The part for the tuba is written on the bass clef, under the stave carrying the part for the trombone. The tuba is not a transposing instrument, but should the part for the bass tuba go very low the sign 8va is used, obviating ledger lines and indicating that the music is to sound an octave lower than written.

A cuddly-looking instrument, clutched like an overgrown teddy bear, the bell directed at an oblique angle and flaring outwards above the head of the player, the tuba has been described as a plumber’s nightmare. This is on account of the labyrinth of conical tubing, different lengths of which are opened and closed by a number of piston or rotary valves. The longer the length of tube opened up by the valves, the longer the air column that has to be set vibrating by the player, using a large, deep cup mouthpiece. Thus low notes take longer to speak or sound than high ones. Tubas are the lowest sounding of the brass instruments and they are to the brass section what the double bass is to the string section, their role being mainly to give support to the lower sounding brass.

The name referred originally to the Roman war horn. The history of the tuba is a short one, but the multiplicity of types and names is such that even the Oxford Companion to Music admits that to define ‘tuba‘ is impossible.

Those who seek clarification will discover that some tubas are held inclined to the left shoulder and some to the right. Moreover some drawings and photographs display the instrument lying horizontal, others plonked disgracefully upside down. There are, or have been, 9- foot, 12-foot, 14-foot and 16-foot tubas and one called the BBB flat contrabass standing nine feet high with some 36 feet of tubing, a nightmare for several plumbers.

What provoked the development of this unruly tribe of low- pitched brass instruments was the invention of the valve in the early 19th century.

Large keyed bugle horns, a crossbreed between horns and trumpets, were difficult to play well and had a number of weak and out-of-tune notes; this was due partly to the wide spacing and large diameter of the key holes in the long tube. Once the valve was invented it was possible to fold that long tubing neatly and scientifically, to bore it with holes of equal diameter and to fit them with hermetically sealing valves. While composers complained that the application of valves to the French horn, the trumpet and in particular the trombone impaired the characteristic timbre, in this case there were no real comparisons to be made and they were glad to have this new, lowest-of-all sounding instrument that would gradually replace the ophicleide (a large form of keyed bugle) and the serpent (also keyed, its length compressed by a series of wriggles).

Tubas in various sizes were made from about 1835 onwards to a specification of trombonist Wilhelm Wieprecht, bandmaster of the Prussian Dragoon Guards, but it was not until late in the century that they were to be seen and heard in the orchestra. Then, as indeed now, their most common use was in military and brass bands, where they assumed a number of different shapes. Probably the best-known `special’ variety is the Sousaphone, which is built to the specification of John Philip Sousa in circular form with the huge bell facing forwards.

In orchestral music oval-shaped tubas called Wagner Tuben are sometimes used. These use a horn mouthpiece, and were developed by the Bohemian firm of instrument makers called Cerveny, and then reinvented some thirty years later by Wagner, who wanted a timbre somewhere between that of a true tuba and a horn in the operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. The Wagner Tuben have been scored for by other composers since Wagner, including Bruckner and Stravinsky. The usual tubas to be seen in the orchestra are the tenor and/or bass.

The whole range of tonguing from single to agile triple and flutter are used, but the amount of air needed to sound the tuba restricts the length of legato passages, particularly those in the lower register. The lowest register is played with a very slack lip and relaxed and dropped lower jaw. The technique is basically the same as that for other brass instruments with valves.

For a new instrument with limited powers of expression the tuba’s repertoire is far from dull. ‘The tuba is precious,’ wrote RimskyKorsakov, ‘on account of the strength and beauty of its low notes. Thanks to the valves it has sufficient mobility.’ Rimsky-Korsakov first introduced double tonguing in his Schéhérazade and several composers since then, including Honnegger and Shostakovitch, have written passages for flutter tonguing. Mahler included tuba glissandi in his scores, and a well known passage in Wagner’s prelude to Die Meistersinger ends in a trill. The muted tuba can be heard in the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition, including an outstanding unmuted solo in the `Bydlo’ section of that piece. The opening bars of Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain include the tuba.

Rimsky-Korsakov holds the view of some musicians that Brahms was not a good orchestrator. Brahms (1833— 97) was a younger man than Wagner (1813 — 83) and was overshadowed by him; his writing for the tuba was more restrained than that of Wagner, but the way in which he wrote for it, not only to buttress fortissimo passages but in particular to execute series of wide leaps, as in the Second Symphony, was in fact more advanced than that of other composers of his time. Gustav Holst used a euphonium (tenor tuba) in the ‘Mars’ section of The Planets. The repertoire for solo tuba could be said to have culminated in the Tuba Concerto by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

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