Brass choir and chamber brass band

[Chuck(G)]

I don't think that there's a standard composition for brass choir like there is for brass band. A scan over the London Brass "Just Brass" literature seems to have varying numbers of instruments.

[quinterbourne]

The instrumentation of 4 trumpets, french horn, 4 trombones and tuba was made popular by Philip Jones.

[scottw]

What is the instrumentation for a brass choir? How popular are these?


My brass band is going to be doing a 10piece group next spring, it's supposedly the standard size chamber group for a brass band. What's the group for this?
My guess-
4 cornets (maybe Eb and flugel too)
1 tenor horn
1 baritone
1 euphonium
2 trombones
1 tuba
Any percussion?

Good luck finding music! There are many sources(of varying degrees of good!) but they are not at all standard to what you may have. E.g., there are some 11 pc, some 10 pc, 14, 16, with and w/o perc, etc. when you do find something good, you will likely not be able to use it due to instrumentation issues. I play in a 16 pc brass ensemble: 4-3-4-1-2 + 2 percussion and finding good material is a real mess. Better if you just write/arrange your own!

[ufoneum]

While most brass ensembles vary, you will find most music having around this instrumentation:

3 (or 4) trumpet parts
2 horn parts
2 (or 3) trombone parts
1 euphonium (might be trombone 2 part)
1 tuba (not always there, though)

Some have percussion, some don't. Like stated before - there is no standard instrumentation. The nice thing about brass choir is that you can have 12 players, or 24 players - or some combination. You don't necessarily have to have only one on a part! Hope this helps!

- Pat Stuckemeyer

[NickJones]

The Howard Snell Brass group recorded many of howard's arrangements for 10 piece brass , all of which are the 10 piece in the original post ( brass band instrumentation ) the players if I can remember were Martin Winter( picc, trumpet , cornet), tracy redfern ( cornet),Russell Gray( cornet) , Alan Morrison( cornet and flug) , Bob Fultcher ( tenor horn ) , Nick Childs ( Euph),Jonny Webster ( Baritone) Mark Frost (bass trom), Nick Hudson ( trom) , Thomas Wyss ( Tuba). I could be wrong with a couple of the players....
the arrangements are fantastic and very tricky one of the 1st HSBrass cd's have the following listings
1 i Les Soirees Musicales - Fanfare - Howard Snell Brass (Rossini / Snell) [16.40]
1 ii Caress for my Wife
1 iii Bolero - Soloist: Nicholas Childs
1 iv An Aristocratic Tarantella
2 i Symphony No 4 in G - Allegro - Howard Snell Brass (Boyce / Snell) [6.51]
2 ii Vivace ma troppo
2 iii Gavot
3 Syrinx - Howard Snell Brass - Trumpet: Martin Winter (Dedussy / trans. Snell) [3.33]
4 i Divertimento - Fanfare - Howard Snell Brass (Philip Sparke) [14.58]
4 ii Overture
4 iii Waltz
4 iv Lament
4 v Finals
4 vi Fanfare
5 i An Irving Berlin Suite - Anything You Can Do - Howard Snell Brass (Snell) [12.12]
5 ii A Pretty Girl is Like A Melody - Soloist: Alan Morrison
5 iii It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow - Soloist: Martin Winter
5 iv Putting on the Ritz
6 i Mother Goose - Sleeping Beauty - Howard Snell Brass (Ravel / Sparke) [15.40]
6 ii Tom Thumb
6 iii Empress of the Pagodas
6 iv Beauty and The Beast
6 v The Fairy Garden
I am sure they are available from your local music supplier and from Kirklees publications ( www.kirkleesmusic.co.uk )

[tubiker]

There's a distinction between Orchestral Brass type arrangements i.e. the Philip Jones Just Brass arrangements - and slimmed down Brass Band arrangements.

Looks like you're looking for the Brass Band type.

Nick's post points towards the Snell arrangements - after that look at the U.K. Brass Band publishers - Wright and Round, Kirklees, Studio etc. The Continental publishers - De Haske, Bernaerts do slimmed down Pop/Light Rock numbers

Andrew M

[miketuba]

Warning - shameless self promotion

I've published through my small independent company close to 100 charts for brass ensemble with instrumentation of

4 trumpets
2 horns
3 trombones
euphonium
tuba

I'd be happy to share the rationale for this instrumentation if anyone is interested.

Many of these charts have been recorded by the Boulder Brass, the Burning River Brass, and the New York Big Brass. These arrangements are available directly from me or from Hickey's, Robert King, and Solid Brass.

In addition to this, you can hear slightly larger orchestrations I've done for the Summit Brass on the Live CD and Toccata and Fugue. Canadian Brass is getting ready to release a new CD with 4 double quintets that I arranged for them.

Also, there is a new group out of Dallas that is a brass septet (3 trumpets, horn, euphonium and tuba) - I've arranged about 25 charts for them so far with another 20 or so on the drawing board. I like writing for this combination a lot and the feedback from the guys down there has been very favorable. FYI Brian Bowman plays with this group.

PM if you would like a list of available charts.

Cheers