Posted by Rick Denney on March 15, 2001 at 19:29:57:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Early Tubas In U.S. posted by Paul Scott on March 15, 2001 at 19:05:57:
This has always seemed likely to me, too.
So the progression in band instruments was likely Wieprecht-style basstuba (trombacello) with front-action valves, to the saxhorn arrangement with top-action valves, to rotary tubas with top-action machines (i.e. over-the-shoulder Civil War-era saxhorns), to helicons with rotary and piston valves to sousaphones with piston valves to tubas with front-action piston valves by the turn of the century.
In orchestras, it was likely a basstuba to replace the ophicleide, to an Eb tuba in the saxhorn configuration, to (or concurrent with) a European rotary tuba (parting with the band track), to a front-action piston tuba when band instruments made their way back into orchestras. Perhaps that last element occurred first when Donatelli was fulfilling Stokowski's desire for a huge sound--characteristic of band instruments--by ordering a large tuba from a band instrument maker. Before and after that time, players like Helleberg and Bell were using rotary tubas, right?
So, it's likely that even in the 1890's two tuba players were sitting around a couple of pints in Washington or New York, one a player for a symphony, and the other in a military-style band, arguing about which is better, rotary or piston valves.
Rick "the more things change..." Denney