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Re: Conical?

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Conical?
From: Dennis Clason <dclason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 15:24:08 EST
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

** Reply to note from John Aren <jsyone19@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 09/07/96 08:11am -0400


> Confession is good for the soul!  I've been telling audience for 20 
> years that our (SMALL BORE) tenor trombones are the only non-conical 
> instruments in the band and that's how they keep there cutting edge. 
> But honestly now, as I look at the Trombone's taper, what is, where is 
> the difference between that and my Eb Tenor horn?  In short, are we 
> still correct with this discussion?  What makes a horn conical?  
> Signed,
> Bewildered
> 

That's mostly correct.  The bass trombone is also basically a cylindrical  
instrument.  So-called conical instruments (cornets, flugels, tenors, baritones,  
euphoniums and basses) have about 2/3 of the bore length with a significant flare  
(increasing bore size).  The horn is even more extreme, with the bore size  
increasing practically all its bore length.  Trumpets and trombones, by contrast,  
have significant flare components in at most three sites: the leadpipe, the  
"choke" (in the neckpipe of the trombone and immediately behind the valve section  
of a trumpet) and then bell flare.  Together, these amount to about 1/3 of the  
bore length of the instrument.  Saxhorns (tenors, baritones, euphoniums and  
basses) and flugelhorns also have significantly slower bell flares than trombones  
and trumpets.  Slower bell flares provide what is usually described as a warm or  
dark sound.  Modern large bore trombones have bell tapers that are somewhat  
slower than smaller bore tenors, again leading to a "darker" sound.  Dick Shearer  
(formerly lead trombonist with Kenton) on hearing a college jazz ensemble whose  
trombone section was equipped entirely with large bore instruments remarked that  
they sounded like a squadron of d*** euphoniums.

Personally, I think we ought to be using small to medium bore (tenor) instruments  
in the brass band.  The large bore trombones sound too similar to the euphs and  
tenors for my taste.  Even modern bass trombones are dissimilar enough from  
basses that there isn't much chance of confusing the two.

Dennis
--

--
Dennis L. Clason
New Mexico State University Statistics Center
Department of Economics
Las Cruces, NM  USA

Knowledge is the conformity of the object and the intellect.
Averroes (1126-1198)


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