The History of Brasswinds: From Ancient Horns to Modern Instruments

1. The History and Development of Brasswinds Name: Howard Lin(林宏驊) Teacher: Lily Hsu

2. Motivation • In concerts, I see that brasswinds are a large family of instruments, and I have also joined the school band in junior high school and played trombone, which is ones of the brasswinds. So I wanted to organize a collective history of brasswinds.

3. Purposes • 1. The relationship among the brasswinds. • 2. The reason why simple instruments have developed into more complicated ones. • 3. A reader guide easy for people to look up the entire story, the history of single instruments and instruments at a particular time.

4. Preface • In ancient times, creative children played, and they had invented many not so practical but fun things, including instruments. They used what they knew and saw and played it. In the musical instrument family, brasswinds are a large and old family. So here I am going to introduce the history and development of them.

5. Term Explanations • Bore type: Conical bore: tubing is tapered from mouthpiece shank to bell. Cylindrical bore: the sides of the tubing, excepting in the bell and lead pipe, are parallel to each other. • Bell: the large opening at the front or on the top of the brasswinds. • Mouthpiece: the smooth, round opening at the small end of the horn. Cup mouthpiece Funnel-type mouthpiece • Natural instruments: they only have one tube and don’t have any valves, keys or slides.

6. Ancient Times from messenger to instrument the first horn Animal’s horn horn trumpet bugle trumpet (natural, straight)--1352 natural horn (omitted) Artificial trumpet (bended) --1400’s post horn, etc. Bending Slide sackbut –1450’s (alto, bass, contrabass) --1700’s

7. The First Horn • Animal horns: In ancient times, brasswinds were simply a horn of cows, goats or other animals. People blow it from the small end to make very loud noises that could carry far away.

8. Artificial Horns • Smelting techniques allow people to make artificial ones. Because brass was soon widely used, the instruments were called brasswinds. • The earliest example was the natural trumpet in the tomb of Egypt king Tutankhamun (date from 1352 B.C.)

9. The Tube Is Bent • Because the instruments were too long to carry, people bent it into a circle or other shapes, so they’re easy to carry and still have their length. ↑Post horn ←Baroque trumpet

10. The Three Families when brasswind family grew large • This is an important part of ancient brasswinds. Because of the technique of bending tubing, many types of instruments came out and set the basis of later brasswinds.

11. Trumpet • Cup mouthpiece • Cylindrical bore, • forward-facing configuration • blaring tone. • Ancestor: the natural trumpet

12. Trumpet-1 • 1. Trumpet • Early 1400’s, the tubing was bended. • Used for the announcement of some important people coming. • Decorated with some carving and flags.

13. Trumpet-2 • 2. Sackbut • Middle 1400 • Added a sliding tube on it, called “sackbut”. There was tenor ones. • In the 1700’s, alto, bass and contrabass came out. It was the forerunner of trombone.

14. Horn • Funnel-type mouthpiece • Conical bore • Circular configuration • Pleasing tone. • Simply a circular tube, a mouthpiece and a bell, called “natural horn.”

15. Bugle • Deep cup mouthpiece • Conical bore • Forward facing configuration • More pleasing tone than trumpet • Easy to carry, becoming a military instrument.

16. Keys and Valve’ s World The turning point of ancient and modern • Reason: music became the usage, and people needed more playable instruments • Result: moderate the brasswinds

17. Techniques-1 • 1. Keys: • 1810 • Joseph Halliday • named it “Kent horn” or “Royal Kent”

18. Techniques-2 • 2. Rotors: • Two inventors, Bluhmel and Stoezel, added this design to a horn in 1818. (right, valved horn) The way rotor works

19. Techniques-3 • 3. Pistons • Wilhelm Wieprecht • simpler than the rotor design, become used commonly on most brasswinds

20. Trumpet-1 • 1. Trumpet: • early 1800s • Germans • Usually with three valves. • High scale, bright tone

21. Trumpet-2 • 2. Trombone: • 1800’s • wider bell ,louder sound, became trombone. • A complete family: soprano, alto, bass, tenor and contrabass.

