Orchestral excerpts for French C tuba

In 1852, Adolph Sax patented a system of six independent valves for use on his saxhorn nouveau basse. This tuning system never found widespread appeal, but by 1882 the instrument had evolved into what today is known as the ‘small French tuba in C’, which, until the late twentieth century, was commonly found in French orchestras. The instrument used in these recordings of music from Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel and César Franck was built by Couesnon after 1882. 0:00 César Franck: Symphony in D minor (1889) 1:10 Claude Debussy: La Mer (1905) 1:33 Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911) 2:20 Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1913) 3:45 Modest Mussorgsky arr. Maurice Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition (1922) Recorded at St. Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh in March 2020, with the kind permission of Jenny Nex and Arnold Myers For more information on this project, visit