page_title: Saxtuba
section_title: Acoustic principles of the saxtuba family
hierarchical_section_title: Saxtuba / Acoustic principles of the saxtuba family
context_page_description: The saxtuba is an obsolete valved brasswind instrument conceived by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1845. The design of the instrument was inspired by the ancient Roman cornu and tuba. The saxtubas, which comprised a family of half-tube and whole-tube instruments of varying pitches, were first employed in Fromental Halévy's opera Le Juif errant in 1852. Their only other public appearance of note was at a military ceremony on the Champ de Mars in Paris in the same year. The term "saxtuba" may also refer to the bass saxhorn.
context_section_description: From the surviving copy of Halévy's opera, it would appear that the saxtubas were made in the same pitches as the saxhorns: indeed, it is quite probable that they were deliberately designed by Sax as substitutes for the saxhorns, whose music had already been composed. Berlioz claimed that the two deepest instruments (corresponding to the contrabass saxhorns listed above) did not exist, but this seems to be contradicted by both the surviving score and eyewitness accounts of Halévy's opera.
  In his Treatise on Instrumentation Berlioz described nine different sizes of saxhorn. These correspond to those listed above with one addition: a small sopranino in C: Forsyth's Orchestration (1914) includes seven of these, though the nomenclature is quite different, as the following table shows:
  Halévy
  -
  Aigue en Si♭
  Soprano en Mi♭
  Contre Alto en Si♭
  Alto en Mi♭
  Baryton en Si♭
  Basse en Si♭
  C:basse en Mi♭
  C:basse en Si♭
  Berlioz
  Suraigu en Ut
  Suraigu en Si♭
  Soprano en Mi♭
  Alto en Si♭
  Tenor en Mi♭
  Baritone en Si♭
  Bass en Si♭
  Contrabass en Mi♭
  Bourdon en Si♭
  Forsyth
  -
  -
  Sopranino in E♭
  Soprano in B♭
  Alto in E♭
  Tenor in B♭
  Bass in B♭
  Bass in E♭
  Contrabass in B♭
  Modern
  Sopranino in C
  Sopranino in B♭
  Soprano in E♭
  Alto in B♭
  Tenor in E♭
  Baritone in B♭
  Bass in B♭
  Bass in E♭
  Contrabass in B♭
  Of these, only the bottom three were whole-tube instruments capable of sounding their fundamentals. The remaining instruments were half-tube instruments, whose series of natural harmonics only descended as far as the second harmonic. Presumably the same applied to the saxtubas: some of the extant saxtubas have only three valves, while some have four valves.
  The saxtuba was a brasswind instrument. It was constructed in such a way that the column of air inside the instrument was capable of vibrating at a number of different pitches that corresponded to the notes of the harmonic series. These pitches are known as the instrument's natural or normal modes of vibration, each one being a natural harmonic or open note. By vibrating his lips at the correct frequency, the player was able to compel the instrument's air column to vibrate at the correct pitch; by lipping, he could correct the minor intonational defects due to the discrepancies between the natural harmonic series and the tempered scales of classical music.
  Like the modern valve trumpet and cornet, the first six saxtubas employed harmonics two through eight; the three lowest-pitched saxtubas employed harmonics one through eight. The seventh harmonic was too much out of tune to be lipped; this partial was generally avoided by trumpeters and cornet players after the introduction of valves.
  In order to provide a half-tube saxtuba with a chromatic compass from the second harmonic upwards, it is essential to provide the player with some means of lowering the pitch of the third harmonic by as many as six semitones, this being the size of the gap between the second and third harmonics. Three independent valves will reduce the pitch of a natural or open harmonic by two, one and three semitones respectively. Used singly or in combination, these can bridge the gap between the second and third harmonics, though the player will be required to correct by lipping the faulty intonation produced when independent valves are used in combination. The gaps between the higher harmonics are smaller still, so no more than three valves are required to provide such an instrument with a full chromatic compass; this is true even if the seventh harmonic is not used.
  The whole-tube saxtubas require at least four valves for a fully chromatic range from the fundamental upwards, as the gap between the first and second harmonics is a full octave. Valves that lower the pitch of an open note by one, two, three and five semitones can be used alone or in combination to supply all eleven notes that lie between the first two harmonics. Later models of saxtuba were provided with six independent valves, lowering the pitch of an open harmonic by one through six semitones, thus removing completely the need to use any valves in combination.
caption: Harmonic series of the saxtuba (written notes).