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Re: Aw jees Norm...

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Aw jees Norm...
From: Alastair Wheeler <alastair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 11:17:47 +0100 (BST)
In-reply-to: <48596456d0saxhorn@gemscore.demon.co.uk>
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On Sun, 21 Jun 1998, Adrian Drover wrote:

> On 20 Jun, Alastair Wheeler <alastair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > This always seems very artificial to me, anyone should be able to play
> > pedals.
> 
> Hmmm. It's pretty difficult on a trumpet. Easier on a Cornet. Dead easy on
> a Flugel. Don't forget, when Forsyth wrote his "Orchestration", band
> instruments were generally smaller in bore size, so maybe it was not that
> easy to produce pedals on tenor or baritone either. Even if they were
> possible, they would be of poor quality. Even today, an arranger in his
> right mind would not write pedals for baritone, but they can be very
> useful on euphonium.

Nobody in his right mind?.... so Philip Wilby is bound to have done it.
After all, he's written a solo pedal G for a cornet.....

<asbestos>Not to doubt Wilby's sanity though :)</asbestos>

> > Going on the Berlioz Treatise (way back) his treatment of cornets
> > suggests otherwise - he mentions crooks for a cornet down to low C
> > (certainly down to Eb), but no overlap with any saxhorn family.
> 
> Unless I am mistaken, cornets (whether valveless, with 2 valves or 3) were
> in circulation long before Adolphe got the idea of extending the cornet
> tone down into the Eb alto and Bb tenor register. Of course, he named
> these new instruments after him self, hence "Saxhorn".    

I think everyone got the idea of making similar valved instruments at
roughly the same time (Sax wasn't exactly original, he just produced a
unified set of upright instruments)

Actually, there was a bit of a time lag come to think of it - Sax was mid
40s, I think.

B> > It doesn't help that the high saxhorns are now very rare, I've only
heard
> > a Bb alto once.
> 
> I have never seen a sopranino Eb or soprano Bb saxhorn that is not cornet
> shaped. What do these instruments look like, and how does their bore
> differ from that of the the cornets?

The Canadian Brass play a jazz arrangment of 3 pieces from the 48, by
Luther Henderson.  At the end of the Cm prelude ("bebop bach") Fred Mills
switches to an upright alto horn for the florid solo.  You can tell it's
in Bb because there's a video (shown on Channel 4 years back) and you can
watch the fingerings!  It doesn't sound as nice as a Flugel, perhaps
because Fred is a brilliant trumpeter

> Thanx for an interesting conversation.

Any time!

-- 
  Alastair Wheeler	 
  Euphonium & Trombone				   Fundamental Brass
  Bass Trombone				  City of Oxford Brass Band
  alastair@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx       http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/~alastair
  "I am following my fish"


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