Re: Mutes: A different opinion


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on February 18, 2000 at 10:10:55:

In Reply to: Mutes: A different opinion posted by Paul Conrad on February 18, 2000 at 04:31:45:

A good topic! However, I disagree with a couple of your assertions. For example, you say that bass trombone players don't seem to mind having their sounds altered by mutes. That hasn't been my experience! Every bass trombonist I've ever worked with hated what a mute does to their sound. To a man, they all complained about intonation difficulties, problems of implementing the mute in various idioms, the obvious physical limitations of carrying them around and not knocking them over on stage, and the general degradation of sound that occurred using them. Obviously, you'll find brass players that like the sound of mutes. I for one, really like the way Bartok uses mutes in his pieces. However, I'd bet that brass players generally don't like mutes, and all the baggage and inconvenience they bring.

And let's be honest! No trumpet, french horn, or trombone mute is even half the size of the standard tuba mute. This makes them hard to carry around, difficult to get into the bell, and they draw the attention of the audience to their presence like a severe magnet! Until someone comes up with a way to modify the sound someplace other than in the bell, tuba mutes are always going to be conspicuous.

I think your assertion about mute usage being the reason some brass quintets are written for bass trombone isn't really plausible. I suppose it is possible but it seems to me that the real reason for using bass trombone instead of tuba is the change of the overall sound of the group. It gives the group 4 cylindrical instruments which helps the overall blending of the group sound. It also gives the group two pairs of like instruments which allows for great echo effects. I guess I just don't believe that the mute played any part at all in brass quintets using a bass trombonist over a tubist.

I do agree that we need to keep after mute makers to make improvements to their products. There are far too few good mutes available these days and the ones we have are all basically the same type (straight mute), i.e. the same sound. We need access to the full gamut of sounds that any other brass instrument would have available. Where are the Harmon, Cup, and Whisper tuba mutes? Hopefully, mute manufacturers will see the need...


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