# Do you have a preferred timbre or tone color?



## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

I love the sound of the oboe & am disappointed that there aren't as many works for it as there are for its cousins the flute & clarinet. Its appeal to me is its sharp, piercing tone that isn't too bright (too bright like a harpsichord)

Anyone else in search of specific tones in their music?


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I love the clarinet and (French) horn almost always, but the other wind/brass solos are very context dependent for me. I usally don't like flute or oboe chamber/solo music very much but both, especially oboe (or cor anglais) and even bassoon can be "magical" in shorter passages if done well. Like the tiny oboe solo in Beethoven's 5th recapitulation, often in Brahms (oboe in 2nd symphony, violin concerto and many others, flute in the slow section of the 4th's finale), or the clarinet + oboe in the andante of Schubert's Unfinished. There are many other examples.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I like the cor anglais a lot; "organ-like" use of massed strings a la Brahms 1st movement of first symphony, and Rachmaninoff. Also very right end of the piano keyboard to provide a strange bright tinkling effect (Prokofiev, Brahms, several other composers). And bagpipes and the Indian _been_.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I spent a number of years taking clarinet lessons trying to achieve that lovely tone I heard on recordings. And I did - maybe 1% of the time - but it didn’t diminish the pleasure I get listening to my betters.

On a non-classical note, I love the sound of vibes - I could listen to Milt Jackson, Gary Burton, and others all day.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

4chamberedklavier said:


> Anyone else in search of specific tones in their music?


What do you make of the basset horns in Mozart K.361, K.375, K.477?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I have found that I attracted to works which feature instruments in the alto range: viola, clarinet, English horn, as well as, the alto/mezzo voice. There is a darkness and evocative quality that I find very appealing.


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## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> I have found that I attracted to works which feature instruments in the alto range: viola, clarinet, English horn, as well as, the alto/mezzo voice. There is a darkness and evocative quality that I find very appealing.


You and Pierre Boulez!


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

I love "dirty sounds," instruments with very complex waveforms, like bassoons, bass clarinets, sackbuts, shawms, duduks, hurdy-gurdy, waterphones, daxophones and other ideophones. I also love low notes: pipe organs, arco bass, synthesizers, big drums.

I have very limited patience for high nasally instruments: soprano sax, bagpipes, sitar, shehnai, recorder, piccolo. Instruments without any means of expression (electric organ, monophonic synthesizers, harpsichord) take extraordinarily talented players to make them interesting.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

The English Horn and Alto Flute. Both the F-key version of the C-key Oboe and Flute. Outside classical, the Hammond B3 organ through a Leslie speaker. A close second would be a Rickenbacker bass with Rotosound strings, played through an Ampeg SVT amp. Played with a pick and not the fingers, for that twangy percussive sound.


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## 4chamberedklavier (12 mo ago)

hammeredklavier said:


> What do you make of the basset horns in Mozart K.361, K.375, K.477?


@hammeredklavier, I've not listened to the K375 & 477, and I haven't listened to the entirety of the gran partita yet, but thanks for the suggestions. K388 is one of my favorites though

BTW people, this isn't limited to classical instruments only. So go ahead & mention if you like certain voice types, synths, electric instruments, etc.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

4chamberedklavier said:


> BTW people, this isn't limited to classical instruments only. So go ahead & mention if you like certain voice types, synths, electric instruments, etc.


I like massed baritones and basses.


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## AaronSF (Sep 5, 2021)

I am fond the timbre of most lower- to middle-range instruments and voices: oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, French horns, violas, cellos, vibraphones, contraltos and baritones.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

AaronSF said:


> I am fond the timbre of most lower- to middle-range instruments and voices: oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, French horns, violas, cellos, vibraphones, contraltos and baritones.


These could be my choices as well, but I do love the piano's timbre as well. The harp is another favorite instrument.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

SanAntone said:


> I have found that I attracted to works which feature instruments in the alto range: viola, clarinet, English horn, as well as, the alto/mezzo voice. There is a darkness and evocative quality that I find very appealing.


Yes, me too...Bassoon in the upper range, low flute [love the alto flute, but it doesn't project well]...cor anglais...viola...
I esp like this register in the brass - high horns, trombones in the high register....Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Strauss, Mahler use this to great effect in their works....it fills in the spectrum between the high trumpets, and the low brass/tuba...

I also love the sound of a full bassoon section - whatever register - Berlioz, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Ravel [D& C, La Valse], Sibelius - big thick sound, loaded with overtones....


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

NoCoPilot said:


> I love "dirty sounds," instruments with very complex waveforms, like bassoons, bass clarinets,......


Low down and dirty is great - the bass instruments in low register - bassoon, contrabassoon, bass trombone/tuba...
I love hearing those really high powered sections - Chicago, NYPO, Leningrad, when the low boys really let it rip...gawd, what a huge sound...


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

Wagner was so fond of bass, he invented an extra large double bass requiring two musicians to play. One down below to bow, another on a ladder to do the fingering.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

progmatist said:


> Wagner was so fond of bass, he invented an extra large double bass requiring two musicians to play. One down below to bow, another on a ladder to do the fingering.


He also devised a new type of low brass instrument the Wagner tuba...which he used extensively in his "Ring" cycle....its range is somewhat similar to the French horn, the tone sort of between horn and trombone.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

progmatist said:


> Wagner was so fond of bass, he invented an extra large double bass requiring two musicians to play. One down below to bow, another on a ladder to do the fingering.


Would that be the famous octobass?


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

NoCoPilot said:


> Would that be the famous octobass?
> View attachment 165983
> 
> View attachment 165985


"And how did you break both legs again?"
"I fell off the bass during the gig".

Lol


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

The octobass is an octave below a normal double bass, whose open E string is normally tuned to 41.6 Hertz.... So the octobass goes down to *20.8 Hertz*. Not much useful music in that range.

Want to hear it?


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Speaking of iconic ideophones, check out The Apprehension Engine.


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