Posted by Rick Denney on July 09, 2001 at 10:30:51:
In Reply to: Re: Difference between Euphonium & Baritone posted by Dan Schultz on July 09, 2001 at 09:34:01:
I have for a while advocated the use of the following terms:
Tenor Tuba: For tuba-like instruments pitched in Bb or C, including instruments called by the following names...
Baritone
Baryton
Euphonium
Small French C Tuba
Saxhorn basse ut Sib
That Unusual Large Alexander Tenor Tuba That Gene Pokorny And Others Have Played
and so on.
Bass Tuba: For tuba-like instruments pitched in Eb and F, including such instruments as...
Besson EEb Sovereign compensating tuba (called EEb to disinguish it from smaller bass tubas)
York (Conn, King...) Monster Eb Bass (never called EEb, but bigger than any B&H EEb tuba...)
Eb helicon
Eb Sousaphone
Besson Barlow F tuba
German-style F tuba
Rotary F tuba
Bass-tuba (ala Wieprecht)
Saxhorn contrebasse ut "Eb" (e.g. Couesnon pea-shooter)
and so on.
Contrabass Tuba: For tuba-like instruments pitched in BBb or CC and given names that are a combination of a number of quarters, denoting the volume of the tuba, valve type, bore, and style of wrap, including such diverse instruments as the BBb Monster Sousaphone and the 3/4 rotary CC tuba. The variety here is vastly greater than the variety in the categories above.
These are general categories, the last two of which have been generally recognized already. I propose that we recognize the first category, and include that description in a FAQ that we can point to when new folks are curious. It's the only nomenclature I can think of that preserves the traditional meanings of almost all current terms without making any assumptions about what the various category members should sound like in comparison to other members. That way, when someone asks, "What's a ____", we can answer, "It's a tenor/bass/contrabass tuba with these special characteristics..." and at least we put them on the right planet first.
Rick "searching for the unifying theme" Denney