Re: Re: Bass Trumpet


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Posted by js on November 08, 2001 at 09:10:01:

In Reply to: Re: Bass Trumpet posted by Leon Johnson on November 08, 2001 at 07:48:20:

I think you should give yourself more credit. I don't view your comments as complete nonsense.

I've owned this bass trumpet for quite a few years and have been hired many times to play it as a "double". Having had quite a bit of experience with it from Stravinsky to Wagner to "Vienna, City of My Dreams", I would certainly agree that it plays with more resistance than the (recommended substitute) flugabone, and that the bass trumpet has a more strident sound when "pushed". However, the differences between (at least my) bass trumpet and the typical flugabone in bore, resistance and sound are no more marked than the differences between the typical French piccolo trumpet and the typical American piccolo trumpet...and the funny thing is that BOTH French and American piccolo trumpets (even though their differences are proportionally far more significant than the differences between typical bass trumpets and typical flugabones) are CALLED "piccolo trumpets", unlike "bass trumpets" vs. "flugabones".

As to the practicality of the matter, in my city of approximately 1,200,000 (however admitted culturally deprived and "backwater") I know of TWO bass trumpets, and neither of us are willing to loan them out to strangers. I can therefore suppose that this MIGHT POSSIBLY be the case elsewhere, thus the suggestion of borrowing a somewhat-dented-but-decent flugabone from a godforsaken back-storage of some high school band hall. On the other hand,you might volunteer to loan your accessable "spare" bass trumpet to the young man to keep his orchestration "pure", if you feel strongly enough about the difference in timbre.

Bass trumpets generally are indeed a little different from flugabones (just like small and smaller piccolo trumpets) but I find sometimes that the biggest difference is in the amount of snobbery which which one family of instruments is viewed verses the other.

I stand by Sam Gnagey's suggestion 100%.



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