Contrabass Bugle - History

History

The first contrabass bugle was developed in the 1960s by Whaley Royce, a Canadian instrument manufacturer who produced bugles for many drum corps of that era. Matching all other competition bugles at the time, these early contrabass bugles were pitched in the key of G, making them significantly larger than all tubas to that date, save the large E♭ and BB♭ concert tubas used in all brass bands.

The contrabass bugle is the only member of the drum corps bugle line that has never been produced in a valve-less style, as it was developed when the drum corps rules allowed one piston valve and one rotary valve (typically lowering the instrument's pitch by two semitones and one semitone, respectively). They changed to fit new rules along with the rest of the drum corps hornline, first receiving two vertical (or in this case, slanted for ease of use) piston valves, then 3 and later 4 valves to make the instrument fully chromatic.

Equivalent instruments in the key of BB♭ and CC were produced by instrument manufacturers for marching bands who wished to possess the sound of these contrabass bugles, generally regarded as "darker", without losing hornline sonority by having the basses in a different overtone series from the rest of the hornline (or requiring marching tubists to learn another set of fingerings for tuba parts originally written for BB♭ and CC instruments).

In the 2000s, contrabass bugles often have three or four valves, as is common on concert tubas. Like most of their concert counterparts, they are pitched in either C or BB♭, although within the dwindling number of drum corps still using older instruments, they are, like the rest of the traditional bugle line, pitched in the key of G (or GG, depending on which naming convention is used). Instruments in any of these keys are generally larger in modern times compared to their older counterparts, although improved materials and construction techniques in the manufacture of instruments allows them to be made stronger and lighter than before.