22. Horn & Bugle-1 • 1. Cornet: • Cornet ordinaire • France, 1828 • Halary • added valves to the circular Posthorn, • Cornopean • Few years later, • a bell-forward instrument of more flattened proportions • called the “cornet-a-pistons,” or known as the “cornopean(right).”

23. Horn & Bugle-1 • Cornet: • The original ones had the pistons on the far right, and the second farther because of the length of third finger.

24. Horn & Bugle-2 • 2. Saxhorn: • the biggest family in the 1800’s. • 1840 to 1844, Adolphe Sax • Configurations: • the helical design: bell upraised at approximately a 45 degree angle. • Sax controlled most of the instrument production. • Saxhorn family grew large, but also limited the development of horn brasswinds.

25. Horn & Bugle-3 • 3. Flugelhorn: • Flugel means flank, part of army or hunting group. • Originally used in hunting. • Actually a bugle, now it’s a keyed bugle. • Flugelhorn gained valves, not keys.

26. Brasswinds Nowadays the end of Sax empire • Reason: 1855 Sax lost a lawsuit filed by Antoine Courtois and the right of producing saxhorns and some other instruments. • Result: Before, Saxhorns were a large family and an independent system. But when this system was destroyed, brasswinds can develop into more types and kinds.

27. Brasswinds Nowadays

28. Trumpet-1 • 1. Trumpet: • Not impacted by the inventions in the horn family, so it was similar to it was. • Also four or more pistons trumpet to increase the range, but the three-piston-trumpet is still the most widely used.

29. Trumpet-2 • 2. Trombone: • The entire family were mostly replaced by valve instruments. • Tenor and contrabass trombones: in symphony orchestras. • The sopranos: in trombone bands. • Some gained “triggers”, or valves, like the contrabass one in the picture.

30. Horn & Bugle-1 • 1. Cornet: • Courtois • pistons in the middle , shepherd’s crook at the beginning of the bell tube. • The shepherd crook(left square) has nothing to do with the sound but to shorten the length of the tubing.

31. Horn & Bugle-2 • 2. Baritone: • Tenor Saxhorn. • Courtois first manufactured it.

32. Horn & Bugle-3 • 3. Mellophone: • after winning the lawsuit • Courtois • Koeing horn: circular, the pistons on the right side. • Developed from cornopean, or cornet-a-pistons. • 1868, Boosey & Co, later called Ballad horn. A bass instrument made by Boosey & Co. • Earliest example called mellophone: 1881, a copy of Ballad horn.

33. Horn & Bugle-4 • 4. French horn: • Actually a horn. • Circular shape. • Rotors are placed on the left side • Player puts the right hand in the bell to create a mellow sound. • Usually a double horn, with one more rotor to change the key.

34. Tuba • Because tubas are instruments that can play low pitch, they are just invented and aren’t much related to others, but most of them are valved brasswinds. They will be introduced here.

35. Tuba-1 • 1. Serpent: • 1590. • Edme Guillaume ,France • Mostly made of wood ,covered with leather. • used to support the bottom part in church. • Made like a snake to shorten the length. • Anaconda, the largest one. • 1840

36. Tuba-2 • 2. Ophicleide: • 1821. • Halliday • A bass “Kent horn”

37. Tuba-3 • 3. The first instrument called tuba: • 1835. • Wilhelm Wieprecht ,Johann Gottfried Moritz • Conical bore • Wider tube • Deeper mouthpiece • Related to “cornet a pistons”

38. Tuba-4 • 4. Euphonium: • 1845 • Sommers of Weimar • A great range.

39. Tuba-5 • 5. Helicon • around 1845 ,Russia • could be carried on shoulder for marching band. • Sousaphone: • 1893, J. W. Pepper first manufactured Sousaphone • 1898, C. G. Conn

40. The End Thank you for listening