TromboneChat

I’m intrigued by these. Were they only a novelty horn, with no legitimate purpose?

Depends on your definition of "novelty," I'd say. The smaller bell has a smaller, lighter sound that players apparently liked to use for different musical effect.

It is strange that they seem to have been pretty popular, though.

Of course they were popular.

Per Dr. Earl Lauder the great Euphoniom player.
The primary reason was to use the horn to cover a trombone part.
But playing cool effects was the fun thing and most noticed.
I watched and listen to him play the Carnival of Venice using both bells. It was a WOW.

I owned a Conn double bell euphonium [actually a baritone horn] for a number of years and concluded that the small bell was mostly useful for using as a handle to support the extra weight of the attachment !

When I was picking up my 73H at Baltimore Brass last year, they had this double bell euphonium on their counter. I was so tempted to buy it.

Significant enough to get a mention in "76 Trombones"

I forget where it is on the web these days, if at all, but there was an attempt to make a modern double belled euph. They took a valve front Willson and added a Getzen Bass trombone bell. I think their mistake was using way too large a second bell. Would be an interesting Franken-horn project; maybe starting with a Wessex horn so as to not have too much money into it. I think the second bell should be no larger than 2B size, but that's just my thought.

Cheers,
Andy

Wessex lists a "duplex euphonium" on their website.

I've got a well-worn Conn double-belled baritone that only sees the light of day during TubaChristmas® season - and then only if no one else shows up with one. Oddly enough, the trombonium side actually plays better than the baritone side.

Holy wah....

Yup, that'll do it.

https://us.wessex-tubas.com/products/du ... nium-ep105

I also like the 3 + 2 arrangement of valves here.. Good planning on their part.

They do have some really cool contemporary uses too. Ensemble Musik Fabrik (in Cologne) has a set of double bell instruments for their four brass players (trumpet, horn, trombone, and euphonium) and have been commissioning a lot of pieces for them, as soloists, brass quartet, and for the larger ensemble. Some of the works have been really great and can add a lot of stuff that really makes it seem like there are more than four players in the group. With their setups all the bells are moveable so that the directionality can be modified too. They've commissioned some major composers, including a nice solo for double bell euph by Liza Lim

Ben Anderson in Australia has been commissioning some cool stuff for both double bell euphonium and double bell bass trombone, which he had custom made and is quite an incredible (and beautiful) instrument!

The Wessex one is really great since it's a modern large bore horn. I've got a home made one that I've thought about replacing it with at some point, but then i just decide to spend 2 grand on...most anything else.