Brass Band Instruments
Cornet (Bb) and Cornet (Ess]
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B♭. It is not related to the medieval cornett or cornetto.
The cornet was originally derived from the post horn. Sometimes it is called a cornopean, which refers to the earliest cornets with the Stölzel valve system.
This instrument could not have been developed without the invention of the valves by Stölzel and Blühml. These two instrument makers almost simultaneously invented the modern valves, as still used today. They jointly applied for a patent and were granted this for a period of ten years. The first great player was Jean Baptiste Arban. In the first half of the 19th century he studied cornet at the Conservatoire National in Paris. He started studying the cornopean but quickly changed to the cornet. He was influenced by Niccolò Paganini, the violin virtuoso, and tried to apply his technical virtuosity to brass instruments. The cornet proved to be the perfect vehicle for this. For the next 100 years the trumpet and cornet coexisted in musical ensembles. In symphonic repertoire one will often find separate parts for both trumpet and cornet. As several instrument builders made improvements to both instruments, they started to look and sound more alike. The modern day cornet is used in brass bands, concert bands, wind ensembles, and in specific symphonic repertoire that requires a more mellow sound.
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (also spelled fluegelhorn or flügelhorn) is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax (who also developed the saxophone); however, other historians assert that it stems from the keyed bugle by Michael Saurle (father), Munich 1832 (Royal Bavarian privilege for a "chromatic Flügelhorn" 1832), thus predating Adolphe Sax's innovative work
Alto horn
Known in the U.S. as alto horn or peck horn, in Germany as althorn, and in the UK as tenor horn, this brass instrument pitched in E♭ has a conical bore (gradually widening), and normally uses a deep, cornet-like mouthpiece. It is most commonly used in marching bands, brass bands and similar ensembles, whereas the horn tends to take the corresponding parts in symphonic groupings and classical brass ensembles. In the U.S. and Germany the name tenor horn is identical to baritone horn as well as the Tuba and euphonium. To avoid confusion, the instrument is also occasionally referred to as E♭ horn.
Trombone(+bass)
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone; sound is produced when the player’s buzzing lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. The trombone is usually characterized by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches, although the less common valve trombone uses three valves similar to those on a trumpet.
The word trombone derives from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning large), so a trombone is quite literally a "large trumpet". Trombones and trumpets share the important characteristic of having predominantly cylindrical bores. Therefore, the most frequently encountered trombones — the tenor and bass trombone — are the tenor and bass counterparts of the trumpet.
A person who plays the trombone is referred to as a trombonist. - the rest of the band tend to refer to them as FAR TOO LOUD!!..........sorry my Dad payed trombone
Baritone
Baritone (French: baryton; German: Bariton; Italian: baritono) is most commonly the type of male voice that lies between bass and tenor. Originally from the Greek βαρυτονος, meaning 'deep (or heavy) sounding', music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second A below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. A2-F4) in choral music, and to G above middle C (i.e. A2 - G4) in operatic music, though it can be extended at either end.
Euphonium
The euphonium is a conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "beautiful-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" (eu means "well" or "good" and phonium means "voice"). The euphonium is a valved instrument; nearly all current models are piston valved, though rotary valved models do exist.
A person who plays euphonium is sometimes called a euphoniumist or a euphonist, while British players often colloquially refer to themselves as euphists. Similarly, the instrument itself is sometimes referred to as eupho or euph.
Tuba (Bb) and Tuba (Ess]
The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched of brass instruments. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the ophicleide.
Percussion Instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration. The term usually applies to an object used in a rhythmic context and/or with musical intent.
The word "percussion" has evolved from Latin terms: "percussio" (which translates as "to beat, strike" in the musical sense, rather than the violent action), and "percussus" (which is a noun meaning "a beating"). As a noun in contemporary English it is described at Wiktionary as "the collision of two bodies to produce a sound". The usage of the term is not unique to music but has application in medicine and weaponry, as in percussion cap, but all known and common uses of the word, "percussion", appear to share a similar lineage beginning with the original Latin: "percussus". In a musical context then, the term "percussion instruments" may have been coined originally to describe a family of instruments including drums, rattles, metal plates, or wooden blocks which musicians would beat or strike (as in a collision) to produce sound.
A person who plays percussion is often referred to as un-musical..........sorry, drummers, but I am a drummer - so I am allowed.
