John, other than that double-belled euphonium, which does have a sort of a baritone for the small bell (but probably not as good in sound or pitch as a real British baritone), chances are quite high that you have no real baritones in your band.
There is a real effort now to clarify the labeling in the US, which has been confused for decades. The "American baritone," even if it has a bell front and only three valves, is a euphonium - it has a large, fully conical bore. (The term "American euphonium" works well, when differentiation is needed.) The term "baritone" should be saved for the "British baritone" or "English baritone" which is smaller bore and less conical (what you and others are calling a "Bb tenor horn", but that term is confusing since the British call the Eb instrument a "tenor horn". To help keep it straight, think of it this way - -A double sized trumpet (most cylindrical) is a trombone or valve trombone. -A double sized cornet (somewhat conical) is a British baritone, (or antique American Bb "tenor horn," no longer made). -A double sized flugelhorn (most conical) is a euphonium, regardless of country of origin number of valves, or which way the bell points. US concert bands generally do not and should not use true baritones, unless they are trying to accurately perform some older compositions such as Grainger's "Lincolnshire Posy" or the original scoring of the Holst First Suite (which is hard to find) which a re examples of serious works which have separate parts for euphonium and baritone, using each to advantage. Brass bands should have two of each. US brass bands just starting out SOMETIMES sub euphoniums for baritones because of the rarity of the latter, but they are missing a true tone color when they do. The baritones are a part of the flugel-Eb tenor horn-baritone choir, while the euphonium can function with that choir it also is a main solo voice in the brass band, so euphs on the baritone part really muddies the whole thing. The comparison of cellos playing viola parts is actually a good one. It's a comparable role - the euphonium is usually written as a lower instrument, but is often given melodic passages higher than the baritone part, just as the lower cellos are often given melodic passages higher than violas. The timbre difference is quite comparable. In other words, the timbre change of subbing euphs for baritones would be very comparable to subbing cellos for violas, but the technique and difficulty change would not be. Most brass band should be able to afford baritones, now - last year I bought an absolutely top notch Schiller (Jin Bao - Chinese) compensating British baritone for well under $600. A copy of the $5K Besson. I love it - true baritone sound, stellar intonation. Jim Laabs in Wisconsin sells them. All relative economy discussions aside, a tremendous deal for a very good instrument. (I have no financial interest.) Raymond Horton Bass Trombonist, Louisville Orchestra Minister of Music, Edwardsville (IN) UMC Composer, Arranger VISIT US AT rayhortonmusic.com On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 6:32 PM, John Howell <john.how...@vt.edu> wrote: > At 9:57 PM +0100 7/1/11, Steve Parker wrote: > >On 1 Jul 2011, at 02:52, Horace Brock wrote: > > > >> One guy in our band uses one that he bought himself, but > >> the others play BBb tubas even if they're playing the Eb part. In the > >> same way, people in the USA playing the baritone parts don't play > >> baritones. They play euphoniums. In the UK, they're more traditional. > > > >It's no more 'traditional' than to say that in the UK we're > >traditional because we don't substitute violas for cellos in our > >orchestras! > >Baritone parts on Euphonium just breaks the writing. > > > >Steve P. > > I'm afraid I don't quite follow. But in the U.S. you will most often > find a mixture of baritones and euphoniums, with no differentiation > between them. And no differentiation in parts in the music, either. > Just as you will most often find trumpets playing cornet parts, and > seldom find Eb tubas. > > It's true (from my limited observation) that more people seem to be > buying true euphoniums than true baritones these days, but in our > community band we've had a real mixture including, at times, a > genuine doubled-belled one (which I assume is a sort of combined > euphonium and Bb tenor horn). And one of our current players favors > a "Flugelbone," and I'm not sure what it actually is acoustically. > > I just checked in the latest Woodwind & Brasswind catalog (my > reference for current trends in band instruments), and sure enough, > the section is labeled "Euphoniums," and the majority of instruments > illustrated are called euphoniums, but about a half dozen are labeled > baritones, some bell-front and some upright, and all with smaller > bores, smaller bells, and only a few with 4 valves. > > I don't quite see what that has to do with violas and cellos, though, > since they play in two different octaves. > > John > > > -- > John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music > Virginia Tech Department of Music > College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences > Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 > Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 > (mailto:john.how...@vt.edu) > http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html > > "We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition > of jazz musicians. > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > Finale@shsu.edu > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
