Introduction

The very name ‘brass’ conjures up images of gleaming metal, noble instruments proclaiming fanfares and sending messages through the heat of battle. They are ancient instruments: the trumpet in its purest form ­ a tube of metal with a mouthpiece but no valves ­ dates from the second century BC. As well as adding stirring music to the most formal of ceremonies, brass instruments can also be gently comforting, such as the sound of a brass band playing in a park on a summer’s afternoon.

What the true brass instruments have in common is the way the sound is produced:

• Air is pushed through the player’s lips.

• The lips vibrate inside the cup or funnel-shaped mouthpiece.

• The vibration causes the air in the tube of the instrument to resonate with a distinctive metallic edge.

Vibration of the lips is the key: if you simply blow into a cornet, for example, no musical sound will emerge. The control of the lips ­ the embouchure ­ is the fine art of brass playing, and is why it can prove a tiring occupation, not to mention the amount of lungpower involved.

Whether on a bandstand, in the orchestra or in a funk or jazz brass section, the combination of instruments working together is capable of great variety. An orchestra will frequently feature four French horns, a trio each of trumpets and trombones, with a tuba in the bass register. A brass section, like the Muscle Shoals Horns or James Brown’s Horny Horns, will mix trumpets and trombones with a range of saxes ­ which is one of the reasons that the saxophone appears in this section, despite its mongrel mix of brass body and woodwind reed.

Bugle

Best known in its military guise, the bugle is one of the simplest of brass instruments in terms of construction, but it is very difficult to play. The single tube of metal has no valves to help create different notes, so players have to do all the work by changing their embouchure ­ a combination of the tightness of the lips and the amount of air pushed through them.

Although simple tube trumpets date back to the Roman ‘tuba’, the bugle was a development from circular hunting horns and the usually straight posthorns used by mail-coaches to announce the arrival of the post from the fifteenth century onwards. A coiled horn emerged during the Seven Years’ War of the mid-eighteenth century as an army signalling device. By 1800 the English bugle had stabilised as a single loop of copper or brass with a bell at the front, trumpet-style; following the Crimean War the double-loop form became standard.

Because of the restricted range of notes available, bugles were rarely heard outside the context of the army, although orchestral composers did use them to add a whiff of the battlefield. A keyed bugle was patented in 1810, but was shortly replaced by the cornet and the flugelhorn.

Repertoire
Bugle calls, such as the dignified Last Post, have changed little since the late eighteenth century: Franz von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture opens with a bugle version of an Austrian retreat call. Koenig’s Posthorn Galop Post Boy’s Return offers a rare outing for the posthorn.
 
Related Instruments
Natural trumpets (tubes with no valves) appear in many cultures for signalling, fanfares and ceremonial purposes, including the Tibetan dung chen, the Chilean trutruca and the European alphorn.
 

Cornet

Many people find it difficult to distinguish between the cornet, stalwart of the brass band, and the trumpet, since at first sight the cornet looks like a squat, fat trumpet. Although they share much in common, the essential difference lies in the conical shape of the cornet’s body.

Although it works like a trumpet, the conical bore is more like that of a horn, and as a result the cornet possesses a tone which is sweeter, less piercing and more expressive than the trumpet. A deeper mouthpiece also allows players greater versatility: the cornet is a solo instrument of great agility, handling fast, complex runs with nonchalance.

The cornet emerged in the early 1800s as a valved variation on the German posthorn, and even briefly threatened to drive the trumpet out of the symphonic orchestra (an idea strongly supported by playwright George Bernard Shaw). In the nineteenth century, it emerged in the ranks of the brass bands, but it also proved to be a popular solo instrument in early jazz orchestras. The cornet’s cousin, the flugelhorn, was a valved bugle that likewise never quite achieved symphonic status (although Ralph Vaughan Williams gave it a prominent role in his Ninth Symphony).

