The omnitonic horn

Wagner tuba vs euphonium

A few subcontrabass instruments

Buescher 400 trumpet

The other of my two main horns at the moment, the first being Holton Collegiate.

Buescher Company was active in the first part of the XXth century and is primarily known for their saxes. They made pro trumpets, as well, but these never developed a cult and so are less desirable and cheaper than vintage Martin Committees or top of the line Oldses.
"The 400" is actually a name, and based on early Buescher ads, it's a reference to the 400 elite of New York, "supposedly the number of people Mrs William Backhouse Astor, Jr's ballroom could accommodate." @
It's a nice horn, dating to 1938 - much like this, but more beat up. It cost me about $130 on eBay and it took another hundred in repairs to return it to a playing condition. I had it since July but it took a little while to get it up to speed. Cosmetically it is still imperfect, with silver plating coming off at the pistons, but the valves are fast and smooth, the response is excellent, and the upper register is quite easy. There are indeed some subtle "Art Deco" touches, like the shape of the pistons, that make it a distinctive and cool design.

Ultimately, a lot about the horn sound and feel depends on the mouthpiece. I tried my Holton 24 deep V, but it felt really strange. The notes higher than top-of-the-staff G completely deteriorated. Maybe this is because some trumpets (like my Holton Collegiate?) are supposed to "slot tight" and can tolerate hard-to-control mouthpieces, whereas Bueschers "slot loose" and need a mouthpiece that is easier to control. I tried a 7C, but eventually settled on a vintage HN White Equa-Tru.
First I was using a 32 (medium), but then got an 11 (deep) and use that now. Equa-Tru's show up on eBay quite often; usually they are 32s (their "default," I guess). I wouldn't mind getting a 34 shallow, but more for collecting purposes; I dislike shallow mouthpieces.

I also bought a genuine Buescher mouthpiece, but eBay mp purchases are always a shot in the dark - it turned out to be an extra-shallow "screamer" that ended on a shelf.

I came across some old issues of Jacob's Orchestra Monthly on Google Books, was looking through the 1918 issue, and suddenly stumbled on a full-page ad for my Couturier mellophone. Now I know what falling through a crack in the time-space continuum feels like.

I have to say that "perfect intonation" is a bit of overstatement... but it might be a little too late to complain.

Trombone Slide Lubrication and other Practical Information for Brass Players in Joseph Fröhlich’s Musikschule (1813) by Howard Weiner

• Protect the lungs; therefore avoid excitement, vigorous running and riding, and excessive consumption of fiery drinks; that is to say, lead a moderate life conducive to good health and playing. Neglecting this will weaken the lungs, making breathing difficult and depriving the player of the capability of playing entire phrases in one breath.
• Do not practice too long; better more often than too much at one time. Conductors who put wind players through their paces in rehearsals of four to five hours without pause are ignorant of the instruments and are guilty of driving the players prematurely into their graves.
• Do not play after eating or while digesting. The scheduling of rehearsals in the afternoon or even immediately after meals is extremely misguided.
• Do not play when ill or suffering respiratory problems—the lungs will be harmed or even ruined for the rest of one’s life.
• Do not drink immediately after playing when the lungs are still warm (the cause of many a premature death). If the mouth is dry, which is disadvantageous for the embouchure, it is best to rinse it out with an alcoholic liquor, which provides invigoration and new strength to the lips.
• It is easier to play if the instrument is good. Frugality is out of place when buying an instrument.

Mute point

Possibly the first trumpet mute ever, 1865.
[CORRECTION: of course not. A wooden trumpet mute is mentioned in 1813 Musikschule, next entry. This is possibly the first patent for a mute.]
http://www.google.com/patents/US51363

"In all musical instruments, such as are usually made of brass or German silver, and comprised under the general term of brass instruments, it has heretofore been a great annoyance for the neighborhood, if a person commences to practice on such an instrument. The sounds produced by unpracticed persons are really distressing. It has, therefore, been a great desideratum to have what is termed a mute, that is to say, a device which will deaden the sound without altering the tune."

QotD

We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture

- Gérard Grisey

Bookmarks

On the invention of the valves; also Why Was the Valve Invented? as a source material

Deliberate practice

...A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3), which draws on his experiences as an ambulance volunteer in that war, including a cadenza for trumpet in the second movement based on a bugler practicing and repeatedly hitting a wrong note, a flattened seventh, which Vaughan Williams alludes to in the symphony.

