TubeNet

Back in the early '80's the City of London Brass Band made recordings with French Horns, mostly of more recent works, Gregson, Thomas Wilson etc.

Yes it's a great sound, but would have been dreadful if for example, some Eric Ball music had been chosen, where you just have to have a tenor horn sound to blend with the baritones.

www.euph9.freeserve.co.uk

I have seen at least one brass band with F horns. I guess it depends on how terribly British you want to be (or who's available to play!). There is a list of American brass bands at

http://members.nuvox.net/~on.jwclymer/cbblist.html

The River City Brass "Band" uses french horns and I guess it works ok for them. If one is to be true to the brass band tradition, alto/tenor horns should be used. The brass band has a sound that is quite different than a simple brass ensemble. Listen to Ewald with a traditional brass quintet and then listen to Ewald with all conical instruments as intended and you will easily hear the difference.

A Brithish style brass band is a special and unique thing in the U.S. When I play with a brass band I want the full brass band experience because it is unique and has worked in its current form for quite a long time. I guess I'm just an old fashion kind of guy. I also believe in wind band music that if the part calls for cornet, by God you play it on a cornet!

lownloud wrote:.. are brass bands big in the US?

British-style brass bands had a renaissance in the US around 1980. The number of brass bands in the US and interest in them has been increasing steadily since then.

Steve Marcus
BBb Bass, Chicago Brass Band

I recently heard a live performance of the River City Brass Band. Although they were technically and musically a great ensemble, I was dissapointed with the "Americanized" sound that they got - partly because of the use of French Horn. It sounded more like an oversized brass ensemble. Still, it was a great performance. I just like that British sound better for a brass band.


Stefan Antwarg

The horn players in the brass band I conduct bitch and moan about the alto horns, but the sound is spot on.

F horns and Eb alto/tenor horns are entirely different beasts and should be treated thus.

The brass band I'm in uses French horns instead of Eb Tenors (Altos?), but the high brass uses the traditional cornets (and a flugelhorn). We also have more low brass than a standard British ensemble. The choice was made to be more like a symphonic brass section rather than having the traditional British sound, and this allows us to cover a broader range of music. Nothing against the traditional sound; its great. Our director just wanted to go in different direction.

As a side effect, it has caused our horn players to become masters of one-step-off transposition.

tubalawlisa wrote: The key is to use conically bored instruments; thus it is also ideal to use cornets rather than trumpets.

Ya know, this was the principle behind the designs of the G bugles that drum corps used to have. The sopranos weren't very trumpet-like, but more of a large-bore cornet, and a good hornline could get a really good tonal blend from top to bottom. Traditional bugles are usually more conical, too.

Now that they've switched to Bb/F hornlines, with regular trumpets for the soprano voice, the blend just isn't the same. Maybe things would improve if corps used cornets instead of run-of-the-mill trumpets.

treddle wrote:What about German bands? ... Usually there are five flugels, four trumpets, five clarinets, and a flute.

Therefore, you wouldn't call it a brass band, would you?

The German Blaskapelle and the English Brass Band are different styles. Yet another one is the American Symphonic Band. Each style has its merit and all of them have tubas.

Here in Iceland, most bands are either Blaskapelle or Symphonic, but real Brass Bands are really scarce.

French horn in a British brass band?

Weren't wars started in the past over lesser things?

Here is my take on the horn thing in a brass band. As a brass band director concerned with this issue over what is best for hte players in the section, a lot of thought has gone into it. If you use french horns instead of Eb tenor horns it is no longer british style. Since my band is all high school age kids, I had the thought that the switch might not be useful ot them. We are lucky that we have a full set of Eb horns for them to use, and we do. What I have tried and learned:

We were playing Vaughn Williams enry the Fifth this past season, and the score expresses VW's dislike for the tenor horn and cornet sound and asks for this piece to be played on french horns and trumpets. So, I decided to try it out and let the horns play their everyday instrument instead of the Eb tenor. It was a disaster. The sound of the trumpets and french horns simply does not sound right, and they all agreed. The Trumpets players as a section all wanted to go back to cornets immediately, and the horns waited another week before asking to go back to the tenor horns. (BTW, the Eb transposition was not a problem...they at least learned something in the process, having to sight transpose the parts). We also played Libery Fanfare on this program and did actually play it with French horns and trumpets. it worked a little better but still was not sitting well with us. We did it anyways just to say we tried it.

In my opinion, the french horn just does not blend will with a british style brass band. Its too dark and does not project enough...and the trumpets are way to bright and harsh (even with american trupets players playing cornets like trumpets). That experiment is over, and we here are all convinced that the british go this one right. As for the players in the horn section...I don't see it as a big deal. Not much different than a trumpet player playing a piccolo trumpet. They must switch and learn to adapt. I recruit french horn players to play the tenor horns not trumpet players, and because the tenor horns are almost like mellophones (playing wise) the kids pick it up very quickly.

I could go on and on...