18 News - Historic Brass Society

alanced and more stable than if it had been horizontal. The player
is also looking down slightly while playing and avoids getting a
stiff neck. The mouthpiece receiver consists of a 14-mm hole drilled
through two thicknesses of 12-mm plywood and then glued across
the end of the bocal part of the BDU tube. Some plumbers PTFE
thread tape is wrapped around the mouthpiece shank to give a tight
mouthpiece 4886-4. It has a cup diameter of 30.5-mm and describes
reason for choosing this model other than that it was the only one on
the shelf at a local music shop.
When it came to tuning, I expected to cut off some of the tube length
from both the bell tube and bocal ends. A test blow without the mouthpiece
receiver suggested that this was not necessary at the bocal end,
so the mouthpiece receiver was glued into place. This means that
the centre of tone hole one on Sylvester is about 95 inches from the
mouthpiece receiver compared to 92-1/2 inches on Patrick. This then
gave a total centreline bore length of about 208-3/4 inches and a bell
note of a slightly sharp Bb.
I had originally intended to trim the bell end to achieve a pitch of C,
but after several test blows which seem to give a different pitch on
every occasion, I lost my nerve, and decided to settle for a Bb pitch. I
tried various methods of tuning the instrument down to concert pitch
Bb. A cardboard insert into the end of the bore, restricting the bore
opening to a diameter of 3-1/2 inches, worked reasonably well as far
as pitch was concerned, but affected the tone quality.
better option. Three sheets of 2-mm thick modelling foam 18 inches
X 12 inches were joined together with double sided carpet tape, rolled
into a cylinder, and then inserted into the bell end bore. A rim for the
hat was made from a fourth sheet of foam. A Bb bell note is achieved
bell end. It is possible to tune the right hand notes relative to the left
hand notes using this system.
I am not a brass player and so I am struggling to master the instrument.
I can obtain a fully chromatic range of notes of just over two
octaves from Eb1 to G3, but cannot necessarily hit the note I want at
the appropriate time. Perhaps an experienced player might be able to
I had not realised when I decided to build a squarpent that the original
-
Church. Almondbury would have been a separate village in the 19th
by members of the Wood family. The local music shop still trades as
The squarpent type construction would lend itself to other types of instruments
- perhaps a square bassoon, or its predecessor the curtal/dulcian
or a renaissance reed instrument such as a rackett. I am tempted to build
a sqworm, 8 foot squarpent, and box-o-cleide, time permitting.
Bill Broom
S36 6AR UK
01226766519
Cristina-Georgeta Alexandrescu Completes PhD
Cristina-Georgeta Alexandrescu studied History and Archaeology in
Bucharest (Romania) and Bonn (Germany). She specialized in Archaeology
of the Roman Provinces and Classical Archaeology at the
University of Cologne (Germany). There started also her research and
the documentation travels (in Europe and USA) for a Ph.D.-thesis on
Musicians and Standard-Bearers in the Roman Army. Studies on their
Terminology, Function and Iconography. One of her central interests
has been the study of Roman brass instruments and players. Apart from
her library and museum-research, she participate in archaeological
excavations in Romania, Germany, Italy and Portugal.
The PhD-thesis, defended in summer 2004, bases on four catalogues of
epigraphic, literary, iconographic and archaeological testimonies, most
selection of details with their depictions, have made possible observations
on terminology and various functions of these soldiers. The
iconographic analyzes consider separately the funerary monuments
of the soldiers and the other categories of monuments (from coins and
bronze vessels to stone reliefs and mosaics). The main contribution of
the iconographic function of the considered soldiers in the Roman art.
Furthermore the updated corpora of inscriptions complete the study on
the musicians (tubicines, cornicines, bucinatores) and standard-bearers
(aquiliferi, imaginiferi, signiferi, vexillarii) and offer a new approach
on their position within the hierarchy of the Roman army.
Her interest points lay in Roman funerary art and archaeology; Music
Archaeology & Iconography; Archaeology of the Roman Provinces;
Small Finds in Cultic Context. One of the present research topics concerns
the interdisciplinary study of the iconography, of the literary and
archaeological evidence of the Hellenistic and Roman musical life.
Charge of the Light Brigade Bugle Call
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the famous Charge of
the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava, National Public Radio
broadcast an interesting story on that famous battle. An interview
was conducted with a noted historian who outlined the actual events
of the battle and explained that the charge was a mistake interpreting
poem immortalizing the saga was also broadcast as well as an 1890
recording of the actual bugle call played by the British trumpeter
Landfried who was in the battle itself.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4123120
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State University.
Advisory Board
Dimitry Donders, member of the Débuché de Paris, France, Special
Advisor to the AHHS
Richard Seraphinoff, faculty, Indiana University and historic instrument
maker
Douglas Lundeen, faculty, Rutgers University
Marian Hesse, member of Chestnut Brass
Dick Martz, horn collector
HISTORIC BRASS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER - WINTER 2005 | 43