# Mendelssohn Midsummer nights dream..



## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Just wanted to gain some light on an interesting little subject.
I was recently watching a video of Mendelssohns wonderful Midsummer Night Dream overture. And I noticed a very small part written for the tuba. 
Now I understand this overture was written in 1826 and the valve tuba at least was invented in the 1830s. 
So did he revise this overture with the tuba part OR did he originally use a more primitive version of the instrument in his score?
Hope someone can shed some light on it...


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

The early scores were written for the _ophicleide_, a keyed brass instrument similar to the tuba. "It is a conical-bore keyed instrument belonging to the bugle family." That instrument was later superseded by the tuba. But at one time either instrument could have been used because it was marked that way in the score after the tuba had been invented. The earlier scores can be found online at the IMSLP website.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophicleide


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Thank you and very interesting!


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Larkenfield said:


> The early scores were written for the _ophicleide_, a keyed brass instrument similar to the tuba. "It is a conical-bore keyed instrument belonging to the bugle family." That instrument was later superseded by the tuba. But at one time either instrument could have been used because it was marked that way in the score after the tuba had been invented. The earlier scores can be found online at the IMSLP website.
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophicleide


The original instrument Mendelssohn used for the Overture was the English Bass Horn.

http://www.berliozhistoricalbrass.org/english_bass_horn.htm


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## Oresteia (Dec 4, 2017)

My favorite early/mid romantic piece


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## David C Coleman (Nov 23, 2007)

Alfacharger said:


> The original instrument Mendelssohn used for the Overture was the English Bass Horn.
> 
> http://www.berliozhistoricalbrass.org/english_bass_horn.htm


So I take it that all these brass instruments produced a similar pitch and tone?!


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