Repertoire
Brass-band cornet solos are often arrangements of classical pieces ­ Edward Elgar’s Wand of Youth, or the plaintive largo from Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World; there is a rare classical appearance in Gioaccino Rossini’s William Tell. Early jazz cornet classics include King Oliver’s smouldering ‘Dippermouth Blues’. The flugelhorn’s voice can be heard on Art Farmer’s ‘Tonk’ and Dionne Warwick’s ‘Walk On By’.
 
Related Instruments
The cornet should not be confused with the cornett, a long wooden, often leather-covered tube, played with a brass mouthpiece.
 

French Horn

The circular shape of the horn is a visual guide to its lineage as a technologically advanced descendant of the traditional hunting horn. The French horn ­ the name used in English since the 1600s ­ could more accurately be called the German horn, since that was the true centre of its development.

The distinctive characteristics of the French horn are its constantly growing conical tube ending in a widely flared bell, and a funnel-shaped mouthpiece, both of which contribute to its mellow tone. Much of the history of the horn revolves around players’ attempts to control its tuning, using a hand in the bell to change natural notes by a semitone, or relying on sets of cumbersome crooks until the arrival and acceptance of valves during the nineteenth century.

Even with the use of valves, horn players still rely on stopping the bell with a hand to control tuning, helping to create the horn’s distant-sounding tone. The sheer playing difficulty has resulted in few concertos for the instrument; orchestral composers rely on at least two pairs working in tandem. Applications in jazz or rock music tend to be found less frequently.

Repertoire
The French horn’s hunting precedence is referred to in Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’ movement from The Four Seasons; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4, filled with the scent of the great outdoors, is one of his most bracing works; and sheer power comes from the six horns that play the Jupiter theme in Holst’s The Planets. George Martin introduced the instrument to The Beatles’ ‘For No One’; it also features on the Pretenders’ ‘I Go to Sleep’.
 
Related Instruments
The shofar is the traditional Jewish synagogue horn, a ram’s horn with a straightened end for the mouthpiece. The mellophone was a French horn-like instrument briefly experimented with in jazz.
 

Saxophone Family

Musicologists say, with justification, that the saxophone is a wind instrument because it combines a clarinet mouthpiece and an oboe-like body. But the instrument has always been a slightly uneasy hybrid because of its brass construction ­ and now sits as comfortably in a brass section as the trumpet or trombone.

In the 1840s Adolphe Sax, the prolific Belgian-born, Paris-based instrument maker, was seeking a way to fill a gap between the clarinet and tenor brass instruments. Using recent improvements in woodwind key construction he developed the instrument, including the upturned bell of the bass clarinet, and began supplying it to military bands. Eventually some classical composers saw its potential (Ravel included sax parts in Boléro) but it was the jazz- and dance-band worlds which took it to new heights.

Of the 14 members of the family the most commonly used ­ apart from the Tenor Saxophone ­ are:

• B-flat soprano: usually in its straight version, capable of a strident or other-worldly sound.

• E-flat alto: a creamy tone, often delivered with a soulful feel.

• E-flat baritone: plenty of growling punch in the lower register.

Repertoire
Branford Marsalis’s soprano sax meanders through Sting’s ‘Englishman in New York’; John Coltrane is mesmerising on ‘My Favorite Things’. Charlie Parker did great things with his alto on be-bop classics like ‘Shaw Nuff’; Phil Woods was pure emotion on Billy Joel’s ‘Just the Way You Are’. Baritone player Maceo Parker added the oomph to James Brown’s ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’.
 
Related Instruments
Other saxes include the tiny sopranino and the over-sized bass. The stritch is a straight alto played most notably by Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

 

Sousaphone

A common misconception about the all-American sousaphone is that the instrument was invented from scratch by the March King, John Philip Sousa. In reality Sousa, who was in charge of the US Marine Band in the 1890s, asked Philadelphia instrument makers J. W. Pepper to modify an instrument called the helicon; the company named the final result in his honour.

