Approach

Japanese painting from the 18th century

An 18th-century Okinawan scroll preserves a ceremonial procession where Chinese-derived instruments, including the rapa trumpet, marked diplomatic exchange with Japan.

By Fujio Nakayama

Editorial

Between tradition and innovation: brass players must move beyond routine and embrace new musical directions to remain relevant in the music of tomorrow.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Editorial

An international brass congress exposes a deeper tension between global exchange, American influence and the need for musical cultures to preserve their identity.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Editorial

A life that shaped a century: Jean-Pierre Mathez introduces the extraordinary rise of Maurice André—an artist whose brilliance transformed the modern trumpet.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

A woman trombonist, Yvelise Girard

Women and Brass

From Paris conservatories to police bands, a young trombonist confronts isolation, scrutiny and ambition as women slowly enter the brass world.

By Jean Douay

Part 3

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Aurora’s bands, chamber groups and restored instruments show how communal faith, German heritage and American public life met in sound, from parlors to parades.

By Deborah M. Olsen

A Trombone Martyr

Auguste Léonard de la Tuilerie

A Paris apothecary turned trombone evangelist challenges 19th-century musical habits, imagining the slide trombone as the future voice of harmony.

By Benny Sluchin

300 Years of the Horn in Bohemia

An unsigned portrait from the Dresden court links the rise of Bohemian horn playing to the ceremonial world of Baroque hunting culture.

By Kurt Janetzky

Editorial

From cultural codes to personal sincerity, Jean-Pierre Mathez questions how musicians recognise truth across styles, traditions and musical languages.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Yamaha, an ambitious giant

Behind the rise of a future industrial giant lies an unexpected lesson in craftsmanship, cultural exchange and the discipline that reshaped wind instrument making.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Editorial

When careers pause and certainty fades, real progress begins in private, where discipline, friendship and chamber music reshape what it means to be a musician.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

100 Years of Kuhlo's Posaunenchor Book

A century-old brass choir book reveals how revivalist faith, Bach chorales, folk song, and practical notation reshaped church music.

By Wilhelm Ehmann

Yes or no? Beware!

Do we or do we not play transcriptions?

“Transcriptions: yes or no? Beware.” Roger Bobo challenges tubists to rethink repertoire, taste, and tradition in a bold call for musical judgment and artistic freedom.

By Roger Bobo

Montreux 1976 - First international brass congress

Montreux 1976: beyond the spectacle. Between virtuosity, ego, and isolation, Alfred Willener questions the very meaning of the brass world.

By Alfred Willener

Serious Music this Side of the Ghetto

Between Darmstadt serialism and neo-tonality, the place of serious music in society is questioned through Berg, Schönberg and the post-war avant-garde.

By Rolf Urs Ringger

Individuality and Uniformity in Brass Players

As international standards reshape brass playing, musical individuality risks giving way to imitation, leaving tradition, ensemble work and personal conviction at stake.

By Hans-Joachim Drechsler

Editorial

Research shapes music. This editorial highlights key scholars, welcomes new contributors, and calls on readers to support Brass Bulletin’s growing international reach.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Some observation prompted by H. Baumann: Which Horn for which Music

Commentary responding to H. Baumann’s article (BB 3), offering critical observations and contributing to the ongoing debate on horn playing.

By Harold Meek

Special Hungary

The most beautiful instruments of the National and Military Museums

Budapest’s museum collections bring together Roman and Baroque trumpets, ceremonial instruments and military imagery, preserving sounds and symbols across centuries.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Tower-watchmen and night-watchmen in Bohemia

From Hussite suspicion of musicians to tower signals over Bohemian towns, horns and trumpets shaped civic life, danger warnings and ritual memory.

By Vaclav Hoza

Editorial

One magazine disappeared as another opened its pages, turning economic necessity into a rare act of editorial solidarity that reshaped the brass press.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 3

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Between breath, reflex, and attention, Jeffrey Agrell links Zen practice with the physical and mental habits that shape brass playing.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Tuba Editorial

Roger Bobo reflects on orchestral auditions, examining imbalance between candidates and positions and questioning training, selection criteria and prospects for aspiring tubists.

By Roger Bobo

Editorial

A warning from the machine: Jean-Pierre Mathez reflects on Kaufmann’s robot—questioning whether technology is shaping music… or slowly replacing the human artist.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez