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Mahillon's Wagner TubasAuthor(s): John WebbReviewed work(s):Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 49 (Mar., 1996), pp. 207-212
Published by: Galpin SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/842402.Accessed: 07/08/2012 22:45
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MAHILLON'S
WAGNER
TUBAS
Some
years ago
I
acquired
an
instrument
(Fig.l)
from the estate of
the
late Alan Civil.
His
widow,
Shirley
Hopkins,
recalls him
coming
home
with it one night and announcing that he had 'a type of Wagner Tuba'. It
is
about
the size of a
British
brass
band
baritone
(58
cms
high),
but in
low
F
with four
straight-through,
in-line
Perinet
valves
and,
of
course,
a
lot
more
tubing.
Its
mouthpipe
takes a
narrow-bore
trombone
mouthpiece.
On the
bell
is
stamped:
'C.
MAHILLON
/
FOURNISSEUR
BREVETE / DE
L'ARMEE
/
ET DES
/
CONSERVATOIRES
/
BRUXELLES'. Above the
inscription
is a German-silver
plaque
bearing
the
Belgian
royal
warrant.
There is
no
number.
Half the
tubing
(with
the
valves
open)
is
cylindrical,
all
seamed. It
has
the
sound
of
a bass
trombone,
is
constructed
and
plays superbly,
like all
Mahillon
instruments
in
my
experience.
The
Royal
Academy
of
Music
had
a
set of these
Wagner
tubas,
two in
B6,
two in low
E
They
were
bought
in
1895
for the
formation
of the
Queen's
Hall
Orchestra
and
the
introduction of
the
Promenade
Concerts.1 A Dr
Cathcart
put
up
the
money
on
two
conditions:
one,
to
establish
low
pitch;
the
other that
Henry
Wood be
engaged
as
permanent
conductor.
Cathcart,
a
throat
specialist,
felt that
English high
pitch
did
untold harm to singers' voices.
The wind
players
refused
initially
to
buy
new
low-pitch
instruments,
so
Wood
bought
them
himself
from
Mahillon
in
Wardour
Street and lent
them to
the
players
for
the
first
season.
The
players
never
thought
that
low
pitch
would
last. At the
end of
the
season,
however,
most of the
wind
players
bought
the
low-pitch
instruments,
though
no one
invested
in a
Wagner
tuba.
Even
today,
most
sets are
the
property
of the
orchestras
and
opera
houses.
Three from
the
Academy
set were
sold
fairly recently;
the
fourth,
a
B%
instrument, is
mnissing.
The surviving three are
engraved
with the initials
'HJW'
(Henry
Joseph
Wood),
and
they
are
stamped
in
English:
'Gold
Medal /
Paris /
C.
MAHILLON
& Co
/LONDON /
MADE AT
THEIR
BRUSSELS
WORKS'.
Again,
no
numbers. There
are
slight
differences
between the
two
F
instruments and
my
own one
(see
Fig.2
for
a
comparison).
They
have
four
water-keys (mine,
only
two),
and
a
slightly
longer
format.
Their
P&rinet
valves,
too,
have
the
later
staggered
ports.
The bore
of all
the
instruments
(including
mine)
is 12
mm.
An
extract from
The
Stage,
of
February 1896,
describes
a
concert at
the
Queen's
Hall
conducted
by
Mottl,
one of
the
leading
contemporary
German
Wagnerians:
The
concert
will
be
remarkable
or the
introduction
in this
country
of the
bass
trumpet
and
four
tenor
tubas.On
former
occasions
the
parts
have
been
played
by
a
trombone
and four
horns. The
differencewill
be
very
marked,
for
the
tenor
tubas
are
very
noble
instruments.
Although
the
passages
n
question
take
only
a
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few minutes
to
play,
the
instruments
are
being specially
built,
and some
players
will
study
them
on
purpose.
Another
interesting
feature of
the
concert will
be
that Parisiannormal
pitch
will
be
adopted.
What
a
blessing
this will be if this
were
generallyemployed.
In
Henry
Wood's
autobiography
he writes of the
Wagner
concerts
he
conducted
at the Norwich Festival
in 1908:
'They
were made
more
interesting by
my
employing
four
Wagner
tubas made
specially
for me
by
Messrs
Mahillon of
Brussels.'
This
innovation added
to
his work.
The
four
players
lived in
Kettering.
He
had to leave the train there
and
rehearse with
them
for two hours.
'I
had
done
this
for
two
years,
but
it
repaid
me.
I
obtained
the
effect
Wagner
wanted,
which
was the main
thing.'
Later in the book, for 1911 (the year when he was knighted), he writes
of a
performance
of
Elgar's
2nd
Symphony
for
the
London Festival at the
Queen's
Hall:
It was about this
time that Mahillon
made the four valve
trombones
of
which
I
have
already spoken. Elgar
was
delighted
with the
beautiful
legato
these
instruments
produced
n the
finale
but
I did not
care for the
horn-like
quality
of
them.
