Gye Greene's Thoughts

Gye Greene's Thoughts (w/ apologies to The Smithereens and their similarly-titled album!)

Saturday, November 10, 2007

A lotta brass

So, we were running errands today -- as we do most Saturdays -- and at Big W (like Target or K-Mart) there was a Salvation Army brass quintet, playing Christmas carols.

(Yeah, it seems a little early for Christmas carols. But the Christmas decorations are already up in the stores. Could be 'cause Aussies don't have Thanksgiving to space things out a bit.)

I recognized two of the instruments as being a coronet and a trombone -- both of which I own. And I was pretty sure the biggest one was a tuba (pictured above left). But I had to ask the guys what the other two were.

One was a euphonium. Almost as low as a tuba. Pictured below.


The other was a flugelhorn. Had less loops than the coronet, and thus is geared for the higher pitches. And indeed, it tended to play busy countermelodies over the coronet's main lines. (However, a Wikipedia search indicates it's actually pitched the same as a trumpet and coronet...) Pictured below.


According to a quick Wikipedia search, the three instruments pictured are conical-bore instruments, which means that the diameter of the tubing gradually gets wider as the tube progresses towards the bell. In contrast, the trumpet and the trombone (again, which are what I own) are cylindrical-bore. The difference in the bore impacts the tone: conical-bore instruments have a softer, warmer, gentler tone, whereas the cylindrical-bore instruments have a brighter (potentially harsher) tone.


So: Three more instruments that I need. Of course.

But not this week.


--GG

2 Comments:

At November 12, 2007 5:44 PM, Blogger slag said...

Don't worry--you'll have it all someday. You'll just need 6 houses to hold it. Speaking of houses...pics?

FYI-Xmas stuff is already up every where around here too. Apparently, we just skip Thanksgiving now.

 
At November 13, 2007 3:16 PM, Blogger Charlotte said...

I think that tubas are beautiful. A few houses up from mine is the Tuba Exchange.

Maybe I'll go up there and take some photos.

 

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