The tuba, Benjamin of the brass family

The article “The Tuba in France” by Lelong and Coutet in Brass Bulletin No. 13 - 1976 inspired us to further research on the subject. This led to the following lines that are to be read as “fioriture” to the afore-mentioned article.

Practically no knowledge of brass instruments has come down to us from the time of the migration of peoples (4th till end of 6th c.). Even the Middle Ages were well on their way (9th c.) before pictures show us such instruments. The Roman tuba, buccina and cornu had disappeared in the course of the dark centuries. The wind instruments we find in the pictures of the 9th/10th century are of two families: the horn family (different kinds of bugles) and the trumpet family (first buzines, later straight and 8-shaped trumpets).

In the 14th century a new type of instrument joined the group, the cornett, which was going to be of great importance. We have now come to the time where wind instruments were no longer mere signal instruments, they had become musical art instruments. For the first time the shrill descant instruments did not suffice and one had to look for deeper tones. Thus the invention of the serpent was made in the 16th century: a bass of the cornett, bent like a serpent so as to facilitate reaching the fingerholes (Image 1).