tuba

tuba
/tooh"beuh, tyooh"-/, n., pl. tubas for 1a, b, 2; tubae /-bee/ for 1c.
1. Music.
a. a valved, brass wind instrument having a low range.
b. an organ reed stop of large scale with tones of exceptional power.
c. an ancient Roman trumpet.
2. Meteorol. See funnel cloud.
[1850-55; < L: trumpet; akin to TUBE]

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Deep-pitched valved brass instrument with a widely expanding conical bore.

Tubas vary in size and pitch. The tubing is coiled in an oblong shape, and the bell points upward or forward. Patented in Berlin in 1835, the tuba displaced the ophicleide to become the foundation of the brass section in the orchestra and in military and brass bands. See also euphonium, sousaphone.

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      deep-pitched brass (brass instrument) wind instrument with valves and wide conical bore. The word tuba originally was the name of a straight-built Roman trumpet and was the medieval Latin word for trumpet. Valved bass brass instruments for bands are mentioned as early as 1829, but little is now known about them. In 1835 Wilhelm Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz of Berlin patented the bass tuba in F, with five valves. Subsequent designs were considerably influenced by the French contrabass saxhorn.

      Modern military and brass band tubas are of two sizes used together: the E♭ bass (or bombardon) and the BB♭ bass, a fourth lower. When these tubas have three valves, their lowest notes are, respectively, the A below the bass staff and the E below that. The E♭ bass generally has a fourth valve that lowers the basic pitch by a fourth to BB♭, enabling the instrument (with use of valves) to produce the low E, below which the compass can be continued downward in fundamentals (lowest note producible by a length of tubing), E♭, D, and so on. These basses are coiled vertically and held upright aslant the player's body, with the bell pointing to the right; in the United States the bell may be turned forward. Alternative designs, likewise in E♭ and BB♭ but encircling the body, include the circular bass, or helicon, with the bell resting across one shoulder, and the American sousaphone, with an extremely wide bell raised above the player's head.

      Orchestral (orchestra) tubas vary in different countries. Large instruments in BB♭ or a tone higher, in C, are used in the United States and parts of Europe. The original pitch of F (a tone above the E♭ bass) is preferred in Great Britain and (with rotary rather than piston valves) in Germany. All have the fourth valve and often a fifth valve tuned to a wide semitone for facilitating good intonation in certain fingerings. French orchestras use a small C tuba pitched a fifth above the F tuba. This is a six-valved development of the earlier French bass saxhorn. The military-band euphonium normally serves as a tenor tuba. Tuba parts are written at actual pitch except in brass bands, where transposed notation allows the parts to be read with cornet fingering.

      Wagner tubas are four-valved, small-bored tubas designed in the 19th century for the German composer Richard Wagner (Wagner, Richard) for special effects in his four-part music-drama cycle The Ring of the Nibelung. Basically derived from the French horn, they are played by horn players with horn mouthpieces and have a quieter tone colour. The bass and contrabass saxhorns in E♭ and BB♭ are also sometimes referred to as tubas.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • tuba — tuba …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • TUBA — Tyrrhenorum inventum, Plin. l. 7. c. 56. a tubo, seu canali, quem refert, dicta, priscis Graecis ignota fuit. Unde illos, Tubarum locô, conchis uti consuevisse, legimus, apud Hesychium, Κόχλοις τοῖς ςθαλαττίοις ἐχρῶντο, πρὸ τῆς τῶ σαλπίγγων… …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

  • tubă — TÚBĂ, tube, s.f. Instrument muzical de suflat din alamă, cu registru grav, format dintr un pavilion larg, un tub răsucit şi un mecanism de pistoane. – Din fr., lat. tuba. Trimis de LauraGellner, 01.07.2004. Sursa: DEX 98  túbă s. f., g. d. art.… …   Dicționar Român

  • Tuba — Sf (ein Blasinstrument) per. Wortschatz fach. (18. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus l. tuba Blasinstrument, Trompete, Röhre .    Ebenso nndl. tuba, ne. tuba, nfrz. tuba, nschw. tuba, nisl. túpa; Tube. ✎ Relleke (1980), 175; DF 5 (1981), 521f.… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • tuba — s. f. [Brasil] Lugar onde há muitas pessoas ou coisas reunidas. = TIBA   ‣ Etimologia: origem duvidosa tuba s. f. 1.  [Linguagem poética] Trombeta. 2.  [Música] Instrumento musical de metal com som de baixo. = BOMBARDÃO 3.  [Figurado] Estilo… …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • tuba — TUBÁ, tubez, vb. I. tranz. A consolida pereţii unei guri de sondă prin introducerea unei coloane de tuburi în interiorul ei. – Din fr. tuber. Trimis de LauraGellner, 01.07.2004. Sursa: DEX 98  tubá vb., ind. prez. 1 sg. tubéz, 3 …   Dicționar Român

  • Tuba — Tu ba, n. [L., trumpet.] (Mus.) (a) An ancient trumpet. (b) A sax tuba. See {Sax tuba}. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • tuba — 1852, from Fr. tuba, from L. tuba (pl. tubæ) straight bronze war trumpet (as opposed to the crooked bucina), related to tubus (see TUBE (Cf. tube)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • tuba — túba ž DEFINICIJA 1. cijev zatvorena s jedne strane, sa zatvaračem na zavrtanj, za kreme, paste, ljepila itd. 2. glazb. a. kod starih Rimljana vrsta vojničke, uspravne trublje b. limeni puhaći instrument najdubljeg registra, ubraja se u porodicu… …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • tuba — {{/stl 13}}{{stl 8}}rz. ż Ia, CMc. tubabie {{/stl 8}}{{stl 20}} {{/stl 20}}{{stl 12}}1. {{/stl 12}}{{stl 7}} urządzenie do wzmacniania głosu przy porozumiewaniu się na odległość, w kształcie rury z rozszerzonym końcem, wykonane z plastiku lub… …   Langenscheidt Polski wyjaśnień

  • tuba — f. anat. Ver trompa. Medical Dictionary. 2011 …   Diccionario médico

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