And here's one on auditions

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/06/boston-symphony-orchestra-audition/print/

Warmup, yeah!

Long cornets

On development of long cornets, from Joel Treybig, A Cornetist’s Perspective on Stravinsky’s "Histoire du Soldat" International Trumpet Guild Journal, Oct02(49)

It is interesting to note that Histoire was composed at a time when the cornet was an instrument undergoing constant changes in construction and design, particularly by American makers. During the first 30 years of the twentieth century, there was a general shift away from the “short” shepherd’s crook model instruments toward longer cornets, some wound in as many differing manners as one can imagine. Some of these instruments maintained shepherd’s crook bells of varying degrees while other models did away with them completely. A 1917 article from Holton’s Harmony Hints underscores American virtuoso Herbert L. Clarke’s ideas for developing a longer model cornet:

He did not favor the long model cornet because it did not have the real cornet tone. Clarke admitted the long model cornet had some qualities that were good, but generally speaking, the tone was too broad – it lacked the compactness and solidity of tone which a cornet should have. He argued (and rightly too) that a cornet was an entirely different instrument than a trumpet and should not possess the tone characteristics of the trumpet. It seemed that band instrument manufacturers catered more to style rather than to concentrating their efforts in perfecting a genuine cornet.
The old style short model cornet had the tone, but as all cornet players know, it was out of tune – and did not have carrying power. The long model, he found, could be built in tune and had carrying power, but it did not have the tone quality he was looking for.
The thing to do was to build a cornet that combined the best qualities of the two – a cornet that would be in perfect tune, had carrying power and a tone of great solidity and compactness – of immense volume – brilliant, yet with a mellow sustaining quality that kept away from both the Flugel Horn tone and that of the trumpet – a tone belonging distinctively to the cornet.

The Holton-Clarke model cornet that was produced was at first made with a slight shepherd’s crook, then later with a standard long-bell. To judge a cornet solely by its bell crook would be to use a very cursory criterion. Rather, the flare of the bell, the flare of the tubing, the depth and shape of the mouthpiece, and the bore of the instrument all have much greater bearing on the production of a characteristic cornet tone. It is a disservice to consider such long-bell model horns as being inauthentic or inferior, as many were high quality professional models produced by such companies as Bach, Buescher, Conn, Holton, H.N. White’s (“King”) Martin, Olds, and York. While such horns were not a part of the early brass band tradition, they were widely used by American cornet players and in many American bands for many years. In fact, long-bell cornets were used and promoted by such important players as Vincent Bach, Gerard Schwarz, Frank Simon, Leonard Smith, Walter Smith, Del Staigers, Ernest Williams, and jazz players such as “Wild” Bill Davison and Nat Adderly, among others.
Later cornets often added throw rings on the adjustable valve slides, to help the player compensate for pitch problems inherent in trumpets and cornets.
____

Incidentally, it's worth noting that the ITG Journal claims the archives are only available to members, but almost all back articles can be found through Google search - and they certainly have a wealth of materials.

The human factor

The reason for the investigation of the long cornet history (next post) is a Holton-Clarke cornet I recently bought. "Wound in as many differing manners as one can imagine" is right - that thing has a very strange-looking s-shaped wrap to the tubing past the leadpipe, with no less that two "tuning slides" - one a true tuning slide and another a key change slide. Holton-Clarke seems to have been a professional model, good quality instrument, reasonably abundant on eBay and thus pretty cheap - I wonder why it is not touted as a sleeper? It seems to be very dependent on the right mouthpiece, though: I tried a few and was very unhappy with the sound I was getting; the right one seems to be the one it came with - a shallow Holton Revelation 72. It sounds very bright, not much like a cornet, but the deep mouthpieces I tried (including a Conn EZ Tone that also came with it) just don't work too well. I think there was a change in the mouthpiece shank length standard around 40s or 50s, this instrument set up for the old, shorter ones.



But the interesting part is something else: I found a handful of medals inside the case: Illinois Grade School Band Assoc. - "Ensemble," "Concert," "Solo." There are small inked numbers on the backs of the ribbons - 63, 64, then two more medals without dates but with IHSA - high school, I assume. Looks like the kid was quite invested in the instrument. I wonder if he got a new one for college and left this one behind together with the trophies, or just stopped playing altogether? He shouldn't be that old, either - finishing middle school in '64 makes him just over 60...

QotD

The way I see it, the music is a kind of survival strategy in these present dark times.

- John Tilbury

A great interview.

QotD

We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmony which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their originalare entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly; we have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and, as it were,tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances.

