Re: Re: Re: Tubas In Movies (On-Screen)


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Posted by Max Tunnell on January 08, 2001 at 20:33:37:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Tubas In Movies (On-Screen) posted by Anthony Labelle on January 08, 2001 at 13:00:38:

Most civil war bands (on Both sides) were brass bands that occationally included one or two clarinets and/or maybe a flute. They used Eb Cornets, Bb Cornets, Eb Altos, BbTenors(Small bore euphoniums), full bore Euphoniums, Eb Tubas, Occationally there might be a BBb tuba or one in some other key, but I have not seen one. No trumpets usually; Slide trombones were rare. You might find keyed bugles especially at the beginning of the war.

The point is, they were (mostly) SAXHORNS, often called Saxhorns and (i'm not sure of this) not usually referred to by their modern names.

Try referring to the tuba as an Eb bass saxhorn or calling the lead instrument (what would now be called a flugelhorn) a Bb soprano saxhorn (My understanding is modern tubas, euphoniums and flugelhorns follow very closely the specifications for saxhorns)

Anyway, all of these brass instruments were manufactured in standard versions as well as "over the shoulder" versions for marching at the head of a marching column and directing the sound back to the troops. As for rotory valves, most of them I've seen used rotors. Everything from the Eb cornets to the tubas used them. Piston valves were also used and were pretty common in Eb altos and Bb Euphoniums. They were right handed
valves.

Most band had at least some these instruments, many used them exclusively for marching. A few bands had matching set of these instruments as well as standard ones for concert work.

I do some occational civil war reinacting with the Heritage Brass of Dallas. We wish we could afford to have a set of over the shoulder horns made. There ARE a few modern custom made sets of these horns out there.

Max (More than you ever wanted to know about civil war brass instruments) Tunnell




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