Who Should Play the Ophicleide Part?

[StevenC]

Lacking an ophicleide, should the part be given to tuba or trombone? I thought they were more typically given to tuba, but listening to recordings of ophicleide, trombone sounds to me to be at least as good a match. Am I missing something?

[BGuttman]

An ophicleide is a conical keyed instrument. A trombone is cylindrical. In terms of open notes, an Eb tuba is closest.

I used my bass trombone with a tuba mouthpiece once. Sorta worked, but nobody familiar with an ophicleide sound would mistake it for one.

I personally liked the sound of an old small bore Eb tuba (played by Velvet Brown) for the Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream Overture.

[sf105]

Depends on the piece and the rest of the section. A big modern Euphonium might also be appropriate. In a lot of cases, I think a trombone might be more appropriate because modern tubas are too "far" in sound from the rest of the section. For Symphony Fantastique, probably the smallest tuba you can find.

[Kbiggs]

Ideally it would be played on ophicleide. Whoever owns the horn would play the part.

I heard San Francisco or maybe Philadelphia play it live. They used a euphonium and an F tuba. Worked pretty well, given the big trombones and trumpets.

[LeTromboniste]

Traditionally it's given to the tuba player, but yes, a trombone will be closer to the sound of the ophicleide than most modern tubas. The closest modern instrument is a euphonium, or a very small bass tuba for the lowest ophicleide parts in the repertoire.

Playing ophicleide parts on big F or even CC tubas denatures the role of the part in the overall sound of the orchestra.

[bbocaner]

I actually think modern cimbasso does a pretty decent job of replicating the ophicleide sound assuming the player can keep a nice round sound and not go into blat-attack mode.

Barring that, a very small F tuba or a euphonium isn't terrible, provided the player knows what an ophicleide sounds like and makes an effort to approximate that sound. I'm not sure I'd give it to a trombone.

I like the way ophicleide sounds and there are some players who can play it at an extremely high level and modern orchestras should not be afraid to use it.

[LeTromboniste]

I actually think modern cimbasso does a pretty decent job of replicating the ophicleide sound assuming the player can keep a nice round sound and not go into blat-attack mode.

Barring that, a very small F tuba or a euphonium isn't terrible, provided the player knows what an ophicleide sounds like and makes an effort to approximate that sound. I'm not sure I'd give it to a trombone.

I like the way ophicleide sounds and there are some players who can play it at an extremely high level and modern orchestras should not be afraid to use it.

Funny thing is the modern cimbasso is a member of the trombone family, whereas the real historical cimbasso was a member of the serpent family, just as the ophicleide is.



There is precedent in replacing ophicleide with a trombone. German ophicleides had much narrower bore and a slower taper than the French ones. When Berlioz first travelled to Leipzig he had heard they used ophicleides and expected the same instrument and sound as he knew. He immediately hated the sound of the German instruments and promptly asked that the parts be played on a trombone.