The euphonium’s earliest ancestor is generally thought to have been an instrument known as the serpent. Deriving its name from its snake-like shape, the serpent was constructed of either wood , brass, or silver and played with a deep-cup mouthpiece made of horn or ivory. One buzzed the lips into the deep-cup mouthpiece like a cornetto to produce the sound. A serpent had six finger holes to change pitches and was used most often as a supporting voice for the tenor and bass in church choirs. Its invention is credited to Canon Edme’ Guillaume of Auxerre, France in 1590. The serpent was in use for over three hundred years not only as an accompanist for choirs but also as a member of the cornetto family in military and civic bands in France, Belgium, and England.1

A serpent player had to have had an excellent sense of pitch because the intonation of the instrument was a serious problem. It is thought that the addition of extra keys in the nineteenth century contributed to its demise since players falsely assumed that the intonation was thereby fixed. One musicologist of the time even compared its tone to that of a "great hungry or rather angry Essex calf."2

Serpents did make it into some of the major works, however, as in Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749). Beethoven scored for the serpent in Military March (1816) and Wagner did also for Rienzi (1842). The serpent would then eventually give way to a superior substitute; the ophlicleide.3

The ophlicleide was first introduced in 1817 by Jean Hilaire Aste’ as the lowest member of a patented group of keyed bugles. It was made of brass and shaped somewhat like a saxophone with a cup mouthpiece. Mendelssohn used it in his Midsummer Night’s Dream for comic effect(!) to imitate the braying of an ass.4 A more serious usage was Berlioz’ Symphony Fantastique, where the ophlicleide is quite important to the unearthly character of the "Dies Irae" section. Modern instrumentations lose much of the effect the originally intended instrumentation provides. The ophlicleide would, however, be soon rendered obsolete by the invention of rotary and piston valves around the same part of the early nineteenth-century. French bands would still use them until the end of the century and even sold them through Cousnon’s catalog until 1916 or so.

The introduction of the first valved instrument to fulfill the role previously occupied by the serpent and then the ophlicleide is generally credited to Sommer of Weimar about 1843 with his invention he called the "euphonion". Its name is derived from the Greek euphonos, meaning "sweet-voiced."5 Considered by many to be the father of the euphonium, Sommer not only built them but toured with the Louis Julien orchestra as a performer from 1849 to 1851. He at one point even tried to get his euphonion reclassified as a Sommerphone.6 Other people have credited Carl Moritz as the first euphonium maker with his four-valved "tenor basshorn" in 1838 and still others Alddphe Sax with his valved bugle family in 1843.

Adding to the confusion of the euphonium’s origins are the many various manes it has been given within, and between different countries. In the United States it can also be known as a tenor tuba, whereas in Britain it could be called a bass flugel horn. Germans have called it a kleine bass and baryton; Italians a flicoino basso and the French a Saxhorn-basse or clarion-basse.7 Yet all of these are names for approximately the same valved bugle pitched in Bb with eight feet of tubing length and the same basic range.

In all of those countries the euphonium enjoyed a warm welcome into the brass bands and does to this day. Entering the orchestra, however, occurred almost by accident. Richard Strauss had included a tenor "Wagner-tuba" (played by a horn player with a horn mouthpiece and fingered with the left hand) in Don Quixote (1896-7) and Ein Heldenleben (1897-8). While preparing the premier of the latter, the conductor substituted a baryton with greatly improved effect.8 Strauss himself later confirmed his approval in a letter where he suggested "as a melodic instrument, the baryton (euphonium) frequently used in military bands is much better suited for this than the rough and clumsy Wagner tubas with their demonic tone."9

One of the more modern works that includes euphonium is Musorgsky-Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1922). Usually the "Bydlo" solo of that work is played on euphonium. Gustav Holst used it prominently in his The Planets (1914-16), as did Shostakovich in his ballet The Golden Age (1927-30), which has a particularly demanding solo for "baritono" (euphonium). In addition, any modern performance of an older work calling for ophlicleide in the score will usually use a euphonium instead, as in Berlioz’ Symphony Fantasique discussed earlier.

Altogether, if you include scoring for ophlicleide and usage for "brass band" effects, the entire orchestral repertoire for the euphonium amounts to only about twenty works. The brass band and wind band repertoire is at the opposite end of the spectrum, but would require another paper entirely to cover it adequately. Its usefulness as a tenor member of the low brass section in orchestral settings has unfortunately never gained wide acceptance. In recent years, however, the euphonium has attracted composer’s and arranger’s interest in colleges and universities. New solo, large and small ensemble, method books, and symphonic works are being published with greater frequency. With this new source of support and organizations like the Tubist Universal Brotherhood Association (T.U.B.A.) and newly emerging "professional" wind symphonies like the Dallas Wind Symphony, it is hoped that this beautiful sounding instrument will gain even more recognition and prominence.

Baines, Anthony. Brass Instruments, Their History and Development. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1981.

Bevan, Clifford. The Tuba Family. London: Faber and Faber, 1978.

Book, Brian L. "Views of Berlioz on the Use of the Ophlicleide and Tuba In His Orchestral Works." TUBA Journal. 10.4, 1983.

Bowman, Brian. "You Play a What?" The Wilson. 1.1, 1995.

Carse, Adam. Musical Wind Instruments. New York: Da Capo Press, 1965.

Horwood, Wally. Aldophe Sax, His Life and Legacy. Great Britain: Bramley Books, 1979.

Meinl, Gerhard A. and Royce Lumpkin. "The Tenor Tuba: Richard Strauss’s Orchestration and the Revival of an Instrument." TUBA Journal. 17.4, 1981

Oyster, Roger and Torchinsky, Abe, "Utilizing the Euphonium," TUBA Journal. 10.1, 1981

The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, "Euphonium". Stanley Sadie, ed. London: Macmillan, 1984.

End Notes

1. Adam Caise, Musical Wind Instruments (New York, 1965), p.268

2. Brian Bowman, "You Play a What?" (The Wilson, 1995), 1.1, p.2

3. Musical wind Instruments, p.286

4. Clifford Bevan, The Tuba Family (London, 1978), p.65

5. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1984), p.722

6. The Tuba Family, p.92-93

7. I bid, p.29

8. The New Grove, p.724