The tuba is a large brass instrument that plays low to very low sounds. It has a cone-shaped tube and usually has four or five valves, though some have three or six. The tuba was first made in 1835 in Prussia as the Baß-Tuba. It was created by adding five valves to a large bugle that was 12 feet long and tuned to the note F. This design allowed the instrument to play all notes in the very low range with a deep, rich sound. By the 1850s, Adolphe Sax in Paris made E♭ and B♭ tubas for bands, using piston valves as part of his saxhorn family. In the 1870s, Václav František Červený in Austria-Hungary created larger contrabass tubas in sizes 16′ C and 18′ B♭, using rotary valves.

Like all brass instruments, the tuba makes sound when the player vibrates their lips in the mouthpiece. A person who plays the tuba is called a tubist, tubaist, or tuba player. In British brass and military bands, a tuba player is sometimes called a bass player.

History

The tuba was created to be a low-pitched brass instrument used in bands and orchestras. Before the 1820s, brass instruments like the natural horn or bugle could only play notes from one set of sounds. To play more notes, some instruments used a slide, like the trombone, or tone holes, like the keyed bugle or serpent. These methods had problems for low-pitched brass instruments. Natural instruments could only play certain notes in their high range. Trombones had long, hard-to-use slides. The sound of the serpent was often criticized.

To replace the serpent and similar instruments, a maker named Jean Hilaire Asté invented the ophicleide in 1817. This instrument used keys to play notes in the low range, shaped like a bassoon. It was widely used in bands and orchestras, especially by the composer Hector Berlioz. However, neither the ophicleide nor the serpent could play notes much lower than C₂.

In the 1820s, valved ophicleides were made after valves were invented. These instruments used valves instead of keys or tone holes. A military band leader named Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht wanted an instrument that could play very low notes. He and a maker named Johann Gottfried Moritz created the Baß-Tuba in F in 1835. This instrument used five Berlinerpumpen valves to play notes as low as F₁. These valves worked better with the large size of the instrument than earlier designs.

In Paris, an instrument maker named Adolphe Sax created the saxhorn series, which included instruments in E♭ and B♭. These instruments became popular in French military bands and later in Britain and America. Instrument makers like Gustave Auguste Besson and Henry Distin helped spread their use. Saxhorns, along with trombones, became the main instruments in modern British brass bands. Today’s E♭ and B♭ tubas are similar to these 19th-century saxhorns, with wider tubes and an extra valve.

The helicon first appeared in Russia in the 1840s and was patented by a maker in Vienna. Its tube wraps around the player’s right arm, with the bell resting on the left shoulder. It became popular in Europe and North America for marching and mounted bands.

By the 1850s, a maker named Václav František Červený in Austria-Hungary created brass instruments with rotary valves, including low-pitched tubas. He made the Kaiserbass C and B♭ tubas in the 1880s, which had a wide tube still used today. He supplied thousands of instruments to the Russian army. Composers later wrote music for these tubas.

In the United States, saxhorns became popular in the mid-1800s for military and brass bands. In 1838, a maker named Allen Dodworth patented "over-the-shoulder" instruments with bells pointing backward. These helped soldiers hear music better. Demand for these instruments grew during the American Civil War. After the war, bands remained popular, leading to the development of drum and bugle corps and music by leaders like Patrick Gilmore and John Philip Sousa.

In 1893, Sousa wanted a better-sounding tuba and had a maker build a helicon with an upward-pointing bell. This design, called a "rain catcher," was later made by American companies. These companies eventually turned the bell forward to create the modern sousaphone.

The Italian word cimbasso comes from corno basso, meaning "bass horn." It was used in the 1820s to describe low brass instruments like the serpent. Over time, the term referred to the lowest brass instruments, including the ophicleide and early valved instruments. The composer Giuseppe Verdi disliked the sound of these instruments and had a valved contrabass trombone made for his operas. By the early 1900s, this instrument was replaced by the tuba in Italian orchestras.

In Britain, the English F tuba was first made in 1887 with five valves. A musician named Harry Barlow had an F tuba built in 1897, which is now in a museum. By the 1960s, these tubas were rare, so British musicians switched to the E♭ tuba with four valves.

In France, the orchestral tuba was a small instrument in 8′ C with six valves, based on the euphonium-sized saxhorn. It became standard in French orchestras and was used by composers like Maurice Ravel. A famous example is the "Bydło" solo in Pictures at an Exhibition, which includes notes as low as F₁.

In the 1920s, tubas used for recording had bells pointing forward to direct sound toward microphones. Extra players sometimes used these tubas to play parts for double basses in recordings.

In 1933, Alfred Johnson at York Band Instrument Company made two large C tubas for Leopold Stokowski, who wanted an organ-like sound for the Philadelphia Orchestra. One of these instruments was used in performances.

Construction

The tuba is a type of brass instrument called a bass valved bugle. Valved bugles are part of a large group of brass instruments that include the euphonium, flugelhorn, and wider-bored saxhorn family. These instruments have a wide cone-shaped tube and valves. Compared to other brass instruments like the horn or cornet, bugles have a wider cone shape. The trumpet and trombone have a more narrow, cylinder-shaped tube. The wide cone shape helps these instruments produce lower, softer sounds. The large bell of the tuba and the wide way the tube tapers help make deep, low sounds called contrabass.

Tubas come in four main pitches, which depend on the length of the open tube when no valves are used. The smaller bass tuba is usually 12 feet long in the key of F or 13 feet long in the key of E♭. The larger contrabass tuba is 16 feet long in the key of C or 18 feet long in the key of B♭. Sometimes, contrabass tubas are called "CC" or "BB♭" tubas based on an old naming system. Composers rarely use the terms "bass" or "contrabass," so musicians choose the tuba based on the sound they want, not the range needed.

The modern F tuba was developed from the first tuba made in 1835. It is often used by professional musicians for solo performances or in orchestras where a C tuba is usually the main instrument. In Europe, the F tuba is the standard in orchestras, while the larger C or B♭ tuba is used only when a deeper sound is needed. In Vienna, a special F tuba called the Wienerkonzerttuba has six rotary valves, three for each hand. In Britain, orchestral tubas from the late 1800s to the 1950s were in F with four or five piston valves and a narrower tube shape similar to the euphonium.

The E♭ tuba is most often used in brass and military bands. It has three top-mounted piston valves and usually a fourth compensating valve. In British orchestras, the E♭ tuba replaced the older F tuba in the 1960s and is still used today. Some musicians have switched to the C tuba since the 1990s. In some Scandinavian orchestras, the E♭ tuba is made with five rotary valves.

The C tuba is the most common in orchestras outside of Germany and Russia. It has five non-compensating valves and is also used in American concert bands. On some C tubas, the fifth valve is a rotary valve.

The largest tuba, the contrabass in B♭, is used in German, Austrian, and Russian orchestras. It usually has rotary valves. In the United States, the B♭ tuba often has front-action piston valves. It is common in schools because B♭ sousaphones are used in high school marching bands. The B♭ saxhorn-style tuba, with three top-mounted piston valves and a fourth compensating valve, is standard in British brass bands.

Tubas of the same pitch have the same length of tube but may differ in size, such as the width of the tube, the bell’s diameter, and how quickly the tube tapers. These differences are described using a sizing scale with numbers like 4/4 for full-size tubas. Smaller student or intermediate models may be called 3/4 or 1/2 size. Larger tubas are called 5/4 or 6/4, sometimes called grand orchestral tubas. Examples include the Conn 36J "Orchestra Grand Bass" and the Chicago York tubas. These measurements are not standardized but help compare models from the same manufacturer.

The euphonium, which is pitched in B♭ and a fourth above the bass tuba in F, is sometimes called a tenor tuba by British composers. This term can also refer to the German Baryton, a similar instrument with rotary valves. These instruments are used to play parts written for the tenor tuba, ophicleide, or small French tuba.

Very large novelty subcontrabass tubas have been built, but only four are playable and are in museums. One example is "La Prodigieuse," a 36-foot B♭ tuba restored by Harvard University. Another was displayed by Bohland & Fuchs in 1928. A 32-foot C tuba was shown at the Hoffnung Music Festival in 1956, and a 36-foot B♭ Riesentuba was built in 2010 and is in a museum.

Tubas developed in many regions during the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to different designs with varying tube shapes, sizes, and valve types. Broadly, tubas are divided into two groups: "German style" and "French style."

"German style" tubas, based on the Baß-Tuba and later models by Červený, have the leadpipe attached to the left side of the bell (facing the player) and the valves on the right, operated from the front. These tubas usually use rotary valves. Some American and early 20th-century York tubas use piston valves.

"French style" tubas, based on the saxhorn, have piston valves mounted vertically and operated from the top. The leadpipe is attached to the right side of the bell, with the valves and tubing on the left. These are common in France, Britain, and other parts of the British Commonwealth, especially in brass and military bands.

