“The TENOR HORN”
The most under rated instrument
By Robert Greg
The Tenor Horn I feel is the most under rated instrument in the brass family.
The Tenor Horn was first known as Sax Horn also known as the Alto Horn. It has been around since 1844 and was invented by Adolphe Sax (also the inventor of the Saxophone) along with other brass instruments as shown below. The Tenor Horn is mainly used in Brass bands and the music is often boring, mostly rhythm. A lot of bands have the poorer players or learner players use them. I feel, because of this, most arrangers of music keep the Tenor Horn music simple. Also, because of the attitude in bands, that the tenor horn is a 2nd rate instrument, which makes most players want to move to a Cornet or Euphonium.
With such a good tone the horn should feature more in brass bands with more leads and more counter points.
Adolphe first exhibited his Saxhorns in Paris in 1844. Included, of course, was the first tenor (alto) horn, but at this stage it was a keyed bugle. By 1850 he was selling a number of valved instruments, from a circular soprano cornet to middle brass to basses that came both in an over-the-shoulder configuration, and in the more familiar bell-up. Some of these instruments, like the tenor, baritone horn and basses, have changed little in their internal design to this very day.
A problim with the Tenor horn is that it is an Eb pitched instrument and like ALL Eb brass instruments “concert Bb” is their G note and tune their instrument to their G note. If you don’t know what that problim is or tune your Eb instrument to “your” “G”
With all brass instruments “their” “G” note is out of tune. With good quality instruments less so and with poor quality can be quite substantial. Therefore if you tune your Eb horn to “your” “G” all the other will be out of tune. So Eb instruments should tune their middle “C”. But in a full band we can only use one note for all to play to insure the whole band is in tune. Therefore if the Eb instruments need to tune with “their” “G” they need to bend the note into tune rather than move the tuning slide.
Other notes that can be incorrect pitch with brass are “Their” bottom “D” &“D#” high “A”.
Some Instruments have triggers to correct “D”&”D#” High “A” can often be corrected by using 3rd valve instead of 1st & 2nd .
The bottom line is that any brass instrument is not a perfect pitch instrument. But with a good player all notes can be played in tune. This is done by knowing individual instruments and and correcting each note as required. To do that, you need a good ear (Absolute /Relative pitch) to hear that you are playing in tune. If you don’t you can use a tuner to some degree but to be a good brass player you will need to train your ear. The Pure Pitch Method uses an innovative approach to ear training. Either hire a coach or get a good book.Most professionals agree that a good sense of pitch is one of the most important qualities of good musicianship. The Pure Pitch Method has been acknowledged by musicians all around the world as the fastest and easiest approach to developing pitch recognition anywhere! Here is a link to a book.
http://tinyurl.com/kphunv
In the not too distant future I would like to see tenor horns do more in a brass band and other bands as it is a good sounding horn and should feature more. For example rewrite Light Calvary and take some of the solo cornet lead. Also experiment with mouth pieces to increase the range.
I am sure there is a lot more that the Tenor Horn can do. Why should it be relegated to off beats most of its life? Why do the solo cornets in the brass band setting play the horn part in Light Calvary? I will talk about this next time. Robert Greg.