The helicon was a circular bass tuba created in Vienna in the 1840s; the sousaphone added a detachable bell pointing straight up on early versions, and later in a forward direction. In fact there is no technical need for the bell, now often made of fibreglass: it has a purely decorative role. The player stands inside the circular tubing, which sits coiled like a metal boa constrictor over one shoulder and under the other.

Adjusted and reshaped to improve the ease and convenience of carrying such a heavy bass instrument, the sousaphone is particularly suited for the American marching band. It was also a regular part of Dixieland bands, adding some beef to the bass part in the rhythm section. It is rarely seen in Europe.

Repertoire
The best use of the sousaphone is of course in Sousa marches ­ ‘The Washington Post’ or ‘Stars and Stripes’ ­ but it can also be heard in its jazz role, played by Squire Girsback with trumpeter Bunk Johnson on 1940s tracks such as ‘Ace in the Hole’. The Temperance Seven’s recreation of 1920s jazz also featured the instrument on the 1961 hit ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’.
 
Related Instruments
The serpent, a similarly curvaceous medieval instrument mixing the wood body of a bassoon with a tuba-style mouthpiece, also featured in marching bands and church choirs in the eighteenth century.
 

Tenor Saxophone

The B-flat tenor saxophone is by far the best known of the Saxophone Family. After a sluggish start, where its appearance was limited to military bands, a move indoors ensured that its distinctive timbre would create some of the best popular music of the twentieth century ­ from rock‘n’roll to funk, soul to jazz, for which it became a universal icon. When the tenor sax was adopted by the jazz world it was imbued with the dangerous allure the electric guitar held for a different generation.

A tenor sax can deliver both the emotional immediacy and the lack of precision in tuning and note placing which horrified many classical composers and attracted jazz performers. The mouth’s direct contact with the instrument allows the saxophonist to communicate as if through speech patterns, bringing his or her personality into direct connection with the audience.

The technique of circular breathing ­ where the player breathes in through their nose and out through the mouth and instrument simultaneously, using the cheeks like bellows ­ is challenging but allows long fluid lines of improvisation.

Repertoire
The father of jazz tenor sax, Coleman Hawkins, is magnificent on his 1939 ‘Body And Soul’, while Lester Young is less florid on ‘Shoe Shine Boy’; John Coltrane took up the mantle on ‘So What’. Tenor solo highlights in other popular music forms include King Curtis’s rock‘n’roll honk on the popular Coasters’ single ‘Yakety Yak’. Raphael Ravenscroft’s solo lifted Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’; and Clarence Clemons’ driving and emotional sax on Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’.
 
Related Instruments
The C-melody saxophone is a smaller version of the B-flat tenor which allows players to play in concert pitch without transposing.
 

Trombone

The noble sound of the trombone (although Sir Thomas Beecham dubbed it ‘a quaint and ancient drainage system’) has changed remarkably little since its appearance in the fifteenth century, other than the later addition of a flared bell. It is the only naturally chromatic brass instrument: the slide actually predated the valves trumpeters and horn players use by some four centuries.

Every note on the trombone is played by one of the seven positions of the detachable slide ­ valve trombones do exist, but purists believe it creates a significant loss of tone. The glissando slide up or down the scale is a unique ­ and sometimes deliberately comic ­ effect, but what is perceived of as the trombone’s exaggerated expressiveness has limited the classical solo repertory.

The trombone is available in a range of choral voices, including a soprano version, but by far the most common is the tenor, followed by the bass. A late entrant to orchestral music ­ towards the end of the eighteenth century ­ it forms the heart of orchestral brass. It was quickly adopted by jazz line-ups (even handling the difficulties of be-bop) and has become an essential ingredient in soul, funk and rock horn sections.

