ophicleide from orchestras only recently. It has
been superseded by the development of the valved tubas. The euphonium
and bombardon, the basses of the important family of saxhorns, now
completely cover the ground of bass wind instrument music. The keyed
bugle, invented by Joseph Halliday, bandmaster of the Cavan militia,
in 1810, may be regarded as the prototype of all these instruments,
excepting that the keys have been entirely replaced by the valve
system, an almost contemporary invention by Stoelzel and Blumel, in
Prussia, in 1815. The valve instruments began to prevail as early as
1850. The sound tube of all bugles, saxhorns, and tubas is conical,
with a much wider curve than the horn. The quality of tone produced is
a general kind of tone, not possessing the individuality of any of the
older instruments. All these valve instruments may be comprehended
under the French name of saxhorn. There is a division between them of
the higher instruments or bugles, which do not sound the fundamental
note, and of the lower, or tubas, which sound it readily. Properly
military band instruments, the second or bass division, has been taken
over to the orchestra; and Wagner has made great use of it in his
great scores. The soprano cornets, bugles, or flugelhorns and saxhorns
are in E flat; the corresponding alto instruments in B flat, which is
also the pitch of the ordinary cornet. The tenor, baryton, and bass
instruments follow in similar relation; the bass horns are, as I have
said, called tubas; and that with four valves, the euphonium. The
bombardon, or E flat tuba, has much richer lower notes.

For military purposes, this and the contrabass--the helicon--are
circular. Finally, the contrabass tubas in B flat, and in C, for
Wagner, have immense depth and potentiality of tone; all these
instruments are capable of pianissimo.

There are many varieties now of these brass instruments, nearer
particulars of which may be found in Gevaert, and other eminent
musicians' works on instrumentation. One fact I will not pass by,
which is that, from the use of brass instruments (which rise in pitch
so rapidly under increase of temperature, as Mr. Blaikley has shown,
almost to the coefficient of the sharpening under heat in organ pipes)
has come about that rise in pitch which, from 1816 to 1846--until
repressed by the authority of the late Sir Michael Costa, and, more
recently, by the action of the Royal Military College at Kneller
Hall--is