slide4
Classical to Romantic
The Ophicleide was the predecessor to the Serpent. Created in 1817, the Ophicleide was created as an improvement to the serpent. Where the serpent was designed so that the player could play it comfortably, the Ophicleide was designed to fix the intonation problems. The big difference between the Serpent and the Ophicleide is that the Serpent’s body is made of wood that was curved and the Ophicleide is made out of brass in a “U” shape. Slide5
Classical to Romantic
Left: This is a picture of an Ophicleide. Slide6
Mid-Romantic Period
The Cimbasso is not really a relative of the tuba, it was developed to complete the lower timbre of the Trombone range in an orchestra. Thus being designed after a Trombone. Verdi did not like the sound of the tuba-like instruments of his time so he decided to have Milanese instrument maker, Pelitti design a Contrabass Trombone with valves. Because of its popularity in Verdi’s operas, Othello (1887 and Falstaff (1893), The Cimbasso became a popular choice to use for other Italian operas by composers such as Donizetti and Bellini.
Above: Picture of a CimbassoSlide7
The Mid-Late Romantic to 21st
Century Periods
In the late 19
th
century into 20
th
century the Helicon tuba was created. This tuba was specifically made for people to march with. Slide8
The Mid-Late Romantic to 21
st
century Periods
The sousaphone developed at the end of the 19
th
century was created for John Phillip Sousa because he did not like the sound of the instruments that were used in his marching bands.Slide9
The Mid-Late Romantic to 21st
century Periods
The Tuba that we all know and love today was designed in the middle of the Romantic period. The big change that allowed the instrument to be adapted more to ensembles over the course of time was the invention of valves. Valves, first created in the early romantic period were designed to allow instruments to become fully chromatic. Valved Instruments did not come into wide popularity until the turn of the 20
th
century. This allowed the instruments to be refined in terms of intonation because one valve slide can tune that specific harmonic series as opposed to the entire instrument. Slide10
The Piston Valve
This is an example of the piston valve. It has a very simple design and allows the instrument to change harmonic series. Slide11
Rotary Valve
The rotary valve is also a popular option on Tubas today. It works similar to the piston valve by changing the harmonic series but it rotates instead of moving up and down. Slide12
The Modern Tuba
Finally we get to the tuba we have today. The Modern Tuba has been designed in 4 keys BBb, Eb, F and CC. These Tuba can come in different sizes, from 3/4 to 6/4. Thus unlike most other modern instruments that have specific dimensions the Tuba has a very broad range of sizes.
Meinl
-Weston 2000 CC TubaSlide13
The Modern Tuba
Left: a Miraphone Firebird F Tuba, Center: a 22J Conn Recording BBb Tuba, Right: a Besson BE980 Sovereign Eb Tuba Slide14
Info page
These are the links to the information that I found to compile this timeline history.
http://www.freakingnews.com/Tuba-Missile-Pictures-17433.asp
picture on front cover
http://www.mccann-cornetts.com/pages/aboutcornetts.html
picture of
cornetthttp://
www.yeodoug.com/articles/serpent/serpent_tempted.htmlpicture of serpenthttp://www.serpentwebsite.com/info on serpenthttp://
www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/zink.htm
info on
cornett
http://
www.contrabass.com/pages/ophicleide.html
info in ophicleide
http://
www.britishtrombonesociety.org/forum/topic?f
=7&t=97
picture of
cimbasso
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3139/3153/3158/5524.vsl
http://www.vsl.co.at/en/70/3139/3153/3158/5525.vsl
info on the
cimbasso
http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_valve
picture of rotary valve