- Sir Francis Bacon, THE NEW ATLANTIS (1624)

Mozart - Horn duos

I recently discovered Mozart's horn duos and I love them; no. 4 and 6 in particular are great. The duos are written for a high and a low horn, whatever those are, but they fit well on trumpet and mellophone (Bb and Eb); so my transcriptions will also work for two saxes. I just finished the sixth (menuetto), might put up some of them in the next week. Others transcribed them before; someone is selling a two-trumpet transcription book on ebay.

Unfortunately, I could not find any commercial recording for these - unlike Bach's Inventions, for which there are at least a dozen recordings out there. I have to guess at the tempos from the titles (larghetto - must be sort of slow) and my technical limitations (the 16th-note run - can only play it so fast). I also wish I could hear the articulation and phrasing...

P.S. I stand corrected: the duos are available as a part of Marriner and AoSMitF's Wind Divertimienti recordings. They are truly beautiful, the horns almost sound like a piano. Here they are: mediafire.

Yay marimba!

I've heard that Bach's solo cello suites were done on marimba and was wondering how that sounds. That's still a mystery, but meanwhile the curious can check out Mozart's Flute Quartet done on five marimbas:
W. A. Mozart - Flute Quartet No.1 in D Major K285,
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondeau

UPDATE 12/17/2013: A mystery revealed - BACH Cello Suite No. 5 for Marimba - Jisu Jung

Ill Wind

...a bit of a devil to play...
The lyrics

QotD

Charles Ives to a heckler at a concert:
Stand up and take your dissonance like a man!

Bach's Prelude No.1

This is, of course, one of the most famous Bach pieces - the opening prelude to his Well-Tempered Clavier book I, BWV 846. It's been called an encapsulation of the entire WTC and is a favorite of music theorists; there are multiple contrafacts on it, most famous being Gounod's Ave Maria. It is a favorite of classical piano and guitar players for being a sequence of arpeggios and thus relatively easy to play. Of course, that's exactly what makes it *hard* to play on a trumpet. This would be my "some day" piece, along with Tempo di Minueto from Partita No.5 - that thing is hardcore...
I had to transpose it to E and also move the bass notes up in bars 32-33 to fit it to a trumpet range. Obviously, the bass notes cannot be sustained under the arpeggios, so it's all in sixteenths. Here it is on Scribd.

The human factor

I recently bought a 1927 Buescher on eBay; doubt I will be keeping it. It is in a rather good condition, with the original brass straight mute and those non-standard short-shank early Buescher mouthpieces still in the case. As I was digging through the stuff, I felt something move inside the mute. A closer inspection revealed a folded sheet of paper bouncing in there. As I was pulling it out, the paper - which, I surmise, sat there for at least 50 years and possibly more - deteriorated. I noticed some writing on it and tried to put it back together.



James Harrington
Virginia Blanchard
Angelina
Dorothy Grout

Who the hell are those people and what are they doing inside a mute? I truly can't think of an explanation...

As a PS, this was an early Buescher with their early-model non-standard mouthpieces and a tuning slide for a Bb/A; very well preserved except for the valve wear, and quite beautiful once cleaned and polished - but I did not care for the sound too much.

Seikilos Epitaph

In one of the earlier posts I questioned the wisdom of putting music notation on your tombstone. I might have been wrong. At least one guy achieved immortality and endless gratitude of music historians by doing just that: The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world + the score.

More gear history

From Arbuckle's Complete Cornet Method (~1880?).

THE CROOKS OR PIECES TO ADJUST THE TONE OF THE INSTRUMENT.
With each Cornet are furnished several crooks and pieces, or bits, to put the instrument into different keys, viz: the smallest straight piece marked Bb; the longest piece marked A; the smallest crook Ab; the next largest crook G; and the longest crook F. In England we seldom make use of any other than the two straight pieces, Bb and A, the proper Cornet tone being confined to those two keys, and the two smaller crooks, Ab and G. In France and other countries, however, they write for the F Cornet, and sometimes as low as E and Eb; the Cornet then becomes, in fact, a valve trumpet. The most desirable keys for the learner to use are the A and Ab.

