Tuba Tuesday: Besson, enharmonic, B flat baritone, 3 piston, c.1912

[bisontuba]

Happy Tuba Tuesday. The Museum features a Besson, enharmonic, B flat baritone, 3 piston, c.1912.

Serial #: 96358

Bell Diameter 9”, Bore Size .500, Height 25”.

“CLASS / A / Enharmonic / Patented / 50 Medals of Honor / B / Besson & Co. / “PROTOTYPE” / 198 EUSTON ROAD / LONDON / ENGLAND / * / A.P. SYKES / MELBOURNE” on bell. Very beautiful ornate floral design on bell around indentification marks. “BESSON & CO. / * / BREVETE” on 2nd valve.

The enharmonic system was an early Besson rival to the Blaikley system used by Boosey and Hawkes. While the Blaikley system is a compensating system, the enharmonic is a variety of full double, having full length slides for both the Bb and F sides of the instrument.



https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... -baritone/

[humBell]

I feel ya need to see both sides of one of these to fully appreciate them.

I would point out double accurately describes the mechanism of compensation, but with a 3 valve instrument raises the question... double what?

But to relay my first time seeing one of these, i got asked to pick up an instrument from a repair shop and meet the fellow at a rehearsal to hand it over, so i did, then sat in on the rehearsal, with my unimposing medium size eb. And the other tuba player had a BBb one of these. I did a double take as it looked like an ordinary Besson at first glance, but with a mirror below the pistons reflecting the back of the loops. I was not long in figuring out the answer as to what it was, as i think i'd recently read about these here on this forum. Anyway it felt incredibly comforting to know i could bring the strangest tuba ever, and not hold a candle to that.


Incidentally the follow didn't actually play it at the rehearsal. I was the fool to infer that was why he asked for it there....

[bisontuba]

The reason I only post one image is for readers to click on the featured instrument link to examine the entire featured horn, to learn more about it, and to possibly explore the entire Museum...instead of having it just handed to them....too many people today want everything handed to them, instead of having some intuative curiosity .....

[Craig F]

having full length slides for both the Bb and F sides of the instrument.

Um - No. That would be a 4-valve Enharmonic. With a 3-valve, it does not get pitched down to F. Someone at the museum needs to brush up on their taxonomy.

[humBell]

The reason I only post one image is for readers to click on the featured instrument link to examine the entire featured horn, to learn more about it, and to possibly explore the entire Museum...instead of having it just handed to them....too many people today want everything handed to them, instead of having some intuative curiosity .....

You are too clever for me.

Sorry to break the system... Should i edit my post above?

The back image might still be more tantalizing to consider, although regularity counts for something.

[Craig F]

but with a 3 valve instrument raises the question... double what?

There were both 3-valve and 4-valve Enharmonic instruments. I would say the double nomenclature is a carry-over from the 4-valve system (as is the description on the museum webpage). I would not consider the 3-valve system to be a double at all.

[arpthark]

Double the number of valves.*


*only if you can’t count

[humBell]

Been pondering it since i asked.

It is a double of a two valve bugle, which gets no respect in modern music, what with not being chromatic in the usual range. Which is why you need to double it.

And adding one valve doubles the number of valve combinations possible, from a combinatorics perspective, valves being either ip or down.

[humBell]

Also, poking around on the site, one of the simonetti links asks me to log in. And i'm mildly confused as none of the others do: the Carl Fischer BBb in particular.

If i come across another, i'll mention it.

PS. merely a broken link, visible if you click on Fischer, but on a higher level there is a baritone link that works instead of the bbb tuba link. Oh well.