Our Concept
With the onset of the industrial revolution the 19th century was a period of radical change for all musical instruments but none more so than for the brass family. The application of precision engineering enabled the old natural instruments (the horn and the trumpet) to join the trombone in the ranks of the fully chromatic. The invention of the valve was to revolutionise brass technique and to open up a whole new world of melodic possibilities for brass instruments. New instruments were now capable of competing with woodwind and strings with their enhanced melodic and expressive capabilities. However much of the legacy of these early chromatic brass pioneers has been lost to us. The demands placed upon the modern orchestral brass player have encouraged bigger and more powerful instruments to evolve. The modern trumpet and trombone are very much wider than those produced but half a century ago and the qualities valued by composers such as Berlioz, Mendelssohn and Gounod is no longer available with modern instruments. Principal brass players today are praised firstly for their quantity of sound whereas Berlioz was primarily impressed by the elegance and dexterity of Jean-Baptiste Arban's cornet technique, not for his ability to make himself heard above all others in the orchestra. The move towards shorter, wide-bored brass instruments has brought greater accuracy to the orchestra and a brilliance that is appropriate to much music but is it not important to attempt a little more fidelity to the original concept? Is it not also a fascinating and valuable exercise in its own right? The remit of Passion des Cuivres is therefore to perform music of this time with as much adherence to contemporary practices as possible. The choice of instruments at the time of writing is: 2 Cornets (from French, British and German provenance) Doubling natural trumpet and narrow-bore valve trumpet when necessary, Single F Horn, narrow-bore trombone and ophicleide. It is hoped to introduce keyed brass instruments as companions to the ophicleide, currently the only keyed member of the quintet.
Members:
