(Ger., Fr.; It. bombardone; Sp. bombardón).
Tuba,
especially in 12' F and 14' E
, and particularly in a band (see Tuba
(i)). The
name was first used in Germany during the 1820s for various keyed bass brass
instruments; from the 1830s onwards it was commonly applied to bass valved
instruments. Thus the Bombardon Ophocleide [sic] exhibited by Pfaff
of Kaiserslautern in 1851 was in fact a four-valved tuba, its name serving as a
reminder that in German-speaking lands ‘ophikleide’ usually indicated a valved
instrument rather than a keyed one (Heyde, 67–9).
‘Bombardon’
is the German name for the contrabass tuba (in BB or CC). ‘Bombardone’ is used in Italy for
the flicorno basso-grave in F or E. The E and BB tubas are sometimes ‘bombardon contrabasse’ in
France, ‘bombardón contrabajo’ in Spain. Care should be taken not to confuse
these with bombardino, the Italian flicorno and Spanish fiscorn
equivalent to the three-valved euphonium. The Italian four-valved euphonium
equivalent is sometimes ‘bombarda a 4 pistoni’. All these terms represent band
as opposed to orchestral use (for example, Verdi stage-bands, where bombardino
and bombardone are found side by side). In English-speaking countries
(although rarely in the USA) ‘bombardon’ has customarily been a term that is
printed (as in some publishers’ E bass parts) rather than spoken; the word ‘bass’ is
used among bandsmen. In 1840 Barth of Munich made a valved kontrastbombardon
of which the distinguishing feature appears to have been its low register.
Before 1845 Rivet of Lyons used the name ‘bombardon’ for a bass brass
instrument of the Néo-alto family.
A. Carse: The Life of Jullien (Cambridge, 1951)
H. Kunitz: Die Instrumentation, ix: Tuba (Leipzig, 1968)
C. Bevan: The Tuba Family (London, 1978)
H. Heyde: Trompeten, Posaunen, Tuben (Leipzig, 1980) [museum catalogue]
G. Zechmeister: ‘Vom Bombardon zur Wiener Konzerttuba/Du bombardon au tuba de concert viennois/From the Bombardon to the Vienna Concert Tuba’, Brass Bulletin, no.98 (1997), 46–55
CLIFFORD BEVAN