Equipment
167 articles
Ovoid? About valves...
By Denis Wedgewood
Free
Piston or rotary valve system?
Pistons or rotary valves: which system is superior? Simplicity and silence vs mechanical complexity—an ongoing debate among brass players.
By Robert Ischer
The rise and fall of the Altrichter instrument maker
By Fred Winter
Service to customers
Buying is easy—servicing is not. Robert Ischer exposes the hidden crisis of spare parts and aftercare, urging musicians to demand real accountability from makers.
By Robert Ischer
Max & Heinrich Thein
brass instrument makers from Bremen
By Jean-Pierre Mathez
From a Designer’s Diary
By Denis Wedgewood
Member
Part 3
The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music
The pluralism of the so-called “modern” forms (1945 to the present)
Bebop, Miles Davis and the rise of the flugelhorn mark a postwar jazz landscape in which trumpet playing splintered into competing sounds and ideals.
By Michel Laplace
Henri Selmer Paris
By Jean-Pierre Mathez
Brass instruments in the Museo de la Musica in Barcelona
By Beryl Kenyon De Pascual
Mutes for brass instruments
By Benny Sluchin, René Caussée
The early 19th-century invention-posthorn
By Albert Hiller
U.S.A. Profile
Bob Malone
By Thomas Stevens
Stellio Calvetti - Clever Inventor
By Stefano Viola
Member
The trombone with 6 independent valves
Technical analysis of the trombone with six independent valves, examining its mechanics, extended range and potential for new repertoire.
By Edmond Leloir
Andreas Jungwirth - Maker of Horns the traditional way
By Jeremy Mathez
Free
The double-slide trombone
museum-piece with a future?
As virtuosity reshaped 20th-century brass playing, Boris G. Manzora argued that the forgotten double-slide trombone could redefine technique and range.
By Boris G. Manzora
Free
Alto Trombone - New Modell
A forgotten solution to Baroque virtuosity meets modern orchestral demands, where historical ideals and practical performance no longer follow the same path.
By Heinrich Thein, Max Thein
Part 1
Tubes - Tritones - Theses
By Patrice Sciortino
Reflections on the horn
Francis Orval reflects on horn playing, discussing tone production, breathing and the influence of French and German traditions on sound and style.
By Francis Orval
Free
A modern corno da caccia
Bach’s highest horn parts expose a divide between historical sound and modern technique, prompting Friedbert Syhre and Ludwig Güttler to rethink the instrument itself.
By Werner Wolf
Member
On hunting horns and other similar instruments
From Pierre Trichet’s Traité des Instruments de Musique (c. 1640)
Hunting horns, buccinae and cornets blur into one another as Trichet links ancient signals, shepherds, hunters and myth to the instruments of his own age.
By Pierre Trichet
Importing brass instruments into Europe
By Jean-Pierre Mathez
Member
Part 4
On the early history of valves and valve instruments in Germany (1814-1833)
Poverty, patents and workshop rivalries shaped the first German valve instruments, from Blühmel and Stoelzel to the Vienna and Mainz systems.
By Herbert Heyde