Posted by Rick Denney on January 15, 2002 at 15:55:35:
In Reply to: What should it be called? posted by N.Dwyer on January 14, 2002 at 20:46:16:
It was probably something completely unrelated to any formal codification, such as using the same system that had become traditional (for reasons that probably don't matter) with the more common BBb tuba, so as to distinguish it from the instrument that was called that "C Tuba" at the time, which was the Small French Tuba in C.
Thus, contrabass instruments used double letter, and tenor instruments did not. The tripled letters refer to sub-contrabass instruments, and the bass instruments are in keys not confused with contrabass and tenor instruments, so it didn't matter.
The "EEb" term is an anomaly, and in my view an advertising ploy by Boosey and Hawkes to associate their compensating instruments with contrabass instruments.
Terms are needed only distinguish one instrument from another, and these terms do just that. As with most words that are accepted if they are meaningful and rejected if they are not, they have become traditional. Now that we use "euphonium" or "baritone" to describe Bb tenor tubas (real Bb tenor tubas being rare), and now that the French C tuba is no more, these terms have less meaning. Eventually, they will fade. I find myself using C tuba more often than CC tuba, for example, because it clearly conveys which instrument is being discussed.
Rick "who thinks the instruments defined the terms" Denney