Wagner tuba

The Wagner tuba is a four-valve brass instrument commissioned by and named after Richard Wagner. It combines technical features of both standard tubas and French horns, though despite its name, the Wagner tuba is more similar to the latter, and is usually played by horn players. Wagner commissioned the instrument for his four-part opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, where its purpose was to bridge the acoustical and textural gap between the French horn and trombone.

The sound produced by this instrument has been variously described as "smoky", "metallic", "unearthly" and "majestic". Wagner tubas (or Tenortuben and Basstuben) are also referred to as Wagnertuben, Waldhorntuben, Bayreuth-tuben, Ring-tuben, or Horn-tuben by German writers, but it is most common to refer to them in English as Wagner tubas. Wagner's published scores usually refer to these instruments in the plural, Tuben, but sometimes in the singular, Tuba.

History

The Wagner tuba was originally created for Richard Wagner's operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which was based on Nordic mythology. He was attempting to perfect the Valhalla leitmotif, for this was the first opera in which he attempted to conceive pitch, rhythm, and instrumentation in a single step. He first planned to use trombones for the motif, but ultimately decided to create new instruments, which he called Tuben. He planned to use four pairs of French horn players; the last two pairs would double on the new instruments, a pair pitched in F (bass tuben) and a pair in B♭ (tenor tuben).