Brass instruments

Brass instruments are a family of breath-powered instruments commonly used in bands and orchestras. While modern brass instruments are made entirely of brass, ancient instruments were made of horn, wood, shells, and many other materials.

The loud sound produced by brass instruments comes from the amplification of the musician's lips and breath. The pitch and tone of the sound are modified through internal mechanisms that change the distance the sound travels before it reaches the bell at the end of the instrument.

Background

The earliest brass instruments were hollowed out conch shells and animal horns. They were played in the same manner as modern brass instruments but were capable of playing far fewer notes. In their earliest incarnations, conches and horns were probably not used for musical accompaniment. Instead, the loud, deep sound they created was used in religious ceremonies and military signaling tactics. Skilled players could make a series of sounds loud enough to be heard across a city or busy battlefield.

Over time, ancient peoples began to carve similar structures out of wood. These were the first manmade brass instruments. They could be made to be larger than natural animal horns and thus made a louder sound when blown. Artisans in the Roman Empire took this idea further, creating similar horns out of bronze and silver. These large instruments were primarily used to make various signals during battles.

Horns were first played as a musical accompaniment during the early Renaissance. Multiple trumpets were played together to announce the arrival of nobility at court, formal dinners, and other important occasions in an extravagant fashion. Smaller, more compact metal horns were also developed for hunting purposes. Artisans realized that if they curved the horn's tubing, they could retain the volume of a longer horn while making the horn compact and easier to transport.

Though it was previously thought that brass bands originated in northern industrial communities of England and Wales during the mid-nineteenth century, research by Dr. Eamonn O’Keeffe of Cambridge University revealed that Britain’s earliest brass bands were formed by military musicians returning from the Napoleonic Wars in the 1810s. His findings, published in The Historical Journal, show that regimental bands were the first to adopt all-brass ensembles, which later spread throughout Britain.

Overview

Brass instruments produce sound in a manner similar to that of woodwinds. The musician places his or her lips on a specially crafted mouthpiece and blows in a particular manner. In a woodwind, sound is produced by a vibrating reed. However, in a brass instrument, the vibrations of the musician's lips are amplified.

Brass instrument mouthpieces are specially crafted for each type of brass instrument. They direct the air into the instrument in a precise manner. The vibrating air travels through the instrument's pipes, resonating and reverberating. It then leaves the instrument through the bell, a widened opening at the end of the instrument. The bell helps amplify the sound and slightly modifies the instrument's tone.

Simple brass instruments produce a very limited number of notes. To rectify this, brass musicians add valves to their instruments. Valves are special, raised locations on a brass instrument. When compressed, they alter the path of sound through the instrument. The altered path creates a different pitch, allowing brass musicians to play all the notes on a chromatic scale.

Many instruments belong to the brass family. The highest-pitched of these are cornets and trumpets. They are used in a variety of types of music, including orchestral, jazz, swing, and pop. Trumpets and cornets are small and light enough for the musician to easily carry them. Flugelhorns are similar to trumpets in size, shape, and sound. However, the bell at the end of the instrument is shaped differently. This gives flugelhorns a fuller sound than the traditional trumpet.

Traditional brass horns are lower in pitch than trumpets, cornets, and flugelhorns. They include the tenor horn, French horn, and baritone. The tenor horn, also known as the alto horn or Eb horn, has a much larger bell than a trumpet. This gives the instrument a particularly bright sound.

The French horn is a popular, uniquely shaped brass instrument. It features more than eighteen feet of piping coiled into a circular shape and ending in a wide, flat bell. French horns are capable of hitting notes in more than four octaves. They are known for their musical versatility, as well as the warm sound they produce. The baritone is oblong-shaped like a tenor horn and plays a full octave lower than the trumpet. It is most commonly used in large brass bands.

Trombones are large, elongated brass instruments that play a lower range than horns. They are the only modern brass instruments that do not utilize valves. Instead, the instrument itself can be extended to greater lengths. The mechanism that allows this is called a slide. A musician playing a trombone extends the slide to change pitch, lengthening the distance that air travels through the instrument before reaching the bell, thus changing the note played.

Trombones come in two sizes: large bore, meaning larger diameter pipes, and small bore, smaller diameter pipes. Large bore trombones are normally used in orchestras. They are prized for their high-quality projection and loud volume, allowing them to be heard over other instruments without additional amplification. Small bore trombones are used for jazz and pop music. They have a brighter sound than their larger counterparts.

The tuba has the lowest pitch out of the entire brass family. It is also the largest and heaviest family member, containing more than thirteen feet of very wide tubes. Tubas are versatile instruments and usually play the bass line in a brass band. They are also used in orchestral works, big bands, and marching bands.

The most common place to see an entire brass ensemble is in an orchestra. Many orchestras utilize trumpet sections, French horns, trombones, and tubas. The tuba provides a powerful low-end bass line for the piece, while the trumpets and other horns work together to play accompaniments or leads.

Bibliography

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