They
now
repose
n
my
library
at the
R.A.M.,
probably
ilenced for
ever.
This statement is
rather
mysterious.
The
only
previous
mentions
of
Mahillon brassinstruments concern the Wagner tubas; there is nothing at
all about trombones.
So,
could
these
have
been
one
and the
same?
Elgar's
2nd
Symphony
is
scored in
the
brass for
four
horns,
three
trumpets,
three
trombones
and
tuba.
On
this
occasion,
presumably
the
trombones were
replaced
(for
greater legato)by
three
of these 'valve
trombones',
which
-
since
they
sounded
too
'horn-like'
for
Henry
Wood's taste
-
surely
must
have been Mahillon
Wagner
tubas Sir
Henry's
remark
that
they
are now
'probably
silenced
forever',
was
probably
written
many years
later: his
book was
published
in
1938,
by
which
time
modern
European Wagner
tubas had alreadybeen adopted.
In
the
Naples
Museum is a bass
trumpet
and
four
Wagner
tubas,
all
by
Mahillon,
donated
by
Duke Ernesto
del
Balzo,
accession
numbers 580
and
583-6.
The
catalogue
contains
no
pictures,
and the
instruments are
currently
stored
away,
awaiting
rehousing,
and
are
not
accessible for
photography. They
are
described as
having
four
pistons:
two
instruments
in
Bb,
two in
F,
each
bearing
the
same
inscription,
in
French,
as
mine.
Another set was
recently
discovered in
the
Royal
Opera
House,
Covent
Garden,
together
with a
bass
trumpet,
also
by
Mahillon.
The
inscriptions
on
these are in
English,
the
same as the
R.A.M.
set;
but
the
valves
are
earlier,
like
mine.
A
Mahillon
catalogue
of
1896
shows a
page
of
B?
euphoniums
described
as 'tubas
or
basses'.2 Two
of
them
(one
in
Continental oval
format)
have
rotary
valves;
two
have
pistons,
with the
fourth,
for
the
left
hand,
placed
horizontally
(as
on
standard
British 4-valve
euphoniums).
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The fifth of these instruments
see
Fig.3)
is
captioned
Tuba n
Bb
with
4
pistons,
new
model.
Price: 90
guilders'
One
of
the
R.A.M.
Bb
instruments
s
shown
in
Fig.4,
for
comparison.
Later
n
the
catalogue
are
listed
instruments
made for
specific
operas,
like
Lohengrin,
Othelloand
Aida trumpets.For the Ring cycle, among others, are a B6 contrabass
valved
trombone,
a
Bb
contrabass
bombardon,
a
bass
trumpet
(70
guilders)
and,
of
course,
a
tenor
tuba
n
Bb
with
four
pistons
(65
guilders)
and a basstuba
in F with four
pistons
(75
guilders).
Unfortunately,
none
is illustrated.
We
know
that
Wagner
visited
the Sax
workshops
in
Paris
in 1853
where
he
saw and
heard
the maker's axhorns
(patented
n
1845).
It
is
possible
he
even
heard he Distin
family
who
were
still
touringEurope
at
that
time,
having
recreated
their
quintet using early
Sax
bell-forward
saxhorns
as
far
back
as
1844.3
The
composition
sketches
for Das
Rheingold
were
begun
later that
year.
In the
1854
orchestral
ketch
he scores
for two
tenor tubas
in
E6,
baritonetuba
in
Bb,
bass uba
in
B6
and
contrabass uba
in
E6,4
as
well
as
for
eight
horns,
three
trumpets,
bass
trumpet,
three trombones
and
contrabass rombone.
The final
orchestral
disposition
changes
the tubas
to
two tenors
n
B6,
two basses
n F
and
one contrabass
uba.
At
this
stage
he decided
that
the
extra instruments
were to be
played
by
the second
section of horns, presumablyunawareof the difficulties hat would be
imposed
on
players
doubling
on
horn-
and trombone-sized
mouthpieces.
In 1865 he
wrote
to
Ludwig
II that he
had become
acquainted
with
the
'extra instruments'
needed
in the
Ring,
at Sax's
workshop;5
but
he
goes
on
to
say
that
suitable nstruments
n the
required
keys
could
not
be
found
anywhere,
not
even
in the
military
bands
of Munich
and
Vienna.
By
the
time he
began
the
score
of Die
Walkiire
1855),
he notated
the
tenor tubas
n
El
and the basses
n
Bb,
apparently
or ease of
readingby
the
players.
Gevaert
(1885)6
said
he
could not understand
this.
He
thought the Germanperformersanywayalwaysplayedthe 'tuben'parts
on
alto
horns in
E6
and
euphoniums
n
Bb,
n other
words,
on alto
and
bass
saxhorns.