Repertoire
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was an early orchestral inclusion; the trombone section also proclaims Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie theme and displays the glissando effect in Stravinsky’s ballet music for Pulcinella. Jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson is moving on ‘Lover Man’, while Frank Sinatra’s ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ features a powerful trombone solo. The instrument has recently had concertos written for it by Iannis Xenakis, Benedict Mason, Toru Takemitsu and Alfred Schnittke. And trombonist Christian Lindbergh includes Sanströt’s Motorbike Concerto in his repertory.
 
Related Instruments
The sackbut is a medieval version of the trombone, maybe of Flemish origin, which derives its name from the Old French ‘saquier-bouter’ (meaning ‘draw out-push’).
 

Trumpet

When Tutankhamen’s tomb was re-opened, two metal trumpets were discovered: proof that the trumpet has, for at least 3,000 years, been an instrument of great pomp. Court trumpeters were held in high esteem through to the 1600s. The instrument experienced a decline in popularity during the Classical era but began to rise again in the twentieth century. The instrument really found its raison d’être, however, with the arrival of jazz.

Common to all trumpets is a cylindrical metal bore, flared at the end. In the same way as other brass instruments, the trumpet’s brilliant flourish is produced through air being vibrated by the player’s embouchure ­ like blowing a raspberry, except putting the tongue behind the front teeth. Until the fifteenth century different notes could only be produced by tightening the embouchure, but thereafter additional loops, crooks, slides and valves were gradually added to the trumpet.

Following various tunings, the B-flat trumpet had become the norm by 1900. The three valves are pushed down to divert the air into separate loops; played in combination they can create every regular note, but high ones are still difficult. A plastic or wooden mute, placed in the bell of the trumpet, technically deadens the sound, but produces a haunting, plaintive sound.

Repertoire
Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary and Rossini’s ‘William Tell’ Overture capture all the power of the trumpet to thrill. That same excitement is apparent in the grandeur of Louis Armstrong’s ‘West End Blues’ and Dizzy Gillespie’s exuberant ‘Groovin’ High’, but compare the ethereal minimalism of Miles Davis’s voice on Sketches of Spain. Leos Janácek deployed nine trumpets and two bass trumpets in his magnificent Sinfonietta.
 
Related Instruments
The bass trumpet was designed especially for use in Wagner’s ‘Ring’ Cycle; the trombone now usually plays its low, mellow part. David Mason’s piccolo trumpet, an octave above the standard, adds brilliance to The Beatles’ ‘Penny Lane’.
 

Tuba

In Roman times the word ‘tuba’ was applied to the trumpet, but now refers to the largest of the brass family. The tuba’s tubby shape and association with the oom-pah band belies the instrument’s potential to create a remarkably light and agile tone in the right hands: Gerard Hoffnung once remarked that when he was practising the tuba the neighbours thought he had an elephant trapped in his bathroom.

A relatively recent invention, first produced in Berlin in the 1820s, the tuba is rather like an outsize bugle or cornet, held upright with its bell pointing straight up. The wide conical bore produces a round, smooth sound which is moderated by anything from three to six valves.

The most frequently used of the tuba instruments is the F tuba, but close relations include:

• The euphonium: tenor tuba, mainstay of brass bands.

• The bass saxhorn: part of another, though less well known, integrated family of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax.

• Wagnerian tuba: a hybrid of tuba and French horn devised by the composer for use in his ‘Ring’ Cycle.

Repertoire
Vaughan Williams wrote his Tuba Concerto at the age of 82: the first major concerto for the instrument, which had previously appeared in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Modest Mussorgsky’s ‘Bydlo’ from Pictures at an Exhibition. Jazz outings include the tuba part for Bill Barber on ‘Buzzard Song’ from the Miles Davis/Gil Evans version of Porgy and Bess.
 
Related Instruments
The tenor horn is a much more slender version of the tuba, used in wind bands. The related ophicleide, looking like a metal bassoon, with keys not valves, was invented in the 1820s and widely played throughout the nineteenth century.
 

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