What name is often given to the musical instrument in the picture?

The great German operatic composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was recognised as a musical innovator, and his works, such as "The Ring Cycle", "Parsifal", and "Lohengrin" are still regularly performed in all the major opera houses.

He was also innovative in his orchestration, and in this instance, he commissioned a new variant of the tuba, specifically for use in the "Ring". He wanted to achieve a sound that combined the features of the tuba and the French horn. Readers may be surprised that a composer so wedded to Germanic musical traditions was strongly influenced by the invention of the saxophone and the saxhorn, particularly concerning their greater flexibility.

The instrument is also known as the Bayreuth Tuba (after the Franconian town where Wagner built his own theatre for the premiere of the complete performance of the "Ring" and also the Hagen Tuba, after a character in it.

Its sound has been described variously as "smokey", "unearthly", and "majestic". Since its invention, other composers have also been drawn to it and used it in their compositions, notably Richard Strauss, Anton Bruckner, and Bela Bartok.