Roman tuba
The Roman tuba (lat. Tubus 'tube') is a brass instrument in the Roman Empire , a natural trumpet about 1.2 m long. The tuba differs from the other two Roman brass instruments Buccina and Cornu by its straight pipe.
The tuba may have been derived from the Greek salpinx . Their direct origin is probably Etruscan, as authors like Diodorus attribute the invention of horns and trumpets to the Etruscans . The tuba was made of bronze , had a cylindrical tube that ended in a bell and, according to Iulius Pollux, had a mouthpiece made of bone.
In contrast to the lituus , another Roman trumpet, its sound was described as rather dark and booming. The tuba, like the other Roman brass instruments, served as a military signal transmitter and was assigned to the infantry ( Vegetius , Epitoma rei militaris , II). The tuba players ( tubicen ) were a very respected profession.
The straight shape of the tuba was still common in the Middle Ages , until the tube could be bent around 1400.
This instrument has little in common with the modern tuba , which is a bass instrument.
literature
- Horn and trumpet , in: Heinrich Beck u. a. (Ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde , Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 1973, Vol. 15, pp. 121–130. ISBN 3-11-016649-6
