TubeNet

Is there a discernable British vs. American style of euphonium playing? Do the Yanks tend towards a harder, more brilliant sound, while the Brits prefer a darker, more tuba-ish sound? All opinions welcome.

John

But have you put the question the right way?

I am not a person collecting brass soloist recordings, as I generally find them boring (brasses in ensembles are far more interesting, at least as long as these ensembles are top notch).

So my information is based on random picks. From that standpoint I would say:

Neither the UK nor the US euph styles are dark.

The US style in some extreme cases tend to be too trombonish for my taste. Even by some top notch talents, generally recognised being such ones, which have made on-line CV's accompanied by well recorded sound samples.

Hearing some US service bands lets one experience an element of the very characteristic Bach 42 large bore symphonic trombone sound. Very attractive, but not when coming out of euphs.

In my ears the British euphonium style is also bright, even if it hardly ever is trombonish aside from the really low range. It is rather overly smooth bordering on the string sound in muzak. The sound is not as light as some decades ago, but it never makes me think of the British euphs being tenor tubas.

This of course just is a rant from somebody seeing the euph not as the equivalent of the tenor, but of the bass trombone (which should not lead to a loss of the high range).

Klaus

When I competed in the artist euphonium finals at ITEC in 2002 in Greensboro, I was told by one of the judges that I had a very "British" sound and approach to playing. Whether that's good or not, I took it as a compliment!

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Brandon,

I remember your performance at ITEC at Greensboro. Excellent! If I remember right you were playing the Willson 2900 with SM-3 mpc? I thought you had a very nice dark tone... darker than what I think of for a European euph sound.

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-=Rick=-

Wishing I had bought your 842 last year, LOL