[Trombone-l] Update: Mascogni Tuba Part

[Dennis Clason]

James O'Briant wrote:
>> If you take 
>> away the tone holes and add valves, you have the tuba 
>> (although until the bore was greatly expanded, the tuba was 
>> no improvement). If you replace the ophicleide mouthpiece 
>> with a clarinet mouthpiece and reed, you have the inspiration 
>> for the saxophone.
>>     
>
> And the terribly awkward fingerings of the Ophicleide (and keyed
> bugle, which, along with the serpent, was one of the inspirations
> for the Ophicleide) were also one of the reasons that Adolphe Sax
> devised a more sensible fingering system for the saxophone, even
> though it required a far more complex mechanism.  (The Boehm flute
> system probably had some influence here, too, though I'm not sure
> of the chronology involved.)
>
>   
It almost certainly did influence Sax.  Boehm did his work on flutes 
from about 1830 to 1845.  Adolphe Sax invented the chainsaw, errrr, 
saxophone in 1841 and patented it in 1845.

-- 
--
Dennis L. Clason, Ph.D.
University Statistics Center
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico