Wagner tuba

The Wagner tuba is a member of the brass (Hornbostel–Sachs 423.231-12). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the Wagner tuba makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the Wagner tuba belongs to the brass (lip-vibrated aerophones): the player's buzzing lips set the air column vibrating – trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas and the didgeridoo.

More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.

Its timbre – the colour that lets you tell it apart from other instruments playing the same note – comes from the mix of overtones its body and resonator emphasise.

From Wikipedia

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.