Re: Re: Re: Re: Holton 6/4 in my living room..what to do


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Posted by Klaus on May 02, 2002 at 07:36:19:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Holton 6/4 in my living room..what to do posted by Frederick J. Young on May 02, 2002 at 06:31:46:

Your main point stands!

But the British brass band does not use trumpets at all. Trumpet type fanfares and signals often are allocated to the 2nd and 3rd cornets. During the British national finale in Royal Albert Hall of London, I heard a band, where these "lower" or "second row" cornets faked trumpet signals in a way, that would have earned them the most prestigeous symphony jobs, had these been only a matter of volume and timbre.

In my book altos, baritones, and Eb basses are no less mellow than flugelhorns, euphoniums, and BBb basses.

Especially after the introduction of the Sovereign series, the Eb may even be the fuller and more mellow (at least in its 981 incarnation), as the 981/982 EEb's and the 994 BBb have the same 19" bell diameters.

One of my private US correspondents tells, that she plays the Eb part in a brass band on a moderately sized CC, the BBb part being covered by a much larger CC or BBb. Working well.

But when the bandmaster calls in a couple of young "geniuses" as ringers for concerts, they appear with CC hugaphones and will only play from the Eb part. Ruining any intended and carefully worked out effects in the tuba section.

In a context closer to me I usually played the the lower divisi in Eb parts, because my 981 had much more broadness to its sound than the 982, I sat next to.

At one rehearsal I was the lone Eb, so I played the upper divisi, the fifth, in a split chord. Making the conductor protest, as he could not hear the root as represented in the lone BBb Cerveny. And I did not play loud.

Where our main points concur, is that in brass bands, the main idea is a smooth transition of sound, and weight of sound, from the BBb basses to the Eb cornet with the trombones being the only ones allowed to stick out.

Hence the BBb's should provide some real foundation, so that the EEb's do not kill them. A two-sided obligation.

The picture is of one of the bands I played in. I am sitting to the left in the tuba row with my 981. The pic is taken before a concert in the aula of the school, where I worked until my retirement.

Klaus


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