TUNING THE VALVES OF THE CORNET.
Attached to each valve is a slide for the purpose of tuning the valve, when it is necessary to crook the instrument in any other key than Bb. The middle, or shortest valve, is never moved for any key not lower than G. You will perceive by the table, page 10, that [E above middle C] can be played with an open note or the first and second valves. To tune the first valve, sound the open note E, and then press the two valves down and sound the same note; if it accords with the open note, the first valve is in tune; if not, move the slide of the first valve until it does accord. As the third valve is equivalent to the first and second valves, it can be tuned in the same way; or, after tuning the first valve, you will perceive in the table, page 10, that the first and third valves produce the sound [middle G]. Sound the open note, and then press down the valves, and by moving the slide of the third valve make it accord in the same manner as before.

Also, a Conn and Dupont Four-In-One cornet designed to play in Eb, C, Bb, and A, and a patent for it - the forerunner of the Victor's pitch-adjusting system.

The good old days

It is generally conceded that the use of brass musical instruments has greatly increased in this country during the last ten years. Few persons, however, have any accurate idea of the appalling progress which this terrible vice has made. There is probably not a village in the whole country without its habitual and shameless player on the cornet, while the number of those who are addicted to brass instruments, either openly and to an extent which they call "moderate," or secretly and to a ruinous excess, is estimated by trustworthy statisticians to amount to fully 3 per cent of our entire adult population. In comparison with these figures the prevalence of drunkenness becomes insignificant and opium-eating hardly deserves notice.
Brass Instrument Habit, NYT 7/28/1880 on New York Times site or Scribd

Another worthy read: American Brass Band, NYT 8/25/1880 on NYT site or Scribd

A complete assessment of a vintage horn by Tom Turner

There are some things that could have happened to your trumpet through the years that could contribute to the horn becoming even more stuffy, tight, and harder to blow. I'll list them below:

1. MOUTHPIECE TO RECEIVER GAP PROBLEMS
-- Some mouthpieces of that era used different diameters and tapers to the mouthpiece shank.
-- Additionally, even if your current mouthpiece's taper is correct, the receiver may be worn (probably from years of someone twisting in the mouthpiece or accidentally cramming the mouthpiece in the receiver and reaming the receiver out). This would cause a loss of gap.
When the correct gap is not maintained or attainable, it can really screw up how a horn plays. Take it to a good technician for analysis.

2. WORN OUT VALVES
If the valves leak due to being worn out, the horn will "go away" on the lower octave notes particularly and become much harder to play.
Again, a good technician can make sure your valves have decent compression. If they don't, the valves still CAN be rebuilt! Again, the technician can guide you in this direction. The retail cost would be about $100 per valve (possibly less)

3. MISALIGNED VALVES
Alignment felts shrink, harden and wear out! If the up and down stroke alignment is not precise the horn will play stuffy and even the intonation of notes can suffer.

4. LEAKY SLIDES AND/OR SPIT VALVES
It is amazing how many old horns now have leaky slides that kind of fit loose in a horn. And sometimes a spit valve key will be misaligned or even have bad, leaky cork.

5. STRESS PROBLEMS
If a horn is ever dropped and damaged, stress can be introduced to the horn that can totally prevent the horn from blowing free and easy! Some technicians make quick dent repairs but fail to disassemble all the parts in the area where the tubing got bent out of shape.
Horns are assembled new WITHOUT STRESS. Each part simply fits perfectly into the other without being forced into place to cause stress. It is very important that the horn NOT have any restrictive stress where bent and now ill-fitting pieces are under tension and pressure from the accident.
Again, the horn can STILL be disassembled and PROPERLY repaired so that all parts again are not under stress then the horn is reassembled. A Stress-free horn will sing but a horn with stress will be harder to play.

A NEW LEADPIPE?
I wouldn't do that until the above mentioned areas of common symptoms is professionally accessed. If all these potential problems are fixed, and the horn is still hard to blow there are two choices:
1. Leave it alone and enjoy it as what it is - a very old trumpet from a bygone era when the predominant trumpet design might still be a "peashooter."
2. Put another leadpipe on the horn that you've tested against other variances in leadpipes until you find the exact taper that makes the horn play as you like. However, by this time you'll have a lot of money tied up in a small bore trumpet that was known to be a bright-sounding trumpet anyway.

HEAVY VALVE CAPS?
This might tighten the slots a little, and MIGHT darken it a little, but this would be something that I wouldn't think would give you the best results overall. Heavy caps can just as easily lock down the slotting TOO MUCH.
Here's a cheap way to test if heavy caps will matter:
Take at least the lower valve cap with you to a local plumbing supply company and find a heavy, BRASS washer with a hole in it's center that is only slightly smaller in outer diameter than your valve.
Place it in your THIRD VALVE lower cap, slightly to one side all the way so that when you tighten your lower THIRD VALVE cap the washer will snug itself firmly between the bottom of the valve's casing and the lower cap. This, in essence, turns your conventional cap into a "heavy cap."
The washer won't cost more than a quarter or so, and is just as effective as the expensive heavy caps, IMHO.

