The Largest Tuba Ever Built? (1867)

 About a year and a half ago, I created a rather lengthy post about giant tubas because, well, why not?! Tubas are already the largest brass horns used in a band or orchestra, but over the years some instrument makers have enjoyed creating massive one-offs, probably more as a spectacle than for actual use in an ensemble.

And that begs the question, which horn owns the title of "the largest tuba ever built"? There are, of course, clarifications to this accolade, such as "Is it fully functional?" (some are essentially giant bugles with phony valves) and "Does it still exist?" (many have been lost to the ravages of time).

In my search for the winner over the past couple of years, I came across the following lithograph in the August 10, 1867 edition of Le Monde Illustre:

The caption at the bottom of the image says, "International Exposition - Musical instruments exhibited by Mr. Adolphe Sax," and that seems to suggest that these ridiculously oversized saxhorns could actually be seen in Paris that year. But the accompanying article says nothing about these giants, and I wasn't convinced that horns that big really existed.

I mean, come on, the shoulder-borne one on the left (referred to as a saxtuba in some sources) - wouldn't that essentially crush the player with its weight?! Sax did make horns with that exact design, where it rests on the right shoulder (unlike the helicon bass, which rested on the left shoulder, as would Sousaphones years later). But this monstrous version would surely be unwieldly after a few seconds!

And the one on the right, looking like a standard tuba, just seems way too big to be anything but a funny cartoon. Besides, I was not able to find any photo confirming that either of these enormous saxhorns actually existed, nor did I find anything in writing from that year that talked about these spectacles.

That is, until now.

As happens from time to time, those who know of my research interests sometimes send me relevant tips or items, and that happened yesterday. A reader of this blog (good to know I actually have those - I wasn't sure!) from Oslo, Norway, sent me the following photo:

Granted, it's only the giant saxhorn on the right in the lithograph, but dang! There it is, the real thing, right in the middle of Sax's workshop on Dunkerque Street in Paris! And go figure - the inventor of the Saxophone also built the world's largest tuba!

Here is a side-by-side comparison, showing that it is most definitely that cartoonish monster in the lithograph:

Given the size of the man standing next to it (as well as those above), and knowing what I do about giant tubas, this is now far-and-away the largest tuba ever built. Of course, I'm not sure yet whether it was fully-functional (and we may never know). But I assume it is lost, as there is no visual record of it, to my knowledge, beyond 1867 (assuming the photo shown here is from that year).

However, if you look close, you'll notice that it is fitted with something like a standard tuba mouthpiece, so it appears one could at least blow into the instrument. But those three valves (Berliner valves?) - we're they operational? Again, we simply don't know.

Here's a larger version of the photo for you to get the best look at this beast:

With this new revelation, and knowing that the horn is referred to as a "Saxhorn bourdon en si b," I did a fresh search for newspaper accounts of this giant. Here's what I found, tucked away in the February 9, 1878 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, which reprinted a report from Paris dated November 30, 1877 - just over ten years after that Paris Exposition that featured these ridiculously large instruments:

According to this report, Sax, who had just turned 63, was selling his collection of over 500 musical instruments for reasons that are not stated. But one of the horns on the auction block was what sounds like this very instrument. After all, here we learn that:

• It had somewhere around 75 total feet of tubing!
• It could hold four men in its bell (did they try that?!)
• And it sounded awesome - like a cathedral bell!

So, where did this massive "Sax-horn bourdon" end up? Who bought it at the auction? How much did it go for? And where is it today? Often old relics are found in dark corners of attics, but I don't think you could even get a monster like this up in an attic - or even haul it through a typical door! Anyway, lots more to explore regarding this amazing instrument, so stay tuned!

But now, about that funky shoulder-borne version: Keep your eye out for a photo of that one!

UPDATE: Click here for additional information about this historic instrument.

[Special thanks to Timothee Reyrolle for letting me know about this historically significant photo.]