Bass tubas are in F or Eb; BBbs and CCs are contrabass tubas. To make it worse, some people refer to the Eb tuba (open note a fourth above the BBb tuba) as an EEb, but do no such thing for the F tuba a step above the Eb. Go figure. Don't even ask about 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 as tuba sizes. Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of dhbailey
Sent: Sun 25-Jul-04 8:47
To: Ken Moore; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc:
Subject: Re: [Finale] [OT] international pitch nomenclature
Ken Moore wrote:
> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
>>Haven't you ever had to explain to people why Tubas (which are Bb
>>instruments) are named with 2 Bs (BBb) yet trumpets are named with 1 B
>>(Bb) and why it appears there is only one octave between them, as
>>normally printed yet there are really 2 octaves and trumpets should be
>>printed bb instead of Bb? Which is easier to say: "double-b-flat" or
>>"b-flat-1?" Yes, "e-flat-2" may be harder than "capital-e-flat" but
>>nobody every says "capital-e-flat," they just say "e-flat" so the proper
>>Helmholtz nomenclature doesn't make its way into speech anymore than the
>>midi nomenclature does when labeling instruments.
>
>
> I was very puzzled by the idea of a double B flat tuba (which is only
> 4/3 the length of an Eb tuba) until the thought struck me that the
> single Bb tuba was the tenor tuba or euphonium. I never confirmed that
> that was the origin of the name, however.
>
[snip]
I've often heard people refer to the "bass tuba" instead of the "BBb
tuba" which puzzled me until I learned there was a "tenor tuba" that we
normally call the euphonium.
And in speaking with musicians most of the time I refer to octaves
relative to either middle C or their placement on the clef, as you
mention, not using either pitch labeling system.
So I refer to "A above middle C" rather than A4 or a' or "A,
second-space treble clef" much as I suspect you do.
But both the Helholtz and the C4 system are for identifying pitches and
are only secondarily used for instrument names.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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