III
Wind-Instruments of Brass
THE HORN
The brass choir is composed of horns, trumpets, and trombones, with the addition in most modern scores of a contra-bass tuba. Wagner has used also bass trumpets and tenor tubas to enrich the color of this part of his orchestra. The horn, or French horn, as it is often called, is the old hunting horn adapted to orchestral purposes. It is an extremely valuable instrument, because it has a most noble and expressive tone, which makes it very interesting as a solo voice, and equally because it blends admirably with either strings or wood, as well as with brass. In the older compositions the reader will find that two horns were used, but it is customary with modern composers to employ four, thus making a full four-part harmony possible. Wagner generally doubles his horn parts, requiring eight instruments.
It was impossible in earlier times to play in all keys on any one horn, and so horns in various keys had to be used. The reader will find that many scores call for horns in D, in E flat, in B flat, etc. Players now use almost exclusively the horn in F, with valves, upon which it is possible to play in all keys. It is customary with many composers, however, to write horn parts in various keys, and the players have to transpose them. As no opera is more familiar than “Faust,” the reader may readily identify the horn as a solo instrument in the first act when Mephistopheles shows Faust the vision of Marguerite.
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In Wagner’s “Siegfried” the horn plays all the passages which the young hero is supposed to intone on his hunting horn. The quartet of horns employed in the modern orchestra is frequently heard alone, and the effect of this full harmony of mellow brass is incomparably fine. Such effects are heard in the hunting fanfare which precedes the entrance of the Landgrave and his party in Act I. of “Tannhäuser,” and in the echoing through the woods of the departing hunt in the beginning of Act II. of “Tristan und Isolde.” It must not be supposed, however, that horn quartets are used only for hunting effects. One has only to recall the beautiful passage in Saint-Säen’s “Phäeton.”
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Stopped tones are frequently given to the horns. These are produced by inserting the hand in the bell of the instrument, where it has an effect not unlike that of a sordine on a violin-string. The quality of stopped tones is nasal and stertorous. They are used with much significance in dramatic music.
THE TRUMPET
This fine instrument, the soprano of the brass choir, is too often replaced by the cornet. Indeed, in the United States I have heard trumpets only in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Walter Damrosch’s orchestra. The trumpet has a full, round, brilliant tone, for which that of the blatant and brassy cornet is not a good substitute. But it is much easier to get good cornet-players than good trumpeters, so the cornet is quite common. The pealing, militant character of the trumpet is always associated in the mind with that of the army bugle, which it closely resembles. The trumpets are usually employed in chords written for the brass, or in the big mass effects of the orchestra. They are seldom called upon to intone a melody except in passages in which the brass plays alone, or when a very brilliant and forcible orchestration is used. The instrument is so familiar that no illustration is necessary. Trumpets in various keys were formerly always employed, but it is now customary to use chiefly the F trumpet, with valves. Cornets employed in the orchestra are in A and B flat. There is a high cornet in E flat, but it is used only in military bands. Stopped tones are easily produced from the cornet or trumpet, and are often used for comic effects. They sound much like the voice of a person singing in a falsetto voice through his nose. Trumpets and cornets are generally used in pairs in the orchestra.
THE TROMBONE
The trombone is one of the noblest of all orchestral instruments. When it sounds ignoble, it is either because its part is not well written or because it is badly played. In respect of register there are three principal kinds of trombones—alto, tenor, and bass. The alto has a compass extending from A at the bottom of the bass clef to the E flat in the top space of the treble clef. The tenor ranges from E below the bass clef to the B flat in the middle of the treble clef, and this is the instrument most frequently employed. The bass trombone’s register runs from B below the bass to the F in the first space of the treble clef. The alto trombone is in E flat, the tenor in B flat, and the bass in F. There is also a contra-bass trombone in B flat, sounding an octave lower than the tenor trombone. It is very fatiguing to play, and is usually replaced by the tuba, whose tone is of a considerably different character. Although all these trombones stand in keys other than C, they are not treated as transposing, but are written in the key of the composition.
The tone of the trombone is grave and majestic, but it may be made to rage hoarsely. In all solemn or broadly dignified music trombones play a conspicuous part. It is customary to write in three parts for these instruments, but when necessary they may be made to play in unison, as in the proclamation of the pilgrims’ chorus in the overture to “Tannhäuser,” or the curse motive in various parts of the Nibelung series. A fine example of the employment of trombones in several parts is to be found in the first act of “Die Walküre” on the first appearance of the “Walhalla” motive.
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THE TUBA
The tuba is a deep-toned brass instrument of double-bass quality. It is, in fact, the double-bass of the brass choir. Its quality of tone is noble and blends well with that of trombones. The instrument usually employed in the modern orchestra is the bass tuba in B flat. Wagner employs tenor tubas in the funeral march of the “Götterdämmerung” in order to get a generally consistent sombre color in the brass. He uses in other places both bass and contra-bass tubas, but his writing for these instruments cannot be regarded as invariably felicitous.
The tuba is really a member of the large family of Saxhorns, of which there are six principal types, all in E flat or B flat. These are the sopranino, or piccolo Saxhorn in E flat (A below treble to B flat above), soprano Saxhorn in B flat (German flügelhorn—E below treble to B flat above), alto in E flat (bass A to E flat in fourth space of treble), tenor in B flat (E below bass to B flat treble), bass in B flat, called in Germany bass tuba, and in England euphonium (B flat below bass to F above it), bass in E flat (same compass less one upper note), and contra-bass in B flat (E flat an octave below the bass to F on the third line). These instruments belong primarily to the military band, but an orchestral composer may employ any of them that suit his purpose.
In some older scores the music-lover will find instead of the tuba the ophicleide, which is the bass of the keyed bugle family. Its coarse and blatant tone is happily replaced by that of the tuba.