What country or culture did the tuba originate from?

Answer 1

Like most instruments, the tuba evolved over a period of time, so it depends on exactly where you want to freeze-frame the process. To me, a tuba isn't a tuba unless it is a good-sized bass instrument made of brass, with a cup mouthpiece and valves, a large bore that expands throughout the length of the tube, and pitched to play well below the trombones and other brass.

The first documented instrument like this is the Bass-Tuba built by Johann Gottfried Moritz in 1835, to the specifications of Wilhelm Wieprecht. It was pitched in F, with five short-action piston valves, making it quite comparable to modern instruments except for its relatively small bore and small bell.

Moritz was an instrument maker in Berlin, and Wieprecht was a bandleader in the Prussian army (later director of all their military music), so this instrument's origin was solidly German and rooted in the military band tradition. Wieprecht wanted a bass instrument that could match the power of the other brass instruments, especially in an outdoor setting.

The French made a contribution here as well, however, through the bass member of the "saxhorn" family, another group of instruments developed by Adolph Sax in the 1840s.

Source: "Tuba," New Grove Dictionary (1980).