Wagner
continued
with the
El
and
B1
notation
in
Siegfried
nd
G6tterdaimmerung,7
equests
to
Alexander
and Moritz
for
B6
and
F
instruments
having
been
ignored.
In the
meantime
he
seemed
satisfied
with
saxhorns,
stating
that
they
could be found
everywhere
under
different
names,
especially
n Vienna with
the
Military.8
According
o
Ernst,9
he
first
true
Wagner
ubas'
by
Moritz)
were
not
built until
1877,
too
late
for the
first
performance
of the
Ring. Fig.5
shows
a
later Moritz
model
from
a 1900
catalogue.
Note
that,
like
the
saxhorns
(and
the
cornophones
in
France),
it is still
a
right-handed
player,
hough
with
a horn
mouthpiece
and
leadpipe.
Altenburg
(1911)
shows
a
quartet
of
military
musicians
with
similar,
ight-handed
Wagner
tubas.10
The
Alexander
Brothers
first
supplied
a
set
(of
the
type
we
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FIG.
.
Mahillon
uba
n
BX
'New
Model'
1896).
FIG.
.
Mahillon
Bb
Wagner
uba.
FIG.
.
Moritz
Wagner
uba
1900).
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7/26/2019 The Gremlins apotheosis
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recognise
today)
to
Bayreuth
in
1890. The first set in
Britain
by
the same
maker was
ordered
by
Sir Thomas
Beecham as late
as 1935
for the
London Philharmonic
Orchestra."
It has
been claimed
that,
'in
London,
brass band
instruments
were
used until 1935'.12 But rather than
that
having been the case, were these not perhaps the very same Mahillon
instruments
we
have
been
discussing?
Considering
all the above
evidence,
it
seems
unlikely
that
Wagner
ever
heard tubas of the
kind
he
originally
had in
mind,
not
realising
back
in
1854
that
he was
writing
for
instruments that
did not
exist.
Throughout
his lifetime
and
well
into
the twentieth
century, military
and
brass
band
musicians
played
the
parts
on
saxhorns,
cornophones, euphoniums,
etc.,
with a
bias,
in
Britain
anyway,
towards
the
Wagner
tubas
of
Mahillon.'3
JOHN
WEBB
REFERENCES
I
HenryJ.
Wood,
My
Life
of
Music
London:
Victor
Gollancz,
1938).
2I
am
indebted to
Ignace
de
Keyser
of the
BrusselsMuseum
for
sending
me
photocopies
of the
appropriate
ages.
3 Adam
Carse,
'Adolphe
Sax and
the Distin
Family',
The
Music
Reviewv
I
(1945),
p.193.
4Baritoneand bass ubas n manymakers' istswereof the samepitch, the bass
usually
having
a fourth
valve and
a wider bore.
5
Otto
Strobel
(compiler),
Kiinig
Ludwig
I
und Richard
Wagner, riefwechsel
(Karlsruhe:
raun,
1936),
vol.1,
p.184.
6
E
A.
Gevaert,
A
New Treatise
n
Instrumentation
Paris:
Lemoine,
1885).
7
For
a full
exposition
of the
anomalies
n notation
throughout
the
Ring,
see
James
Harvey Keays,
'An
Investigation
nto the
Origins
of
the
Wagner
Tuba',
D.M.A.
dissertation,
University
of
of
Illinois,
Urbana/Champaign,
977.
8
Wilhelm
Altman,
Richard
WVagners
riefe
nach
Zeitfolge
und
Inhalt
(Leipzig:
Breitkopf
&
Hirtel,
1905).
9
Friedrich
Ernst,
'Die Blasinstrumentenbauer Familie Moritz in
Berlin',
AiMusikinstrument
VIII
(1969).
'
Wilhelm
Altenburg,
'Die
Wagnertuba
und
ihre
Einfiirung
in der
Milithirmusik',
eitschrift
ir
Instrumentenbau
XX
(1911).
11
This
set of instruments s
now in the
University
of
Edinburgh
Collection
of
Historic Musical
nstruments.
12
R.
Bryant
& A.
Baines,
'Wagner
tuba',
in
The
New Grove
Dictionary f
Musical
nstruments,
d. S. Sadie
(London,
1984).
3
Editor's
ostscript:
fter
presenting
an
earlier
draftof
the
above
paper,
at
the
Symposium on Musical InstrumentHistory (Edinburgh,10-13 June 1994),
Mr Webb
staged
a
practical
demonstration
of short
extracts from
works
by
Wagner
and
Bruckner,
played
on an actualset
of Mahillon
Wagner
ubas.
Players
(in
order
of
pitch)
were
Trevor
Herbert,
John
Webb,
David
Rycroft
and
Anthony
George.
212
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