Dave Mickley

My brass quintet has been silent for about two years due to several reasons, my trombone player got lung cancer, bass player had another kid and the most important reason trying to get a decent French horn player that is dependable and willing to rehearse and play some freebies. We are [were] a decent group that gelled together and had the same outlook when it came to playing - we played retirement homes and churches for free unless the church had us play with their choir and needed an added reh. My question is has anyone ever played the F.H. part on a Eb trumpet? I guess this would be an easy transposition, but how would the part sound played on a trumpet compared to a F.H. ? Dave

__________________
formerly known as old geezer Dave
C7
Yam. 231 Fl. 15383
King Master Cornet 295628
Weril Cornet Lo 7535

Tootsall

Dave, why not play the parts on a flugel? The sound is "fairly" similar...large and broad. I'm not "into" the transposing scene (me bad) but would it be any more or less difficult than to an Eb?

Feel free to blow holes in the suggestion but I've seen/heard guys in our band cover french horn parts in the past with flugel and it doesn't sound that bad.

Brian H. Smout

Hi,

I live in what some consider to be the armpit of the universe. It makes Capser, WY look like a metropolis. No French hornists here but a there was spare trumpeter that could handle a brass quartet gig. I found an old Buescher mellophone on ebay and away we went. Sounded pretty good if I do say so myself. I've seen Getzen frumpets used or even an alto sax player that transposed in place of the horn. Purists may shudder but when the supply of players is limited you have to improvise.

Good luck,

Brian

__________________
"Swift Current - where we're neither swift nor current"

A.N.A. Mendez

My thoughts before I read the thread!

__________________
(Above) Alexanders ragtime band-circa 1960

"Baby, I'm already the coolest, and the hippist, now you want me to be on time too?" Buddy Love

"We appointed all our worst generals to command our armies, and our best generals to edit our newspapers." Robert E. Lee

Dave Mickley

I have a friend who majored in music [classical trumpet] all through college and has a D-Eb trumpet and said it would be an easy do with the Eb. I hope it doesn't sound weird or something before I offered to let him play, would really hate to invite a friend and then say -sorry charlie.

__________________
formerly known as old geezer Dave
C7
Yam. 231 Fl. 15383
King Master Cornet 295628
Weril Cornet Lo 7535

Richard Oliver

Mellophone. There ya go!


Richard, Metropolis Dweller

trumpetnick

If I would you I would go for Tenor Horn in E flat. A trumpet p-layer can easily learn it and would not be too difficult for a trumpet player to double on a Tenor Horn. If you want to unify the group more and make it more standard, you can replace the 2 trumpets by cornets and you will get Brass band style quintet.

__________________
Spada Bach B flat 72, leadpipe 2L/DWMM1.5C
Spada Bach C 256, leadpipe 2LQ/DWMM1.5C
1956 Olds Ambassador Cornet
Spada Custom Piccolo

If you don't know where you are going, you 'll end up someplace else

trumpetmike

The Eb trumpet will, most probably, be a small one, meaning that the horn parts will be played up an octave from where they were intended. In many arrangements this will make the voicing very peculiar.

I would go along with those people suggesting a flugel (especially if you have access to a 4 valve one - some of those horn parts go quite low) - the sound will be closer to the mellowness of the horn and you will be able to perform the parts in the octave in which they were intended.

Brekelefuw

In big bands, flugel always subs for french horn when the arrangement needs french horns.

trumpetnick

Another possibility is the valved corno de caccia, and manny of them are 4 valve...The sound will be even closer to french horn than the flugel (which is a good replacement too) especially when used with a deep V cup mouthpiece...I have used one quite succesfully with DW4FL though it was in an octet that I wrote myself and the part was written for that particular instrument.

__________________
Spada Bach B flat 72, leadpipe 2L/DWMM1.5C
Spada Bach C 256, leadpipe 2LQ/DWMM1.5C
1956 Olds Ambassador Cornet
Spada Custom Piccolo

If you don't know where you are going, you 'll end up someplace else