# Cull the brass instruments and melt them down



## Vivaldi (Aug 26, 2012)

There's nothing more irritating than listening to a raucous brass instrument. Whether it be a trumpet or trombone, they are equally repulsive in my opinion. This is another reason why I avidly avoid music composed after 1750 because the majority of it contains at least one brass instrument. Brass instruments are the weeds in your flowerbed. They are the child screaming on the bus. They are the epitome of annoyance.

Therefore, I demand that you cull brass instruments, melt them down and sell for scrap.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

What's wrong Mr Viv, is the trumpet player being paid more than you? You write such beautiful trumpet music too.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Sorry those brasses are not electric guitar for metal freaks, so I object with you! 
Besides what are Wagner and Bruckner without brasses?


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## colin (Sep 7, 2009)

I always tend to avoid brass as well, I find strings to be Gracefully divine.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Yeah, shawms, crumhorns, and racketts are much more melodious.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Vivaldi said:


> Therefore, I demand that you cull brass instruments, melt them down and sell for scrap.


... and that is when classical music will finally conform to that tired old outsiders' clichee of being strictly _relaxing_


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## Bone (Jan 19, 2013)

Brass player here: those squeaking woodwinds and thin string tones need to be covered up from time to time and raucous, blaring brass always seem to do the trick. If I go an entire performance without at least one wince from a woodwind sitting in front of me I feel as if I've failed as a man and as a brass player. But seriously, the tone colors of every instrument used by a great composer are wonderful and I wouldn't change anything - except maybe melt down all the orchestral saxophones (fine for jazz, though). Pity to know that there are some otherwise intelligent TC listeners who limit their learning /listening/ loving opportunities because they might have to adjust a volume control once in a while....


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

I'm a woodwind person all the way, but I love brass. They are vital to the orchestra. Horn is such a beautiful instrument...there's nothing like a horn soli. So majestic!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Bone said:


> Brass player here


I was going to post a cleaned-up version of the Low Brass Player's Creed, but my conscience still smote me.


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## Bone (Jan 19, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> I was going to post a cleaned-up version of the Low Brass Player's Creed, but my conscience still smote me.


Dang - I loved it, but completely understand your reticence to post such lovely poetry on this rather austere forum


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Have you heard the Vienna Philharmonic play ? Their brass are anything but raucous ! They [produce a golden, burnished mellow sound that is pure sonic delight !


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

I also just heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra live....their brass is heavenly.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

Vivaldi said:


> There's nothing more irritating than listening to a raucous brass instrument. Whether it be a trumpet or trombone, they are equally repulsive in my opinion. This is another reason why I avidly avoid music composed after 1750 because the majority of it contains at least one brass instrument. Brass instruments are the weeds in your flowerbed. They are the child screaming on the bus. They are the epitome of annoyance.
> 
> Therefore, I demand that you cull brass instruments, melt them down and sell for scrap.


First burn all music after 1750, then melt all the brass instruments...Why so negative? 

You seem like a passionate music lover, Vivaldi, so I'm wondering, which instruments do you _like_? And what are your favourite pieces for them?


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## Llyranor (Dec 20, 2010)

Even Baroque brass? What about this beautiful trumpet concerto by Telemann?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-NPcOc2cnc#t=32m42


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Vivaldi said:


> This is another reason why I avidly avoid music composed after 1750 because the majority of it contains at least one brass instrument.


Not just the majority, Vivaldi. In fact ALL music composed since 1815 has a brass instrument in it. It's international law, first laid down by the Congress of Vienna. But Nereffid, I hear you cry, what about all those string quartets and piano music and all that stuff? Nope. They all have parts for brass too, just marked "tacet". The law was ratified by the League of Nations and then by the UN, so there's no getting away from brass instruments, no matter how avant-garde the composition. This is a fact. I'm surprised you didn't know about it already, to be honest. Though I suppose if you prefer living in Baroque times the news may never have filtered through.

You're better off in the distant past, Vivaldi, you really are.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

keep the brass and it's charming sound.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Sorry, but Mozart's horn concerti are simply divine.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I almost wanted to start a witch hunt thread with the name: Cull the Vivaldi-impersonators; No, burn all of them at the stake! But I paused myself to think about the the consequences and came to the conclusion that those Vivaldi-impersonators ain't worth the hassle... ut:

/ptr


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## Schubussy (Nov 2, 2012)

Nereffid said:


> Not just the majority, Vivaldi. In fact ALL music composed since 1815 has a brass instrument in it. It's international law, first laid down by the Congress of Vienna. But Nereffid, I hear you cry, what about all those string quartets and piano music and all that stuff? Nope. They all have parts for brass too, just marked "tacet". The law was ratified by the League of Nations and then by the UN, so there's no getting away from brass instruments, no matter how avant-garde the composition. This is a fact. I'm surprised you didn't know about it already, to be honest. Though I suppose if you prefer living in Baroque times the news may never have filtered through.
> 
> You're better off in the distant past, Vivaldi, you really are.


