November 07, 2006

Variations on the Baritone Horn and the Euphonium
posted by Argh 18 years ago
  • One of my favorite memories of playing in concert band (ok, so at my school the concert band was also the marching band and the pep band...) was when we had this big concert with all the county bands playing together and they had a fancy professional conductor to lead us all. (how do you get that job???) During practice, he was having the different sections play their parts individually and he gets to the euphoniums. "Ok euphoniums, 1-2-3-and...." nothing. no one plays. Finally he says, "baritones, that you!" Apparently none of them knew that the terms are often used interchangeably...
  • Fascinating read! Them "over the shoulder" Civil War horns are particularly cool. I never got much into the brasses. but I played a lot of winds and loved the interchangeability of most of the fingerings. I got to be first oboe in what we called the "flunky orchestra" (the ensemble where we all played our secondary instruments), all because I'd kept up on the recorder fingerings we'd been taught in the second grade. I hung around with horn players, of course, as did all us girls. I hate to buy into stereotypes, but in a music college the brass section of the jazz band really was the only pool of reliably heteresexual men.
  • I take it Kenny G. did not go to your music college.
  • All I want for Christmas in the Tuba Thief; The rotten sneak Stole my horn last week. All I want for Christmas is the Tuba Thief Who stole my tuba on the subway. It seems so long since I could play Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, or Krupa. Gosh, oh gee, how happy I would be If I could only oompah! All I want for Christmas is the Tuba Thief. He must be deef, #%&*@#^% Tuba Thief! Gee, if I could only find the Tuba Thief, Then I could empty out my spit valve!
  • Euphonious, TUM!
  • I hate to buy into stereotypes, but in a music college the brass section of the jazz band really was the only pool of reliably heteresexual men. I take it Kenny G. did not go to your music college. Ummm... is Kenny G a bastion of masculinity? While the saxophone may be made of brass, it is a woodwind (because it has a reed).