Society

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

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

Editorial

Virtuosity is framed less as method than perception, opposing formula-driven teaching and pointing to attentive listening as the ground for technical clarity and artistic control

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

The Audition System

Why American Musicians Emigrate?

Behind orchestral vacancies in North America, travel costs, subjective selection and hidden hiring practices help explain a growing flow of musicians abroad.

By David P. Searfoss

The Minute counter!

By Thomas Stevens

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

Brass in British culture - is it extinct?

By David Gordon Shute, John Wallace

Listening

Musical listening begins where judgment ends, as Jeffrey Agrell questions habits of criticism, recordings and expectation that shape every performance.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Working with the Posaunenchor

From Württemberg youth groups to mass brass gatherings in Ulm, a community tradition links faith, education and amateur brass playing across generations.

By Max Sommerhalder

Salvation Army in Japan

Western-style brass music entered a once-isolated Japan through unexpected channels, with Salvation Army bands becoming part of a remarkable cultural transformation.

By Taku Satoh

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

Beyond technique and instruction, musical growth depends on trusted relationships, where friendship becomes both a measure of progress and a safeguard against isolation.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 1

Classical music: Why bother?

By Joshua Fineberg

Editorial

At the dawn of the 1980s, Brass Bulletin challenges institutional habits, avant-garde rigidity and brass pedagies through a direct appeal to younger musicians.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

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

Wynton Marsalis

Interview

At 26, Wynton Marsalis confronts jazz education, popular culture and artistic integrity with convictions as uncompromising as his approach to the trumpet.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

What's your proper job?

A social portrait of the British brass player

Four British brass players confront a profession transformed by orchestras, freelance work, social prejudice and the shrinking certainties of musical life.

By Thomas Aitken

Part 2

Sampling? A hard rality !

By Thomas Stevens

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

As costs rose and ambitions grew, an editorial from 1983 captures the fragile balance between sustaining an international brass journal and preserving its vision.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

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