Tuba Tuesday: Besson, enharmonic, B flat euphonium, 4 piston, c.1912
Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:11 am
by bisontuba
This Tuba Tuesday, the Museum features a Besson, enharmonic, B flat euphonium, 4 piston, c.1912.
The enharmonic system was an early Besson rival to the Blaikley system used by Boosey and Hawkes. While the Blaikley system is a compensating system, the enharmonic is a variety of full double, having full length slides for both the Bb and F sides of the instrument.
I wouldn't call it Bb/F "double" euphonium as does the TE blurb. It is a compensating system. Anything besides lipping an embouchure or pulling a slide is a compensating system. The Enharmonic has two sets of slides. The first set is normal 1-2-3. The 4th valve is not a change valve, as it is on a french horn; it is a redirect valve. When you push the 4th valve, the tubing is routed through the valves at a different point to a second set of slides that do the same thing, compensate, but in the context of the 4th valve to bring valve combinations down to pitch, not to re-pitch the entire horn.
A good comparison as to how the 1-2-3 change valve slides work is like the 5th valve on a conventional 5-valve CC tuba. 5th is conventionally a "long whole step," so that 4+5 gets low F in tune without being sharp as it is on 4+1, and without having to lip down or pull a slide. Likewise, on an Enharmonic, the alternate set of slides is, in order: 1 - long whole step; 2 - long half step; 3 - long step and a half, so that 4+2 is low E nat in tune; 4+1 is low Eb in tune; and 4+3 is low D in tune. Below that, just like on most instruments, you are on your own.
Since an entirely different set of slides is used, the Enharmonic is arguably less stuffy than the now standard Boosey-Blaikley system, which only adds the differences in tubing length, making the pitch go through both sets of slides on valve combinations. That is the "pro." The "con" is that with all that extra tubing, the horn can get heavy and unwieldy, especially on tubas, and yes, there were versions for Eb bass and BBb bass, although I believe the BBb bass version was only a 3-valve, so everything triggered off the 3rd valve.
And of course, once Besson bought Boosey, the Enharmonic went away as it was not commercially feasible as the playing public had gotten used to the Boosey-Blaikley system, stuffiness was not that big of an issue, and the weight savings was considerable.
My homework for a future day is to trace out the effect the pistons have on air flow...
I grant that if it is a full double system, then it is deliciously obfuscated. Double french horns look deceptively simple. Which slide do pull to fix what out of tune note?
It would make my day if you could put the piston stem on the other end of the 4th piston so as to change whether pushing it made the system go up or down a 4th.
humBell wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 4:52 pm
My homework for a future day is to trace out the effect the pistons have on air flow...
I grant that if it is a full double system, then it is deliciously obfuscated. Double french horns look deceptively simple. Which slide do pull to fix what out of tune note?
It would make my day if you could put the piston stem on the other end of the 4th piston so as to change whether pushing it made the system go up or down a 4th.
Here is a link to an Enharmonic baritone, 3-valve. I think this is a little clearer than the maze of tubing in a 4-valve horn. Just like on a Boosey-Blaikley 3-valve comp horn, you can see the tubing for the 3rd valve wraps back around to the first valve. But instead of only activating comp loops, you can see on the back of the horn the longer alternate 1st and 2nd valve slides that add the extra tubing necessary to bring the pitch down with 3rd valve combinations, and only go through the valve block once. https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... -baritone/
If that's the case, wouldn't the lead pipe need to enter the 3rd (or 4th) casing first?
That baritone (and euph) appears to hit the first valve first which, when the 1st valve is engaged, would cause the routing to go through the un-elongated loop wether or not the 3rd valve is pressed. Then the 3rd valve would cause it to loop back through and add the additional loop.
Or am I seeing the routing incorrectly?
FWIW, I understand the system as you describe it. But I just don't see how it works in these horns.
Kirley wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 12:08 pm
If that's the case, wouldn't the lead pipe need to enter the 3rd (or 4th) casing first?
That baritone (and euph) appears to hit the first valve first which, when the 1st valve is engaged, would cause the routing to go through the un-elongated loop wether or not the 3rd valve is pressed. Then the 3rd valve would cause it to loop back through and add the additional loop.
Or am I seeing the routing incorrectly?
FWIW, I understand the system as you describe it. But I just don't see how it works in these horns.
Not necessarily, since it is the last valve tubing that loops back around to go through the block again to activate the alternate set of valve slides.
I thought what you were describing was a system that would only use the second set of valve loops when the "activator" valve (3rd or 4th) was depressed. I don't see any way of that happening if the path has already passed through the standard loop. Using the baritone, if you've got the 1st valve depressed so the path travels from the leadpipe through the standard first valve loop then you push the 3rd valve down, I don't see how it could possibly reroute the path to use the elongated first valve loop instead. But if the path were reversed and the leadpipe fed the 3rd valve first, like a trumpet, then I could totally see that being a possibility as both of those alternate loops would still be downstream.
For the record, I'm definitely not trying to be argumentative. I'm genuinely interested and want to understand. I think it's a very interesting concept but I must be missing something in how it's deployed in these examples.
Kirley wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 1:49 pm
I thought what you were describing was a system that would only use the second set of valve loops when the "activator" valve (3rd or 4th) was depressed. I don't see any way of that happening if the path has already passed through the standard loop. Using the baritone, if you've got the 1st valve depressed so the path travels from the leadpipe through the standard first valve loop then you push the 3rd valve down, I don't see how it could possibly reroute the path to use the elongated first valve loop instead. But if the path were reversed and the leadpipe fed the 3rd valve first, like a trumpet, then I could totally see that being a possibility as both of those alternate loops would still be downstream.
For the record, I'm definitely not trying to be argumentative. I'm genuinely interested and want to understand. I think it's a very interesting concept but I must be missing something in how it's deployed in these examples.
That was exactly what I was saying: when the "activator" valve is pushed (whether 3rd or 4th), the return loop goes through a completely different set of ports in the valves to the alternate set of valve slides. This is different from the Boosey-Blaikley compensating system that when you push the activator valve the path is through both sets of slides.
Let me say it a different way: Let's say on a Boosey-Blaikley comp you play a note on a four-valve horn using 4+1 fingering. The pitch travels through the leadpipe, through the first main slide, straight through the 2nd and 3rd valves unpressed (not through their respective loops) then into the fourth valve. From there, the fourth valve loops back around to the second set of valve ports to activate the 1st valve compensating loop along with the main 1st valve loop.
By contrast, on an Enharmonic, you have to think "backwards": because the 4th valve is pressed, the pitch goes through only the alternate first valve slide, as it travels straight through the 2nd and 3rd valves unpressed then out, feeding only the alternate slide. Yes, the leadpipe feeds the activator valve first (I apologize if I mistyped earlier), to determine which of the two sets of valve slides are utilized for the particular pitch and fingering.
Hmmm. This works with a valve block that has the same bore throughout.
Please watch this Youtube video that explains the system on a 3-valve cornet:
