Josef Karl Gottfried was born in Rothau, an Austrian town in 1822. After travelling to Copenhagen, Gottfried began working with Jacob Christian Fasting in 1857 and led the firm after Fasting’s death, eventually under his own name. Fasting as you know from the previous blog entry had trained Schmidt and after Schmidt left in 1855, Gottfried was his replacement.
Unlike most other romantic era brass instrument makers, there are a few personal accounts of Gottfried, who seemed to have been well liked and respected by his colleagues and clients. The company itself still exists and are well known for serving Copenhagen and building quite lovely trumpets. https://gottfried.dk/en/
Among the wide range of instruments made by Gottfried, he made a series of replicas of the ancient bronze age Danish Lyrs. Read more basic info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lur
Gottfried’s workshop tended to continue the conservative designs of his predecessor, which in themselves were often close copies of the southern Swedish firm Wahl. Like Wahl, the Gottfried tubas tended to be beautifully made. Some of the advancements over the Wahl included using braces to separate the bows from the bell and body AND movable slides to allow fine tuning.
Although the Gottfried looks quite similar to the Moritz style basstubas of Berlin, the Gottfried along with the earlier Wahl have a significantly narrower conus. To make space for the 3+3/2+3 angled rotary valve blocks, the outer bows are bent considerably wider.
When you look closer, the fine craftsmanship reveals itself. The valve block is beautifully straight and the tubing is organically bent and fits “just right”.
Unlike the vast majority of pre 1900 basstubas, several of Gottfried’s tubas have smaller basstrombone sized receivers, however the style of mouthpieces these tubas use have nothing to do with modern basstrombone mouthpieces. The shape is a wide C-cup with an extremely sharp backbore, similar to certain serpent style mouthpieces. This was a huge difference between the contemporary Schmidt tubas with their funnel shaped mouthpieces.
While the valves look frankly awesome, the lower RH block due to its hard 120 degree angle is quite uncomfortable to use unless you are riding on a horse or marching. Adjusting the thumb ring position would bring some relief, however it would be a shame to disturb the silver plating. The adjustable paddles are in excellent condition, with the valves working quick and quietly and the tension adjusters work wonderfully with no slop or play.
At first when the instrument arrived at my workshop, I quickly diagnosed a number of leaks in the body. After repair, it played decently, but I still felt something was lacking. I had originally tried a late 19th century funnel type mouthpiece that was used on the Schmidt tubas, but switching to a true mid 19th century C-cup literally “woke” the Gottfried. The general sound is somewhat harsher and closer to a bassoon, but it works quite well. While the “modern tubist” inside of me prefers the Schmidt tuba, the “historian” part enjoys the true 19th century character and charm of the Gottfried.
Brass and Pipes 