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A friend and I are wishing to start a small ensemble independent of our band program at school, as in, it has nothing to do with our band class or activities, though it will be filled with people from the band program.

The thing is, we don't really trust any of the french horn players to be responsible or compatible (emotionally, it is high school) to fit into the ensemble. We aren't going to necessarily be playing for money or anything, but just for small events around town, for fun, and playing experience. They all either don't care, or would cause too much drama within the group.

How can we replace that part and still sound decent? Euph?



Oh, and the instrumentation is going to be the typical, 2 trumpets, 1 french horn, 1 trombone, 1 tuba. (Except we want to sub the french horn)

Alto sax, smaller trombone, or maybe a marching baritone or some such thing. A full-on euphonium would be too big for the 3rd part for me, and if the trumpets are on C I don't think a euph belongs anywhere in a brass quintet other than perhaps the 5th part. I never understood the C trumpet for everything thing, at least small C tubas offer some advantage over similarly sized bass tubas. C trumpets stand out too much for me especially with bigger and bigger trombones and tubas (given the right music, C/C/small trombone or bass trumpet//euph/tuba could be interesting). I like the way the Germans do/did- rotary Bb trumpets, whatever horns , and brighter trombones* and tubas. But whatever.
I think a brass quintet with an alto sax on the 3rd part would really be something and a half.
Here's some sort of amalgamation of everything above - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMfwpcC2wdc

*Listening to some of the great German bass trombonists I get the vibe of, --approximately--, German bass=American tenor, German contra=American bass. They have a noticeably brighter, more sing-y tone on bass than many American players. There probably is due to contra usage in the US, far fewer contras leads to more "pocket contra" bass playing. But you don't care.

I've seen the horn part covered well on flugalhorn.

I have frequently subbed on quintet horn parts playing bass trumpet. Used with a small mouthpiece (I use a Laskey 42B) it blends well with the trumpets and has a sound quality that sets it apart from a large-bore tenor trombone. An alto trombone could also work. The JinBao altos that Ferguson sells with the Stauffer lead pipe are a decent low-dollar option.

http://www.hornguys.com/tbnalto.php" target="_blank" target="_blank

The easiest route would probably be to take Bob's advice and round up an alto sax player.

I've subbed lots of French Horn parts on euph or American baritone. Treble clef, just read it up a 5th.

IF you are not too picky you might consider an old mellophone. A trumpet player can handle it and the sound is more (not exactly) like a horn than sax.

Just transpose the F horn part to Bb and bass clef. The parts should be playable on a flugelhorn, trumpet, tenor sax, etc. You could also use a tenor trombone. Stuff you hand in the bell and play off-key. That should mimic a horn pretty well.

Check out any recordings you can find of Brass Arts Collective. Tony Kadalec, Dave Spear Trpts and Mike Christianson, Bruce Eidem trombones, Nathan Durham doubling onBassTrombone/tuba.
These guys are top Broadway players and sound amazing! I think they only have 1 cd out. Definitely worth adding to your collection.

Good Luck,
Frank Ortega

The Make Believe Brass consisted of two cornets, baritone, trombone, and tuba. It worked very well.

An Alto sax would also be a possiblity and could add a bit of a jazz flavor to the group.
k

Depending on the difficulty of the music you play...a high school baritone player might have trouble with the high notes and have to take them down an octave.

I think your biggest problem is going to be how well the person can read the F transposition. Most people just say "Huh?" and walk away. It can get very, very tiresome copying out parts from one transposition to another.

MA

MaryAnn wrote:I think your biggest problem is going to be how well the person can read the F transposition. Most people just say "Huh?" and walk away. It can get very, very tiresome copying out parts from one transposition to another.

As an FYI: Technology comes to the rescue! While not 'free', software like Sibelius casn be used to scan sheet music and then transpose it and print it. Imagine: a nice clean piece of music every time you want it and you can editi it without a lot of mess!

On the subject at hand: Perhaps your school has an alto horn in a closet somewhere. My HS did and it even had tubes which could be taken out to have it play in F rather than Eb. Had a pretty good sound, too.

Some brass quintet works come with an extra part for a trombone to substitute for a horn.

TubeNetter "snorlax" plays the horn part on his euph with the Columbus (IN) Brass Quintet ...

http://columbusbrass.com/members.html" target="_blank