Posted by clarification? on February 28, 2001 at 09:51:44:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: BB industry! posted by B Harvey on February 27, 2001 at 17:10:45:
I am curious to know what your source on Wagner's tuba preference (or national preference 135 years ago) is. I don't mean this as an attack, because this is also what I have heard or assumed, but I wonder if we aren't all taking false information for granted. If you know somewhere that I could read about it, I'd love to know. Also, the Wagnertuben were invented to bridge the sonic gap between the horns and the tuba. The typical writing for the instrument supports this - check out both Wagner and Bruckner's orchestration. Besides, if Wagner wanted to improve the tuba, he would have invented a new one and not written for ours. Considering this, it isn't surprising that when Wagner invented a new instrument, it is in the key of the horns (not necessarily the key of the tuba). I guess I will grant that it is possible that they were still playing single f horns at the time. My point is that seeing as the tuben are played by horn players, with horn mouthpieces, in the key of the horns, and linked with the horn section by orchestration, I don't think we can assume too much about Wagner's thoughts on the tuba by looking at them. Can anyone tell me what tuben means in English - the website I checked said it meant tubes...