Actually, I had no wish to imply either thing. In fact the second
statement was made by another person, not me. At any rate I've owned and
played many cut bell horns that were very good. My only concern was that it's
not a good thing in all cases. For the vast majority of horns it makes little
difference, as Dennis mentioned. There are some horns though, that it makes
sense to think before cutting. Think of it another way, I have yet to see a
Stradivarius violin cut in half so it would fit in a smaller case. This is
surely an oversight as it certainly would be more convenient for traveling.
Come to think of it, the Mona Lisa is sort of inconveniently large.
I do not ascribe the trombone-like sound to having a cut bell, or to the
use of the Bb horn or to the mouthpiece. I ascribe it to horns of many makers
that want to produce a very direct sound that has no resonance with the hall.
This is a type of sound that you can point and say, "that sound is coming from
right There". On the other hand, a resonant horn gets all the air molecules in
the room doing a very sexy tango and the sound seems to come from Everywhere.
I like that better.
I'm not saying that any particular type of horn makes that sound either.
I've heard the beautiful resonant sound from big bells, small bells, brass,
nickel, Geyer wrap, Kruspe wrap, Schmidt wrap, Gangsta wrap, whatever. I've
also heard the trombone sound from all of the above, just from different makers.
And yes, the player makes the sound, but I can think of a world class
player who used to have an amazing tone but now sounds quite dead with little
projection on their current trombone oops I meant horn. The incredible
artistry and formidable technique is still there, just not the tone.
And I do love trombones! I just think they should be kept in trombone
cases. I just finished my prototype alto trombone last week and have been
having some people try it out for some final tweaking. So far getting good
reviews. Also been wasting time building a single Bb slide french horn. Well,
sometimes you just get tired of doing practical work. It plays good though!
My secret weapon for trombone duets.
- Steve Mumford
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Daniel wrote:
Steve, you seem to imply that the fault of that trombone-like sound is
of the cut bells. But I could make many examples of players using cut-
bell horns, whose sound nobody would dare to criticize in that way.
By the way, in your original post (which I have not conserved) you
also seemed to imply a sort of statistical proof that cut-bell is bad
("of all the horns I've owned..." or something like that). However,
that could be meaningful only if you was speaking of hundreds of horns
of all types, provided you made some seriously devised tests...
All the best,
Daniel Canarutto
dedicated amateur & lifelong learner
On 13Apr 2011, at 20:35 , Steven Mumford wrote:
>
>
> A careful reader might wonder if Hans might be arguing out of
> both sides of his keyboard at the same time. So is there minimal or
> no effect from the screwbell ring, or does it "prevent it from
> blaring". Why would one bother adding a kranz if THE ENCLOSING
> METAL CHANNEL has no effect?
> The point is well taken that the great artist makes the sound.
> But my position is that a great artist can make a really good horn
> sound better than a dead horn, otherwise why shouldn't we all just
> play Chinese horns? They all have screw bells. Some horns have a
> beautiful natural resonance that makes it easy to penetrate in a
> richly satisfying way to the last seat in the back of the hall, even
> at a pianissimo dynamic with the rest of the orchestra playing. I
> wouldn't change a thing to a horn like that. The thing is, that
> kind of sound has mostly disappeared, even from the top professional
> world. I went to a concert of a VERY good orchestra last year and
> several times as I was looking down I thought, "oh the trombone
> section sounds good". Ooops. But that's why people aren't bothered
> if you make their horn dead as a doornail. That's the prevailing
> aesthetic these days.
> Yes, changes in sound, response, pitch etc. can be made from the
> outside of the horn, not even having to tamper with the air column.
>
> - Steve Mumford
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