The Tuba Is the Lowest Voice of the Brass
A tuba is a large low brass instrument. Its name is simply Latin for trumpet.
A tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. It is also the youngest of the orchestral brass, patented in Berlin in 1835, and it exists because valves had only just been invented: before them, a brass instrument could play only the notes of its harmonic series, and no usable bass voice was possible. Latin *tuba* meant a straight war trumpet. Uncoiled, a modern tuba's tubing runs to about five and a half metres.
- A bass brass instrument. *A tuba.*
- Tubist — the player. *A tubist.*
- Sousaphone — a marching relative. *A sousaphone.*
- Euphonium — a smaller relative. *A euphonium.*
- Latin — *tuba*, a trumpet. *The root.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | tuba | A tuba. |
| Plural | tubas | Tubas. |
| Agent | tubist | A tubist. |
| Related | tube | A tube. |
| Latin | tuba | A trumpet. |
- The tuba anchored the band.Music.
- Patented in 1835.History.
- Five metres of tubing.Fact.
Why valves mattered
- Before valves, brass instruments played only their harmonic series
- In the low register those notes are widely spaced and unusable melodically
- Valves redirect air through extra tubing, changing the fundamental
- That made a chromatic bass instrument possible for the first time
- The tuba appeared within two decades of the valve
Latin *tuba*, a straight trumpet, related to *tubus*, a tube.
Why is the tuba so young?
It needed valves, invented in the 1810s. Before them no chromatic bass brass instrument was possible.
How long is a tuba's tubing?
About five and a half metres when uncoiled, all of it folded into the instrument's shape.