Invention of the Valves

(look at those valves from my trumpet)

Why is it important to discuss about valves in the development of the euphonium? Another website would be needed to discuss the fundamentals of how sound is made through instruments. Put simply, valves are needed to bridge the gaps between the "natural harmonics" on the instrument. For instance, before the invention of the valves, a bugler would only be able to play a certain set of notes. He would be limited to only the set notes in the songs he performed. Composers in the 1800s desired to have the "chromatic potential" which the bugle lacked (Phillips 3).

In 1815, Prussian Heinrich Stölzel produced a horn with two workable valves. As the player presses down the key to make the valve open, the airstream is "deflected...into extra tubing, changing the effective length of the tube and lowering its pitch" ("Musical Instruments" 692). Two years later, he performed a concert in Leipzig on his new two-valved horn. It is uncertain as to who actually invented the valve since both "Stolzel and Friedrich Blühmel jointly patented a spring-operated square piston valve in 1818 in Berlin" (3). After the initial invention of the valves, many others followed by creating their own version.

With the valves made, it came time for the euphonium to emerge into the world...

The Emergence of the Euphonium