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The sousaphone (/ ˈ s uː z ə f oʊ n / SOO-zə-fohn) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was designed to be easier to play than the concert tuba while standing or marching, as well as to carry the sound of the instrument above the heads ...
The first contrabass bugle was developed in the 1960s by Whaley Royce, a Canadian instrument manufacturer which produced bugles for many drum corps of that era. Matching all other competition bugles at the time, these early contrabass bugles were pitched in the key of GG, making them significantly larger than all tubas to that date, apart from the rare subcontrabass tuba.
The contrabassoon is a supplementary orchestral instrument and is most frequently found in larger symphonic works, often doubling the bass trombone or tuba at the octave. Frequent exponents of such scoring were Brahms and Mahler, as well as Richard Strauss, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
In addition to the length of the instrument, which dictates the fundamental pitch, tubas also vary in the overall width of the tubing sections. Tuba sizes are usually denoted by a quarter system, with 4 ⁄ 4 designating a normal, full-size tuba. Larger rotary instruments are known as kaiser tubas and are often denoted 5 ⁄ 4.
Brass instruments are one of the major classical instrument families and are played across a range of musical ensembles. Orchestras include a varying number of brass instruments depending on music style and era, typically: two or three trumpets; four to eight French horns; two or three tenor trombones; one bass trombone; one tuba
The octobass is an extremely large and rare bowed string instrument first built around 1850 in Paris by the French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875). It has three strings and is essentially a larger version of the double bass – the specimen in the collection of the Musée de la Musique in Paris measures 3.48 metres (11 ft 5 in) in length, whereas a full-size double bass is ...
The flugelhorn's mouthpiece is more deeply conical than either trumpet or cornet mouthpieces, but not as conical as a French horn mouthpiece. Some modern flugelhorns feature a fourth valve that lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth (similar to the fourth valve on some euphoniums , tubas , and piccolo trumpets , or the trigger on trombones ).
On older instruments, playing is difficult too; it takes an enormous amount of air to sound notes in the low register. Thanks to refinements in their acoustical designs and keywork, modern contrabass saxophones are no more difficult to play than most other saxophones.