[1] For a discussion of this see ARCHON.
EUPEN (Fr. _Neau_), a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province,
in a beautiful valley at the confluence of the Helle and Vesdre, 9 m. S.
of Aix-la-Chapelle by rail. Pop. (1905) 14,297. It is a flourishing
commercial place, and besides cloth and buckskin mills it has net and
glove manufactories, soapworks, dyeworks, tanneries and breweries, and
also carries on a considerable trade in cattle and dairy produce. It has
a Protestant and four Roman Catholic churches, a Franciscan monastery, a
progymnasium, an orphanage, a hospital, and a chamber of commerce. As
part of the duchy of Limburg, Eupen was under the government of Austria
until the peace of Luneville in 1801, when it passed to France. In 1814
it came into the possession of Prussia.
EUPHEMISM (from Gr. [Greek: euphemos], having a sound of good omen;
[Greek: eu], well, and [Greek: pheme], sound or voice), a figure of
speech in which an unpleasant or coarse phrase is replaced by a softer
or less offensive expression. A euphemism has sometimes a metaphorical
sense, as in the substitution of the word "sleep" for "death."
EUPHONIUM (Fr. _baryton_; Ger. _Tenor Tube_), a modern brass wind
instrument, known in military bands as euphonium and in the orchestra as
tuba. The euphonium consists of a brass tube with a conical bore of wide
calibre ending in a wide-mouthed bell; it is played by means of a
cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound is produced as in the bombardon, which
is the bass of the euphonium, by the varied tension of the lips across
the mouthpiece, whereby the natural open notes or harmonics, consisting
of the series here shown, are obtained.
[Illustration]
The intervening notes of the chromatic scale are obtained by means of
valves or pistons usually four in number, which by opening a passage
into additional lengths of tubing lower the pitch one, half,
one-and-a-half, two-and-a-half tones (see BOMBARDON; TUBA; VALVES). The
euphonium gives out the fundamental, or first note of the harmonic
series, readily, but no harmonic above the eighth. Euphoniums are made
in C and in B[flat], the latter being more generally used. By means of
all the valves used at once, the B[flat], an octave below the
fundamental, can be reached, giving a compass of four octaves, with
chromatic intervals. The bass clef is used in notation. The euphonium is
treated by French and German composers as a transposing instrument; in
England the real notes are usually written, except when the treble clef
is used. The quality of tone is rich and full, harmonizing well with
that of the trombone. The euphonium speaks readily in the lower
register, but slowly, of course, owing to the long dip of the pistons.
Messrs Rudall Carte have removed this difficulty by their patent _short
action_ pistons, which have but half the dip of the old pistons. On
these instruments it is easy to execute rapid passages.
The euphonium is frequently said to be a saxhorn, corresponding to the
baryton member of that family, but the statement is misleading. The
bombardon and euphonium, like the saxhorns, are the outcome of the
application of valves to the bugle family, but there is a radical
difference in construction; the tubas (bombardon and euphonium) have a
conical bore of sufficiently wide calibre to allow of the production of
the fundamental harmonic, which is absent in the saxhorns. The Germans
classify brass wind instruments as _whole_ and _half_[1] according to
whether, having the wide bore of the bugle, the _whole_ length of the
tube is available and gives the fundamental proper to an organ pipe of
the same length or whether by reason of the narrow bore in proportion to
the length, only _half_ the length of the instrument is of practical
utility, the harmonic series beginning with the second harmonic. (See
BOMBARDON.) (K. S.)