If you listen really, really carefully to 4'33 you can just make out a trumpet solo in the distance.


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## ArthurBrain (Aug 19, 2012)

Well, I like brass but I could live without castanets.....

:l


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

I like some brass. The trumpet being my favorite. But yes the later music can be too heavy on the brass.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I think the OP is right. Melt 'em down and make rifles out of them. We haven't got enough rifles in the world, but we have far too many brass instruments. Top notch thinking, that fellow!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Trouble is these brass players are fiendishly cunning. Here's Crispian Steele-Perkins playing a hosepipe! (Real Baroque trumpet mouthpiece though)









He was (of course) playing Handel's Water Music.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I can't believe the OP is serious. We went to Snape Maltings once & found a cheap cd, Baroque Trumpet Pieces volume one. We bought it & played it on the way home and it was like gliding on sunset clouds through a seraph-thronged heaven.

There is nothing that stirs the heart like a well-blown trumpet. 

PS We're still looking for Vol 2.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Ingenue said:


> We went to Snape Maltings once & found a cheap cd, Baroque Trumpet Pieces volume one. We bought it & played it on the way home and it was like gliding on sunset clouds through a seraph-thronged heaven.


At first I read this post as: "...We went to Snape Maltings once & found _a cheap Baroque Trumpet_. We bought it & played it on the way home..." Now, _that_ would have been awesome, I am sure!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Vivaldi must have a strong will to content himself with such a Spartan musical regime. If I faced an existence with no post-1750 music - brass or not - I think I'd have to consider killing myself.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

Vivaldi is about to enter the pearly gates. Gabriel appears but …

Too bad.


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## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

I love brass! But then again look at who's picture is my avatar.  Nothing wrong with brass instruments. They give the music more bite and such awesome power.

Special note, I grew up around brass players: my great grandfather played trumpet, my grandfather played trumpet, my Dad played trumpet, my brother played the baritone, so keeping in line with the loudness wars, I played percussion.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Vivaldi must have a strong will to content himself with such a Spartan musical regime. If I faced an existence with no post-1750 music - brass or not - I think I'd have to consider killing myself.


Thankfully our musical choices are a bit more open. 

I presume that pre-1750 brass works will also have to be purged?

Gabrieli: Sacrae Symphoniae
Monteverdi: Vespers Of The Blessed Virgin
Monteverdi: Christmas Vespers
Frescobaldi: Intonazioni d'Organo
Frescobaldi: Canzone per Sonare
then various antiphonal brass works by Ruggero Trofeo, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Battista Grillo, etc., etc.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

My commiserations to you on what seem to be an array of severe disabilities regarding your ability / inability to enjoy music.

Although to look at your profile you also love Schumann, and other than Baroque musics... so is this post -- like your "all music written past 1750 should be burned" -- yet another hypomelodramatic bait? 

With your professed love of Schuman, and other non-baroque music, is this OP yet another from one of TC's master baiters?


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

On the contrary, there's never enough brass. Classical music is really about the brass, the rest of the instruments just provide a nice seasoning on the top. If the whole Earth was transformed into a giant globe of brass and then it exploded, volcanoes and tectonic drifts providing outlets for the air, making a giant ichosaedruplic global brass fugue, then there might be enough brass music, for a split second.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Xaltotun said:


> On the contrary, there's never enough brass. Classical music is really about the brass, the rest of the instruments just provide a nice seasoning on the top. If the whole Earth was transformed into a giant globe of brass and then it exploded, volcanoes and tectonic drifts providing outlets for the air, making a giant ichosaedruplic global brass fugue, then there might be enough brass music, for a split second.


There speaks a true German Romantic!


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## Altus (Jun 5, 2013)

I tend to agree with the original post, but I do not agree with the very harsh tone he uses nor do I think that the instruments should be melted down. I dont mind brass as long as its a French horn or a Trumpet. But once we start getting trombones, euphoniums, tubas and the like, my interest drops immediately. 

Brass, in my opinion should be kept in the background, and strings should be prominent, but the brass must never overpower nor equal the strings in importance or power. I am rather biased, as I prefer Baroque and Galant up to 1780. I find Romantic and post-Romantic music to be too...alien...everything sounds wrong. All the rules have been broken. But to each their own, eh?


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

Feathers said:


> First burn all music after 1750, then melt all the brass instruments...Why so negative?


It's obvious that the OP runs some kind of... crematorium


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## Picander (May 8, 2013)

ArthurBrain said:


> Well, I like brass but I could live without castanets.....
> 
> :l


I think some pieces couldn't live without them though:






(from 15:59)


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Sometimes I get tired of the ubiquity of string sections, to be honest. A little more variety would be nice.


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