The thicker tubing of the three-valve B♭ bass allowed for production of strong false-tones, providing chromatic access to the pedal register.

[6] As a baritone-voiced brass instrument, the euphonium traces its ancestry to the ophicleide and ultimately back to the serpent.

The search for a satisfactory foundational wind instrument that could support massed sound[definition needed] above its pitch took many years.

While the serpent was used for over two centuries dating back to the late Renaissance, it was notoriously difficult to control its pitch and tone quality due to its disproportionately small open finger holes.

The ophicleide, which was used in bands and orchestras for a few decades in the early to mid-19th century, used a system of keys and was an improvement over the serpent but was still unreliable, especially in the high register.

With the invention of the piston valve system c. 1818, the construction of brass instruments with an even sound and facility of playing in all registers became possible.

The euphonium is said to have been invented, as a "wide-bore, valved bugle of baritone range", by Ferdinand Sommer of Weimar in 1843, though Carl Moritz in 1838 and Adolphe Sax in 1843 have also been credited.

[7] The "British-style" compensating euphonium was developed in 1874 by David Blaikley, of Boosey & Co,[8] and has been in use in Britain since then, with the basic construction little changed.

Adams euphoniums have developed an adjustable lead-pipe receiver, which allows players to change the timbre of the instrument to whatever they find preferable.

Thus, on a compensating four-valved instrument, the lowest note possible is B0, sometimes called double pedal B, which is six ledger lines below the bass clef.

As with the other conical-bore instruments, the cornet, flugelhorn, horn, and tuba, the euphonium's tubing (excepting the tubing in the valve section, which is necessarily cylindrical) gradually increases in diameter throughout its length, resulting in a softer, gentler tone compared to cylindrical-bore instruments such as the trumpet, trombone, sudrophone, and baritone horn.

This configuration utilized extra tubing, just as the three-plus-one compensating models did, in order to bring the notes C2 and B1 in tune.

In any case, they have become rare (they were last in Conn's advertisements in the 1940s, and King's catalog in the 1960s),[14] and are generally unknown to younger players.

Recently widely produced, the horn resembles a convertible tuba, being able to change from a concert upright to a marching forward bell on either the left or right shoulder.

The Besson and the Highams "clearbore" model rare fourth and fifth extra "side" valves change the possible fingering and non-fingering positions from eight to thirty-two.

Also, Cerveny Musical Instruments manufactures several euphoniums with five vertical rotary valves today, but this is an unrelated recent development.

There has also been a vast number of new commissions by more and more players and a proliferation of large-scale Consortium Commissions that are occurring including current ones in 2008 and 2009 organized by Brian Meixner (Libby Larson), Adam Frey (The Euphonium Foundation Consortium), and Jason Ham (David Gillingham).

It was flexible both in tone quality and intonation and could blend well with a variety of ensembles, gaining it immediate popularity with composers and conductors as the principal tenor-voices solo instrument in brass band settings, especially in Britain.

Indeed, examination of a large body of concert band literature reveals that the euphonium functions as a "jack of all trades."

There are, nevertheless, several orchestral works, a few of which are standard repertoire, in which composers have called for instruments, such as the Wagner tuba, for which euphonium is commonly substituted in the present.

The earliest surviving solo composition written specifically for euphonium or one of its saxhorn cousins is the Concerto per Flicorno Basso (1872) by Amilcare Ponchielli.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s, American composers began to write the first of the "new school" of serious, artistic solo works specifically for euphonium.

More and more composers have become aware of the tremendous soloistic capabilities of the euphonium, and have constantly "pushed the envelope" with new literature in terms of tessitura, endurance, technical demands, and extended techniques.

Finally, the euphonium has, thanks to a handful of enterprising individuals, begun to make inroads in jazz, pop and other non-concert performance settings.