The ABC’s of Brass Ensembles
PLATTSBURGH PRESS REPUBLICAN
By Robin Caudell
Staff Writer
PLATTSBURGH – The Canadian brass is the bar for brass ensembles striving to perform everything well.
There are "serious" professional quintets like the New York Brass Quintet, American Quintet, and the London Brass Ensemble. All perform classical, renaissance, baroque or art music, sometimes on period instruments.
Some serious quintets do pops, jazz and other styles - period pieces, historic pieces, avante-garde and transcriptions from other genres such as opera and rock.
A few tackle everything, but no quintet performs everything as well as Christopher Cooper, Charles Dallenbach, Jens Lindemann, Ronald Romm, and Eugene Watts: The Canadian Brass.
"They are the most virtuostic quintet," said Ronnie Ingle, assistant professor of music at Plattsburgh State.
"In this concert they will be doing transcriptions of works from the Renaissance era, pops pieces, a Beetles medley, and jazz. There is not a category for them. They're in a category all their own."
The orchestral quintets, another ensemble derivative, are formed from major orchestras.
"Every symphony has their own chamber groups - woodwind quintets, string quartets and quintets derived from orchestras," Ingle said.
Quintets are also formed by faculty at colleges and universities. They include the Eastman Brass Quintet, University of Michigan Brass Quintet, and Florida State Brass Quintet.
Ingle is a Trumpeter who performs with the Adirondack Brass, consisting in part of Plattsburgh State faculty.
A brass quintet has five instruments - two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba - major instruments in the brass family that also includes flugelhorn, cornet, and baritone.
Each musician and instrument has a specific role. The first trumpet player has to possess great skills as a technician and soloist.
In quintet writing, the first trumpet has the highest part in terms of pitch. The trumpet is the instrument the human ear hears first.
"The other four instruments must look to the first trumpeter to emulate in terms of sound and style," Ingle said.
"The strength of a brass quintet is mostly determined by the ability of the first trumpet player. How good the first trumpet player is defines the parameters of the quintet."
The role of the second trumpet player is to match the first trumpet player's style, sound, articulation and dynamics, so the two instruments sound as one.
The horn's sound lies between high and low brasses. As a result, the horn player has to be versatile: he must play a third trumpet role one moment and a low brass part like trombone or tuba the next.
Depending on the writing, the French horn player has to decide if his part is part of the high or low brass.
The French horn's warm and fluid sound tempers the trumpet's sometimes abrasive qualities.
The French horn player has the hardest job musically because techniques characteristic to brass are easily achieved on the other brass instruments.
"Contemporary techniques are more a part of the usual trumpet routine than the French horn," Ingle said.
"It is easier to achieve on trumpet large interval leaps, lip slurs and articulation in comparison to horn. The characteristic sound of the horn makes the quintets sound overall more warm and fluent."
The trombonist plays the lowest part when the tuba is resting and plays in that register.
When the trombonist and tuba player perform together it is the trombonist's job to compliment the tuba.
"The trombonist has to possess the most endurance in a quintet because of the lack of rest in most of quintet literature," Ingle said.
"The trombonist must be able to blend when paired with any of the other instruments."
The main requirement of the tuba player is to possess the most accurate pitch and timing of the entire group.
"The tuba is the foundation by which all the other instruments build on both musically and technically."
Next Thursday, concert-goers will witness this and more with the Canadian Brass.
"To put on a concert of this magnitude and to have it sell out would be an accomplishment for the music department, the university and the community and would let us know that concerts of this scale are feasible," Ingle said.
He is in negotiations with another ICM artist, Wynton Marsalis, to perform at Plattsburgh State's 25th Annual Jazz Festival in March 2001.
"The success of this event will mean a great deal to our university, community and the music department's continued affiliation with the best performers and ensembles in the world. It will bring tremendous credibility and support to our campus."
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