Euphonium Euphonium The euphonium is a large, conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word "euphōnos", meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( "eu" means "well" or "good" and "phōnē" means "sound", hence "of good sound"). The euphonium is a valved instrument. Nearly all current models have piston valves, though models with rotary valves do exist. The euphonium may be played in bass clef as a non-transposing instrument or in treble clef as a transposing instrument. In British brass bands, it is typically treated as a treble-clef instrument, while in American band music, parts may be written in
Tuba of notes. Prior to the invention of valves, brass instruments were limited to notes in the harmonic series, and were thus generally played very high with respect to their fundamental pitch. Harmonics starting three octaves above the fundamental pitch are about a whole step apart, making a useful variety of notes possible. The ophicleide used a bowl-shaped brass instrument mouthpiece but employed keys and tone holes similar to those of a modern saxophone. Another forerunner to the tuba was the serpent, a bass instrument that was shaped in a wavy form to make the tone holes accessible to the player.