WHY ONLY ONE 25 CENT HEAVY BRASS WASHER?
OK - since they are cheap, go ahead and get TWO. The second valve virtually never benefits from a heavy cap anyway, but the first valve SOMETIMES.
On most horns, a single washer on the third valve will tighten the slots a little. On a few horns, just a single washer on the FIRST valve slide will do the trick. On a very tiny number of horns, a combination of washers (or expensive heavy caps) on BOTH the 1st and 3rd valves will be the ticket.
Frankly though, if a horn is properly designed and in perfect playing condition, heavy caps WILL change things slightly, but NOT in a good way!!! This is because heavy caps can, and will also make the horn less responsive to play (in order to tighten up the slots - and as a by-product of killing some of the overtones).
If slots get too tight it becomes hard to do glissandos, rips and falls for jazz work.
As I said, most successful horns don't need heavy caps, for they were properly designed to balance the blow requirements perfectly so the slots would be tight enough for legit work, but loose enough for jazz.

Keep in mind though: ANYTHING one changes on a trumpet will also almost always make a CHANGE in how the horn blows or sounds - thus the popular after-market items available. HOWEVER... different is not always - or even slightly - better in the long run.

Conn Victor New Wonder

Brass instruments are such a great collector's item for several reasons:
- Commercially produced trumpets have been around for over a century, which is a long time - twice as long as electric guitars, for instance.
- If they are not abused, they last a long time - there are plenty of functional instruments from the 50s and 40s and quite a few from the 20s. The cutoff seems to be around 1915 - stuff that's earlier than that and still functional in any sense of the word is exceedingly rare.
- Many are reasonably abundant, having been made by thousands, and thus not exorbitantly expensive - this depends on what one collects, of course, but there is plenty of interesting stuff that does not cost an arm and a leg.
- There are plenty of technical challenges in making and playing brass, and in a century of development, a lot of smart people working on them came up with a variety of solutions. Some are ingenious and some are just kooky; some stuck but many fell by wayside... Now only the very-highest profile makers like Monette dare to experiment and be different; in the golden age of brass every company tried to be original and inventive.


Conn 80A (Victor AND/OR New Wonder) is a perfect fit for all of the above. They are good vintage horns, made between about 1915 and the 60s. They have a whole range of experimental features: the "opera glass" tuning slide behind the first valve, a "quick-change mechanism" ("a system whereby the slides connected to the valves are automatically pulled out the correct amount when the main tuning slide is pulled out to A"), and two sets of slides, LP/HP (for low pitch of A=435 / high pitch of A=457, see "Musical Pitch and International Agreement" by Weinstein in TAJIL as reprinted here). There is also an adjustable valve spring gadget inside the pistons that allows to regulate the spring tension - not visible, of course, but still interesting and AFAIK not implemented by anyone else.


I was fortunate enough to get one last December. Mine is from 1918 and seems to never have been through a serious repair; no major dents or anything; everything is in place and working - key-change thing, high-pitch slides, even a mute seems to be original. It came with a mouthpiece that's an exact replica of the one I am using on my trumpet - a deep V cup Holton - which makes it easier for me to switch back and forth. I think the bore is .484 (one of the largest-bore cornets ever, they say), and the sound is massive; it plays real nice and easy all the way to the top. The biggest problem is the one you would expect: valve wear. It is still playable and above the middle G it's hardly noticeable, but as you descend, the attacks start to deteriorate, and it takes a long time to warm up on it. I kept reading about leaky valves and wondering what those are - now I know...


(Most of the) quick-change mechanism is visible in the pic above. Small shafts on the tuning slide pull on the system of levers that pulls out each of the slides by different amounts, keeping the horn in tune. I don't often switch to A, although it does happen - mostly on occasions of impromptu jams in guitarist's favorite keys. The sound of this thing is already as dark as it can be without trespassing into the French horn territory, and when in A, it gets even more so, maybe even too much...
I did not shoot the extra "high pitch" slides as they are pretty much useless and just sit in the case.
Incidentally, the present value of A=440Hz was officially standardized across the European nations by a provision in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, so in a way, this instrument became conceptually obsolete at birth.



Grammar nazi says: I hate it when people call cornets "coronets".