Oberkrainer Bariton solo

[imperialbari]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=Ls_25XYq63o

In my ears the style is very American in the harmonization. That is all fine, but the many seeing it as Austro-Slovenian folk music hardly get the whole picture.

Klaus

[jacobg]

Why did they move from the oval shaped horns to the bell front piston horns?

[Jay Bertolet]

Honestly, I can't really tell what style sound the player has (great technique though!) because of the recording process. I do not put any stock in the sound I hear on recorded tracks. That is so susceptible to electronic manipulation that there is absolutely no way to determine what the guy really sounds like unless you go hear him live. That said, I can see the overall characterization of the musical style as Austro-Slovenian in quality. To my ears, it does sound that way. Perhaps the harmonic complexity you're hearing is derived from the Slovenian part of that equation, as such harmonic complexity is commonplace in that style of music. I definitely would not characterize this style as American in any way. Our folk music just doesn't sound like that at all.

[Bob Kolada]

Why did they move from the oval shaped horns to the bell front piston horns?

I don't know, but the music shop my buddy works at got a call from some guy in Europe asking for a price on 12 King 2266's (he had to ask me what the model number is ). Who the hell wants three pallets of baritones?

[imperialbari]

The American history of making brass instruments shows great influences from two main European schools, the German-Czech and the French-British. But there were influences the other way round also. String action for rotors is an American invention, and when I was young orchestral brass players played Vincent Bach trumpets and trombones almost exclusively.

Just to illustrate that even if the emigration-immigration pattern was large a oneway affair influences went both ways.

When I hear Americans play what they think is German beer band music, I clearly hear it as American. The German playing of that music may be less smooth or elegant, but it is more authentic. I once heard a dance band allegedly playing Polish style from a dance event in a Polish community in Chicago. Sounded American to me, even if the tunes had Polish roots.

The English Wiki relates the Oberkrainer style to the Cleveland-Style:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavko_Avsenik

The German Wiki tells that the original Oberkrainer band was not considered belonging neither to the Austrian Ländler music nor to Slovenian folk music, when playing their own compositions. Their harmony is described a jazz influenced, which is ascribed to their guitar player having been a jazz musician:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavko_Avsenik

Part of the exchange between immigrants in the US and their home countries was about American instruments surfacing in Europe. The first sousaphone I saw in 1961 was a gift from Danes in the US to a boy in another band in the organization my band belonged to. The Oberkrainer style found US bell front instruments were better bass line carriers than their lighter sounding oval equivalents. European makers now make insanely expensive bell front baritones, but there still is a lot of prestige connected to the American models.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=vwLdjv5Ml5M

Slavko's biggest hit was as early as in 1954. Here in a much later playback version. Here the sound is very European.

The baritone could be a King, not played very virtuosic, but very well musically. That line could have been played on a small F tuba.

Klaus