For all tubas, the right hand operates the valves. Saxhorn-style tubas with a fourth compensating valve often place the fourth valve on the side, operated by the left hand.

Standard tubas can be played while standing and marching, which is common in British brass and military bands

Performance

A symphony orchestra usually includes one tuba, though sometimes two are used in large musical works, such as Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) or Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1 (1927). The tuba provides the lowest sound in the brass section of an orchestra and helps support the deep tones of string and woodwind instruments.

Concert bands and military bands often use two to four tubas as their main bass instrument. In British-style brass bands, there are two tuba parts: one for the E♭ tuba and one for the B♭ tuba. Each part is usually played by two musicians, and the parts may be divided into separate sections. Tuba players also use sousaphones and tubas in jazz bands, marching bands, and Mexican banda music. A type of tuba called the contrabass bugle is used in drum and bugle corps.

In chamber music, the tuba is the bass instrument in a brass quintet, a group of five brass instruments. This style became popular in the 1950s through ensembles like the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the New York Brass Quintet.

In orchestras and symphonic bands, the tuba is written in the bass clef at concert pitch, meaning it does not transpose the music. Tuba players must learn different fingerings for each size of tuba. Unlike other bass clef instruments, such as the trombone or cello, tuba music is not written in tenor clef. Players often read notes up to five lines above or below the bass staff.

In British brass bands, most instruments (except the bass trombone) are transposing instruments written in treble clef, a notation system popularized by Adolphe Sax. The tuba parts are written in treble clef but sound an octave and a sixth lower for E♭ tubas, like the baritone saxophone, or two octaves and a second lower for B♭ tubas, like the contrabass clarinet. This allows musicians to switch instruments without learning new fingerings for the same music.

Some concert band music includes tuba parts in E♭ and B♭ treble clef to help players from different backgrounds. Professional tuba players are usually familiar with both notations.

The written range of the tuba is large because different sizes of tubas have been used in different times and places. Large B♭ tubas used by composers like Wagner could barely reach middle C, while smaller French C tubas could reach up to C5 (an octave above middle C). On most tubas, the range from F1 to C4 (middle C) is easy to play. However, modern solo music often includes very low notes (called the pedal range) down to B♭0 and high notes up to C5.

The highest notes are limited by the strength of the player’s embouchure (the way the lips and mouth are shaped). Notes above a certain pitch are hard to play clearly, but smooth sliding notes (glissandi) are possible, making valve fingerings less necessary. The wide shape of the tuba’s bore allows it to produce very low pedal tones more easily than other brass instruments.

Some tubas have strong, useful tones that are not part of the main harmonic series. For example, large B♭ tubas often have a strong tone around low E♭1, between the lowest B♭0 and its octave above. These tones, called false, factitious, or privileged tones, allow the tuba to play chromatically (using all notes in the scale) from E1 down to B♭0 using only three valves.

Modern music sometimes uses quarter tones and other microtonal intervals. In 2009, Robin Hayward and the German company B&S developed a microtonal valve system for tubas. This system adds valves for quarter tones and eighth tones, along with adjustable slides, to six-valve F or C tubas. This system is now available on some tuba models from B&S and Rudolf Meinl.

Repertoire

The first pieces written for solo tuba were simple and popular works created for brass and concert bands in the late 1800s. These pieces were often written in the style of polka and trio and followed the same structure as similar pieces for solo cornet and other instruments. Arrangements of Jean-Baptiste Arban's Variations on the Carnival of Venice (1864), a well-known example of this type of music, are still frequently performed and recorded today.

In 1945, the American composer George Kleinsinger wrote a children's play titled Tubby the Tuba for solo tuba and orchestra, with narration by lyricist Paul Tripp. The play's popularity among young audiences led to many commercial recordings and arrangements for wind band and brass band accompaniment.

The first serious composition for solo tuba was Sonate für Baßtuba und Klavier (1957) by the German-American composer Paul Hindemith. Since then, a large collection of music for tuba as a solo instrument has been created, including pieces performed without accompaniment and those with ensemble or piano accompaniment.

The first tuba concerto was Concerto in F minor for Bass Tuba and Orchestra, written in 1954 by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. Since this time, many tuba concertos have been composed by musicians such as Edward Gregson, John Williams, Alexander Arutiunian, Eric Ewazen, James Barnes, Joseph Hallman, Martin Ellerby, Philip Sparke, Kalevi Aho, Josef Tal, Bruce Broughton, John Golland, Roger Steptoe, David Carlson, Jennifer Higdon (Tuba Concerto), and Marcus Paus (Tuba Mirum).