wee hours euphonium chit-chat

[Kevin Hendrick]

So wait, when does the chit-chat commence?

When we scrape together enough chit to chat about?

[Donn]

• A euphonium is like a flugel horn - but an octave lower

A baritone is like a cornet - but an octave lower (somewhat conical but mostly cylindrical)

A trombone (or trombonium last picture above) is like a trumpet - but one octave lower.[/list]

That version of brass taxonomy lore seems closer to reality in some respects, but ...

let's look at a cornet,


and a flugelhorn:


In my tradition of conical brass taxonomy lore, the flugel and English baritone are closer to the ancestral saxhorn family, where the euphonium is closer to the bombardon/tuba family.

[Kevin Hendrick]

Plenty of chit in this thread. Why not just skip the chat.

[dwerden]

Of course I would never take a topic to extreme, but a euphonium is not completely conical. First, most are cylindrical as the air passes through the valve block for the right hand (3 or 4, depending... or 5 on my double-bell). Some rotary instruments have a progressive bore, but you don't see them much in this country at least. The valve section passage must be 4" or so. Then, even if the 4th valve is on the side, the bore is cylindrical as it passes through the piston (but usually at a slightly larger size). Add another 1" or so, so we're up to 5 now. Then if there is a main tuning slide, the approx. 4" on each leg is cylindrical- and more so if the slide is pulled. So we're up to around 13" so far. Then if you use a valve the cylindrical span increases by the length of the valve tube's entire run. So add roughly (very roughly) 6" for the 2nd, 12 for the 1st, and so on.

A baritone is also (as mentioned previously) a combination of conical and cylindrical. It starts at a smaller bore than euphonium, although the most recently models are well into the .540's. When compared to the older American-style euphonium at .560 that's getting pretty close! There are many inches of cylindrical tubing, not counting slide pulls and valves.

My double-bell euphonium is a little odd. It uses the same leadpipe and valves (thus bore) through the 4th valve. The 5th valve switches bells. On the large bell it's a euphonium; the taper is maintained throughout except for the tuning slide. But on the small bell, I am pretty sure it is tapered all the way out, but of course to a much lesser degree. (I'll have to get my calipers and check on the taper part of that statement.)

The blog post below contains 3 videos: a baritone, a double-bell, and a euphonium. They are played by me, using the same music, in the same room, with the same recording equipment, so it's a pretty good chance to compare the sounds.

http://www.dwerden.com/forum/entry.php/ ... -Euphonium

[Donn]

A baritone is also (as mentioned previously) a combination of conical and cylindrical. It starts at a smaller bore than euphonium, although the most recently models are well into the .540's. When compared to the older American-style euphonium at .560 that's getting pretty close! There a many inches of tubing, not counting slide pulls and valves, that really are cylindrical.

Looks like this part got mangled - can we get a correction?

[dwerden]

Thanks for proofing my copy! I fixed it up a bit.

[Untersatz]

it's a bloody euphonium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffgk_-ZYN1c" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Hey, wasn't that Mr. Carson (Jim Carter) from Downton Abbey???