Best posts made by barliman2001

@ssmith1226 However, by cleverly combining some, you will be able to get astounding results:

1. A piece of toast will always fall onto the buttered side

2. A cat always falls on its feet.

So you take a cat, liberally coat its back with butter and throw it down. It will try to fall on its feet, but then the buttered side would be uppermost, so the resulting reaction will cause the cat to hover a foot or so above ground and rotate faster and faster, until you can connect a crankshaft to the cat and drive a generator.

Just happened upon this Norman Rockwell painting... I am sure someone can identify the trumpet!

Our family teddy bear Wendelin who came into the family in the early 1890s... sitting in the rocking swan my grandfather made for me... I used to sit in there in a suit of plastic armor, listening to Lohengrin...

Just wanted everyone here to know that there is a new, very novel and very versatile flugelhorn out there... the BONONIA by Iliev Brass Music in Bulgaria.

Nikolay Iliev is a well-versed trumpet professional currently doing great work in getting disadvantaged kids off the streets and into his wind band project at the school he is working at as Head of Music... his work in repairing the instruments donated to this school for his kids to continue playing has made him into a respectable instruments craftsman, and combining his life-long experience as a professional with ideas he picked up from all over the place led him to develop a new flugelhorn which is intended to be the answer to a multitude of questions in the flugelhorn world...

The BONONIA flugelhorn is a high-riding, "wrong-way-round" flugelhorn (somewhat like some ideas of Ray Farr) which allows the bell to swing freely except for a couple of stays for stability. The right hand is supported by an extra bit of tubing carrying a pinkie ring that can be swapped for an attached hook, and the distance from valve block to hook/ring can be easily adjusted. The leadpipe can currently take two different mouthpiece receivers - one for a normal small shank flugelhorn mouthpiece, and one that accepts both trumpet and alto horn mouthpieces. There will be additional mouthpiece receivers for French Horn mouthpieces and for small shank trombone mouthpieces.

I have test-driven the prototype, and came to the following conclusion:
The BONONIA flugelhorn is of outstanding consistency. With a flugelhorn mouthpiece, all registers up to double C are within easy reach and really consistent, with slotting being very precise while still allowing for some leeway. It is veerycomfortable to hold as you can easily rest your left elbow on your hip while playing... a very good fixture for those long gigs.
With a flugel mouthpiece, sound is as it should be - warm and cuddly, while always ready to strip paint if required. With a trumpet mouthpiece, the upper register becomes even easier to reach and the sound goes in the direction of a slightly brash rotary flugelhorn. And with an alto horn mouthpiece, you get the feeling of a really plushy comfort blanket or cuddly toy while barely compromising on the high register. A well-balanced sound.

Here is a video of the BONONIA flugelhorn, in all of its currently possible configurations:

Title says everything. Details here. One place already taken - by me.
www.meisterklassen-gutenstein.com/trumpet-2023

@Vulgano-Brother When I was still playing in a brass quintet - can't seem to get one together these days - we had an external musical director who not only supervised our rehearsing, but wrote original music for us as well. Worked perfectly and brought a bunch of rank amateurs (as we then were) into all the big local concert halls... even though some of the original music was distinctly weird: "Variations on Greensleeves", with every variation representing a different period of music history: va. 1 a Bach fugue, var. 2 a Mozart minuet, var. 3 Beethovenesque, var. 4 Bruckner, var. 5 a military march, var. 6 Wagnerian, var. 7 being dodecaphonic...

@pss From what I can gather, Gaudet is the new name for those Courtois workers who did not appreciate the Buffet Crampon takeover and who started a new company under the name of the Courtois ex-CEO... and it seems they took quite a bit of parts and machinery with them (Courtois-branded instruments are now being made by B&S in Markneukirchen on their existing B&S machinery).

@Newell-Post I've got his e-mail and will send him a note. Haven't heard from him for some time, though, and he was living in a particularly lively corner of Africa...

The European Folklore Festival in Bitburg, Germany, is an annual event of some considerable size with a remarkable 50+-year tradition. Groups from all over the world meet and show off their skills - great stuff.
Traditionally, some of the music is always provided by Welsh brass band Coronation Brass, a scratch formation meeting once a year in Bitburg and playing up to eight gigs over a four-day period. No rehearsal - just plain sight-reading one minor test piece and lots of marches (no marching!) and old favourites, with a tasty selection from the cheeseboard.
For the last years, Coronation Brass have been welcoming guest players from all over the world... me, for one (I've already managed to worm myself into the inner circle), and there were players from Germany, Italy, Russia and the US...
It's always great fun - great music, great people, free meals and floods of free drinks (main sponsor is Bitburger, one of the largest breweries in Germany!). ssmith1226 attended one festival, and a year later he wrote, "my liver still remembers!"

This year's event will be smaller than usual, more like a local affair, but Coronation Brass have been confirmed as participants and are inviting brass band players to join them for a long weekend of music and mayhem.

The Dates:
Arrival in Bitburg Friday, 8 July, 2022, lunchtime
Concerts - most of them open-air, in the centre of town - from Friday evening until Monday morning
Departure after breakfast Tuesday, 12 July

Bitburg is fairly easily reached by car, and is within reach of both Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Hahn airports. Airport pick-ups can be arranged, and for those travelling from the UK, there will be free seats in cars.

Accommodation traditionally is in a 3-star hotel in the centre of town, just 50 metres from the main concert venue... cost is likely to be at most € 250 for the whole period including large breakfasts (that's the upper figure - Coronation Brass usually get special rates and sponsoring. At the last pre-lockdown festival, cost per nose was € 180.)

