Posted by James W on May 13, 2001 at 05:17:42:
In Reply to: strange cerveny posted by Mark F. on May 11, 2001 at 18:57:25:
I live just next to Edinburgh University's collection of historic brass instruments (if you want to see some strange horns, this is the place to go!), but anyway, they actually have one of these things here - I mean absolutely identical, even with the bell on the "wrong" side.
It is billed as a 1/4 size "knapsack" BBb tuba. I haven't played it (it's in a glass case) but apparently it was meant for cavalry use. My guess is that that's why the bell is on the other side - to increase visibility around that player (although it doesn't say that in the collection). There is a picture of it on the web site at
http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/ucj/ucjth2.html
It's near the bottom labelled:
(2339) Tornistertuba in Bb (Wenzel Tomschik, Vienna, c 1910)
For some reason, all their contrabasses are labelled as being in Bb or C - they don't seem to like the Double B notation that everyone else uses.
James.