a fluegelhorn is probably not a fluegelhorn, and vice versa

November 24, 2021 10:09 AM

Hey, why not read up on brass history with Greg, on Greg's Brass History Page.
posted by cortex (15 comments total)

and the serpent
posted by clew at 10:15 AM on November 24, 2021

An odd coincidence that this should be posted the very morning after I find out that a precursor instrument to the trombone is called the sackbutt, which pleased me greatly.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:18 AM on November 24, 2021 [3 favorites]

“Never look at the trombones...it only encourages them.”

heh
posted by Thorzdad at 10:25 AM on November 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

OMG, the olde webbe. Many of the links from Greg's site go to similar cenozoic sites. How I miss that age.
posted by maxwelton at 10:37 AM on November 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Trombones rule. Warm, analog tones, not like those digital valved abominations.
posted by skyscraper at 3:53 PM on November 24, 2021 [7 favorites]

That said, these all look like a blast to play. The fellow with the Ophicleide looks as if he has entered an altered state of mind through pushing that much air through that thing.
posted by skyscraper at 4:01 PM on November 24, 2021

I love this--thanks for posting it! I've never played any of the brass instruments (I was more of a woodwind person), but I love to learn about them and especially to look at them: so handsome, so fancy, so shiny and twisty.
posted by theatro at 5:40 PM on November 24, 2021

I know my truth.
posted by Muted Flugelhorn at 8:30 PM on November 24, 2021 [9 favorites]

As an erstwhile wielder of the soprano tuba, this is relevant to me.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:43 PM on November 24, 2021

OMG, the olde webbe. Many of the links from Greg's site go to similar cenozoic sites. How I miss that age.

The trombone page mentioned a particularly enticing one, so I went down a rabbit hole to find it in the Wayback Machine. Here you go: the Soprano Trombone Swindle
posted by intermod at 6:23 AM on November 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

My father was a classical musician and occasionally had to play the smaller F Wagner tuba. As a tween/teenager I never missed a chance to play it when he brought it home, such a soothing, mellow sound.
posted by SNACKeR at 7:25 AM on November 25, 2021

I played tuba in high school. Main thing I still remember is the shoulder pain from lugging the fucker all the way up the hill every time I took it home for practice.

They can sound very good though, especially once you realize there's more to them than the oom-pa-pa the school band expects you to play and find their upper registers. Very french horn kind of tone available up there.

Also I'm still not quite sure why the school bandmaster complained that I was making mine sound like a bass guitar.
posted by flabdablet at 10:36 AM on November 25, 2021

I'm not sure if there is a 6-valve trombone rabbit-hole as such, but if you are currently sitting there, as well you might be, unable to stop thinking about the 6-valve trombone (and possibly also giggling uncontrollably), here is a delightful video of someone playing one and explaining how it works, for certain values of 'works'...
posted by motty at 3:09 PM on November 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

for certain values of 'works'...

I'm trying and failing to get the point of such a bizarre, cumbersome, and apparently near-unplayable instrument. Why on earth did anyone go so far as to invent it??
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:33 PM on November 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

That said, these all look like a blast to play. The fellow with the Ophicleide looks as if he has entered an altered state of mind through pushing that much air through that thing.

That's an Eb contrabass and there are something like two working versions in the world right now. Here's a video of somebody playing one of them.

The C and Bb ones are smaller and more commonly available these days and I can confirm they are indeed fun to play, but difficult to play well. Here are some folks playing them well: Classical Handel and a slightly more lively Brazilian piece.

There's a whole family of these things with the alto Eb versions called quinticlaves. Here's a sample.

The soprano member of the family is the clavitube but the working ones probably only exist in museums and private collections. However, they were based on the keyed bugle and probably have a similar sound. Here's a sample of someone playing a Eb keyed bugle. This sounds suspiciously like a cornetto but, surprisingly, it's not a direct parent of these instruments because they fell out of use well before the keyed bugle/ophicleides were invented.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 8:00 PM on November 27, 2021