Re: question

[Simon Bailey]

On Wed, 2002-07-31 at 22:19, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:
> address@hidden writes:
> >         Michael Costa had backward-facing trombones made to counter
> >         his players' alleged 'overblowing'.) many of the Dodworth
> 
> backward facing trombones, now that's a good invention. Especially if
> you happen to sit in front of them :-)

i have to disagree -- there's no way you can hear what you're playing
then... *evilgrin* we poor trombone players have to take so much
stick... we sit furthest from the audience anyway -- that should
counteract overblowing enough. *gg* some composers try to counteract
this by marking "[...] the music pianissimo (This is Italian for 'it
doesn't matter how softly you play, if you're at the rehearsal, the
conductor will glare at you for playing too loud')." found at:
http://www.euphplayer.com/living.htm -- a very good insight into the
life of a trombonist. *g*

actually the main reason backward facing instruments were invented was
for marching columns of soldiers. the band normally preceded the column
and in order for the soldiers to be able to hear and march in time with
(and most likely sing along as well with ) the band, the bells of the
instruments were directed backwards over the shoulders of the players.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/ is an interesting page about the
history of brass bands (in america, but some of the stuff holds true for
europe as well).

laura, thanks for the information, that confirms my suspicion that it is
somewhere in the alto/tenor section.

greetings,
simon.

-- 
Confucius say, man who live in glass house shower in basement.