Contact me for details, or apply directly to Nick Jones (organizing genius, and trombone wizard) at coronationbrass@hotmail.com

See a few pics from previous festivals...

Yep, that's me as flag-bearer.

The umbrellas in the background belong to the band hotel...

Fellow participants from Slovakia, with a tromboline

Bitburg's Mayor conducting Coronation Brass (he's a Euph player of note and has been known to join the band for a few pieces)

Music and drinks!

Street food

Folk dance group from a Swedish Seniors' Residence - the youngest member is 87, the oldest 101 years old

Michael Praetorius was a 16th century composer, one of the first to really incorporate brass music into the Church, and one of the most important not to take up old melodies, but provide new melodies for later composers and arrangers...

Well, I've had the Gaudet for some weeks now and played it for a week (a ten-day hospital stay intervened). It's stunning. Just as I like it.
It's perhaps fifteen to twenty years old, with perhaps 20% lacquer loss, but only one tiny dent. Immaculate valves, buttery smooth but with a very satisfying "plop". intonation is almost 100%, very like a good Bb. It's a worthy partner to my 154R flugelhorn. Only thing that needs to be done is to put a new spring into the water key - it's airtight when closed, but does not return when you open it. But that is a very minor thing.

@Dr-GO ...and someone could be a humorous person adept at joining string with two needles - the knit wit...

@GeorgeB said in Christmas Services:

@barliman2001
Now that was one really interesting situation. Playing in the cold is definitely no fun. But I'm sure you did well, sir.

As to playing in the cold - one Austrian oompah band a few years back bought several score of hand warmers (working with burning coal sticks inside) to zip tie to the valve blocks of instruments to avoid freezing (which is liable to happen at below zero temperatures). On one occasion, before a Christmas market gig, these hand warmers were lit and issued. Most of the guys directly zip tied them to the instruments and just carried the unwrapped instruments to the gig ( a few hundred yards down the road). One of the flugel players did not yet bother to fumble with the zip ties but just tossed the hand warmer into his gig bag. Half-way down to the gig, his bag was giving off smoke signals... the hand warmer had come undone and spilt the burningcoal inside, setting the lining on fire... when the guy investigated and opened up the bag, he was welcomed by a raging flame. The local fire brigade had a busy fifteen minutes putting the blazing bag out, and the insurance later refused to pay for the burnt-up flugel (an almost new gold-plated Votruba Professional worth around € 5,000) due to "culpable negligence".

@Dr-GO Here in Vienna, I am always eager to welcome any former TMers or TBers - as Sethoflagos, rowuk and SSmith1226 can witness.

@Dr-Mark Pope John Paul II was notorious for his sudden decisions and irregular outings (at least, at the beginning of his pontificate). So, one day, he decided to swap places with his chauffeur one day and drive through Rome a bit - the pontiff at the wheel, the chauffeur in the screened back. Pope John Paul II had a hankering for speed so, inevitably, he runs into a speed check by Rome City Police. Obediently, he stops and rolls down the window. The policeman sees him and staggers back, at once caling HQ: "HQ, we've caught someone very high up speeding... what shall I do?" - "Arrest and enforce a fine!" - "But he's someone really very high up..." - "What do you mean, very high up. The Mayor?" - "Nnnno, no, much higher..." - "Well, then, the Prime Minister?" - "No, even much higher." - "What in the devi's name do you mean, much higher? Who is he?" - "I don't know exactly, but the Pope is His driver..."

Actually, it is customary not to mention the orchestral excerpts because the will be announced at short notice without any preparation time whatsoever. They are still an integral part of the audition process. In addition, the audition process at German orchestras usually is a multi-stage one, with only the requirements for the first stage being publicised. As the audition for a solo viola player showed... the orchestra were quite pleased at what the candidate presented, but, having been burnt before, they asked the candidate to play the fast demisemiquaver passage from "the Bartered Bride". And the viola candidate readily agreed, saying, "well, yes, if you've got enough time for that..."

I visit Votruba's shop in Vienna on a regular basis. Mostly to have small things on my horns seen to - waterkey corks and springs, a new bottle of oil, perhaps some new corks to a mute. But I always keep a weather eye open on their "pre-loved" window... and today I got lucky. They had a Courtois Bb, a Balanced model, silver plated, for a mere € 300. True, about one third of the plating has been played away; but there are no dings or holes, no red rot, and the valves go plop! and move as they should. A narrow kranz on the bell, very like a Selmer K-Mod. Serial no. 10xxx. Does anyone here know more?

@SSmith1226 In the same spirit: How do you describe a marriage? A marriage consist of two people. One is always right, and the other is the husband.

@administrator said in Wonder which Valve Oil they use.:

I'm curious about a few things.

1. How do we know they played with no vibrato in the Baroque era? I mean, we don't have recordings.
2. How do we know they ballooned their notes like they are doing in the video?

You are right, there are no recordings. But people wrote instead and closely described what was to be done. Almost every other musician of any note produced tutorials for his students: Friedrich Wilhelm Reiche, for example, could not just say, "Go and get yourself an Arban copy". For one, Arban would not be born for a couple of centuries; and for the second, printed books were still rare and expensive. So people like J.S. Bach produced things like the "Piano Book for Anna Magdalena Bach" which in their original version not only contained music, but lots of additional advice, thus showing us the way the composer wanted the pieces to be played.