Mellotronists

In a message dated 6/2/2007 4:16:37 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
rick@... writes:

French horn 101


All brasses work off a harmonic series of overtones. Actually, all  
instruments do, but let's not worry about them for now.


Originally, brasses had no valves. They weren't invented yet. We're  talking 
pre 1825 or so here. All brass players had to play their instruments  by 
tightening and loosening their lips, causing the buzzing (and resulting  notes) to 
be faster (higher) or slower (lower). The harmonic overtone series  (utilized 
by gradually tightening the lips) goes as follows: fundamental (the  lowest 
note possible -- dictated by the length of the instrument -- octave,  fifth, 
octave, third, fifth, and so on (Go here for a chart: 
_http://www.smu.http://wwhttp://wwhtt_ (http://www.smu.edu/totw/overtone.htm) ).  This is actually the 
written out series of overtones produced by the horn. The  trumpet's overtone 
series, for eample, is pitched an octave higher. On French  horn, I can play all 
the notes on this chart, using no valves, simply by  gradually tightening my 
lips and pushing more air through the  instrument.


Trumpet, trombone, tuba, euphonium, etc. use the lowest part of the  overtone 
series for the majority of their normal notes. Not only that, their  
mouthpieces match the size of the instrument (part of what dictates their  comfortable 
placement in the overtone series. French horn, on the other hand,  is the 
length of a tuba (roughly) and uses the smallest mouthpiece, making it  possible 
to play higher in the overtone series with greater ease. (The smaller  the 
mouthpiece, the easier it is to vibrate your lips faster.)


The insecurity of pitches (in other words, being able to get lip tension  
exactly correct to hit the note you want dead on, or actually hitting the  wrong 
overtone altogether) comes from playing at the upper end of the overtone  
series where the notes are much closer together. It's much easier to miss in  this 
section because you have to have really accurate lip tension.


So you can see why the French horn was used much more in orchestral music  
back when brasses had no valves. In a nutshell, they could play more notes.  
When valves were invented, it allowed brass instruments to now play all  pitches. 
By pressing down the valves (or combinations of valves) you add more  length 
to the instrument and change its overtone series. The second valve  lowers the 
overtone series by a semitone. The first valve lowers it by a whole  tone. 
The third valve lowers it by a tone and a half. If you write this all  out, 
you'll see that not only can you play far more notes, you can also use  different 
fingerings to play the same pitch in a lot of cases. Life got a lot  better 
for brass players as the 18th century progressed.


All except the lowly trombone players. Their slide does the same thing  and 
they've had that going all the way back to the sackbut. This is why they  tend 
to be a bit 'odd'.


Now if you really want to screw things up,  their was a valve system invented 
by Adolph Sax (yes, it's the same guy) that  removes tubing from the 
instrument instead of adding it. Sadly, it  never caught on because the other system 
was already in use. Sort of like an  1800s version of Beta vs. VHS.


Please read this over carefully. I'll be testing you on this chapter  during 
our next class.


Rick


PS Well, you did ask...



 
Rick,
 
Would you mind going into a bit more detail here instead of just glossing  
over it?
 
Thanks,
 
Slarty



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.