Got a spare quarter million??

MartyNeilan · Post by **MartyNeilan** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:20 pm

This is an exciting piece of history, but I wonder if anone will pony up the dough...
http://www.dillonmusic.com/Arthur_pryor ... ombone.htm

Louis · Post by **Louis** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:55 pm

My goodness, what a neat thing!

Wouldn't you love to hear Joseph Alessi or someone like that pick that thing up - same mouthpiece and all - and play some of those old solos from the Sousa Band era? How cool would that be?

Louis

Shockwave · Post by **Shockwave** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 3:11 am

Are there any recordings of Arthur Pryor? I've heard a recording of Herbert L. Clarke but not Pryor.

-Eric

jacobg · Post by **jacobg** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 12:40 pm

bloke wrote: Allen Ostrander's son brought in his (deceased) Dad's gold plated Vega trombone and asked me to "polish it up so he could make it into a lamp".

I didn't know Vega made trombones. I have a heavily engraved Vega trumpet from the teens or twenties which looks like it might have been gold plated at one time.
Strange that Ostrander would have an obscure brand trombone, much less a gold plated one.

jacobg · Post by **jacobg** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 12:45 pm

bloke wrote:
Wouldn't you love to hear Joseph Alessi or someone like that pick that thing up - same mouthpiece and all - and play some of those old solos from the Sousa Band era? How cool would that be?
It would indeed be cool...

...It would probably also be quite shrill and strident to your ears...and likely very hard work for Mr. Alessi.

Maybe not as shrill as you think. I have some trombones from the teens to twenties and it is remarkably easy to get a dark, full sound on them, even though some have bore sizes in the .450 range. Maybe its the famous "brass alloy that doesn't exist any more" that everyone always talks about in vintage Conn and York tubas.
I think very soon we will see "period" performances of Pryor's music and maybe even later trombone solo literature performed on these smaller instruments.

Louis · Post by **Louis** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 3:26 pm

LV wrote:
Shockwave wrote:Are there any recordings of Arthur Pryor? I've heard a recording of Herbert L. Clarke but not Pryor.

-Eric
Yes!

I wonder when the picture on that album cover is from - it doesn't look like the horn he's holding is the same as the one for sale (unless there are two tuning slides - one high pitch and one low).

Louis

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 4:32 pm

Notice it only says â€œMade for Arthur Pryor by Jake Burke, 1894â€

Louis · Post by **Louis** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 9:56 pm

[quote="windshieldbug"]Notice it only says â€œMade for Arthur Pryor by Jake Burke, 1894â€

windshieldbug · Post by **windshieldbug** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:07 pm

Yes, it's a Conn, 1907, gold, jeweled, purportedly made for Mantia, while he was with Pryor. It's a double-belled baritone as opposed to a double-belled euphonium. And I have less provinence than the trombone. I was just trying to be funny (and not being very successful, it seems)

And the Baritone, like the trombone in the album cover shown in this thread, was built to A=435, not high pitch.