 The cylindrical baritone offers a brighter sound and the conical euphonium offers a more mellow sound.The "American baritone", featuring three valves on the front of the instrument and a curved, forward-pointing bell, was dominant in American school bands throughout most of the 20th century, its weight, shape, and configuration conforming to the needs of the marching band.While this instrument is a conical-cylindrical bore hybrid, somewhere between the classic baritone horn and euphonium, it was almost universally labelled a "baritone" by both band directors and composers, thus contributing to the confusion of terminology in the United States.