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Re: Instrumentation of most brass bands. -Reply

To: ian@xxxxxxxxx, brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Instrumentation of most brass bands. -Reply
From: RHAINES@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 28 Aug 1995 13:07:43 -0400

Ian wrote:

>One other thing - it's accepted opinion that brass bands sound better in
>the flat keys. If you write in sharps, expect worse intonation (and even
>accuracy) on average. It's very frequent to have as many as four flats
>for the Bb instruments. Bass trombonists just get used to playing in 5
>and 6 flats a lot of the time :-)

I played the BBb tuba for the brass chorale at Penn State in the late '70s.
Although our instrumentation came from the brass and percussion
sections of the concert band, we played some "British brass band"
pieces. As a non-transposing amateur (and full-time electrical
engineering student), I simply added three flats and changed the clef of
the Eb part. That technique proved interesting when one of our pieces
had a section in Gb, which put me in the key of Bbb (nine flats -- is that a
record?) I suppose we lost the intonation advantages of playing in flat
keys, but I was too busy to notice!

Rob

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