The tuba is a relatively young instrument, and was invented a good 200 years after the rest of the brass section was fully developed. Unfairly, the tuba is sometimes thought of as a comic instrument in popular culture, and while it’s true that composers have sometimes used the very low register of the tuba to comic effect, it’s far more often used to inject power and weight into the music, and even carries important melodies at times.

Guy Jones

Head of Curation