Brass
Find general works about brass instruments below. For resources specific to each instrument see the dedicated research guides: Trumpet, Horn, Trombone, and Tuba and Euphonium.
Recommended Books
The recommended books below include reference and general works on brass instruments. Dictionaries and encyclopedias can be found in ML 102.B7 while bibliographies are in ML 128.W5. Meanwhile, find histories in ML 933 and teaching methods in MT 418. Books are sorted by their call numbers for ease of browsing. Click on the info icon to see a description.
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An Illustrated Dictionary for the Modern Trombone, Tuba, and Euphonium Player
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Modern low brass instruments--trombone, tuba, and euphonium--have legions of ancestors, cousins, and descendants in over five-hundred years of history. Prominent scholar and performer Douglas Yeo provides a unique, accessible reference guide that addresses a broad range of relevant topics and brings these instruments to life with clear explanations and the most up-to-date research. Brief biographies of many path-changing individuals highlight their influence on instrument development and use. The book's inclusive scope also recognizes the work of diverse, influential artists whose important contributions to trombone and tuba history and development have not previously been acknowledged in other literature. Extensive illustrations by Lennie Peterson provide insight into many of the entries.
Call Number: ML102.B7 Y46 2021 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 2021-10-28 -
Brass Bibliography: Sources on the History, Literature, Pedagogy, Performance, and Acoustics of Brass Instruments
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Lists, without annotation, some 6,000 books, journal articles, and dissertations in English, German, French, and Italian, with the entries divided into four main classifications: reference and research materials; history and music literature; pedagogy, study, and technique; and acoustics and construction.
Call Number: ML128.W5 F3 1990 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 1990 -
Brass Music of Black Composers: A Bibliography
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Aaron Horne provides the most comprehensive guide to brass music written by Black composers. He covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the book is biographical information; commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each piece; bibliographical sources; and an index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensemble. In this volume he covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, including William Grant Still, Ulysses Kay, Anthony Davis, John Coltrane, and other major figures from the world of classical, jazz, and popular music.
Call Number: ML128.W5 H62 1996 (Music Reference)Publication Date: 1996 -
Brass Instruments: Their History and Development
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In this readable, well-researched history, a distinguished authority on musical instruments offers a concise survey of the evolution of trumpets, trombones, bugles, cornets, French horns, tubas, and other brass wind instruments. The story begins with such primitive contrivances as bark trumpets, conch shells and perforated animal horns, bronze trumpets used by the ancient Danes and Celts, large Roman horns, and other devices. During the medieval period, a large number of curved instruments or horns of various shapes and sizes developed, including trumpets, looped horns, the sackbut (forerunner of the trombone), and others, while the Renaissance saw the introduction of the slide trumpet. In the nineteenth century, the advent of valved instruments ushered in yet another new era.
Call Number: ML930 .B28Publication Date: 1976 -
Valved Brass: The History of an Invention
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In the history of brass instruments few developments can rival the early nineteenth-century invention of the valve for enduring significance. Nevertheless the acceptance of valved brass instruments proved controversial as newspapers and other documents repeatedly attest. Christian Ahrens (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) in his important monograph Eine Erfindung und ihre Folgen: Blechblasinstrumente mit Ventilen (1986) devotes considerable attention to this heated controversy as he traces the early use of valved brass instruments in the realms of art music, military music, and Volksmusik. Stressing social and aesthetic issues over the more familiar mechanical aspects, the author draws on a rich body of journalistic source material to detail a compelling reception history.
Call Number: ML933 .A3713 2008Publication Date: 2008 -
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Brass Instruments
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Some thirty-two experts from fifteen countries join three of the world's leading authorities on the design, manufacture, performance, and history of brass musical instruments in this first major encyclopedia on the subject. It includes over one hundred illustrations, and gives attention to every brass instrument which has been regularly used, with information about the way they are played, the uses to which they have been put, and the importance they have had in classical music, sacred rituals, popular music, jazz, brass bands and the bands of the military.
Call Number: ML933 .C36 2019Publication Date: 2019 -
The Science of Brass Instruments
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This book provides an in-depth account of the fascinating but far from simple actions and processes that take place when a brass instrument is played. Written by three leading researchers in brass instrument acoustics who are also experienced brass players, it draws together the many recent advances in our understanding of the subtly interrelated factors shaping the musician's control of the instrument's sound. The reader is introduced to models of sound generation, propagation and radiation. In particular, the current understanding of the behavior of the player's lips, the modes of vibration of the air column inside the instrument, and the radiation of sound from a brass instrument bell are explained.
Call Number: ML933 .C37 2021Publication Date: 2021 -
Horns and Trumpets of the World: An Illustrated Guide
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Humanity has blown horns and trumpets of various makes and models, lengths and diameters since prehistoric times. In Horns and Trumpets of the World, the eminent scholar Jeremy Montagu surveys the vast range in time and type of this instrument that has accompanied everything in human history from the war cry to the formal symphony, from the hunting call to the modern jazz performance. No work on this topic offers as much detail or so many illustrations--over 150, in fact--of this remarkable instrument. Montagu offers details, including measurements, at levels rarely seen in other surveys of this world of instrumentation.
Call Number: ML933 .M66 2014Publication Date: 2014 -
The Brass Instrument Owner's Handbook
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This book provides professionals, musicians, teachers, students, and individuals interested in brass instruments with an abundance of knowledge. A touchstone work for both uninitiated and advanced players, The Brass Instrument Owner's Handbook provides a roadmap for every step of the owning process from selecting and buying (or renting) to maintaining, repairing, modifying, upgrading, and even re-selling your instrument. Chapters answer such questions as: Where did these instruments come from? What are the different kinds of historical and contemporary brass instruments? How do these instruments work? Who makes them and how? How do I choose and buy a brass instrument? How do I rent one? How do I take care of my brass instrument? And so much more. The book also provides readers with an instrument diary and in-depth glossary of terms.
Call Number: ML933 .P34 2016Publication Date: 2016 -
Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans
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Roll With It is a firsthand account of the precarious lives of musicians in the Rebirth, Soul Rebels, and Hot 8 brass bands of New Orleans. These young men are celebrated as cultural icons for upholding the proud traditions of the jazz funeral and the second line parade, yet they remain subject to the perils of poverty, racial marginalization, and urban violence that characterize life for many Black Americans. Some achieve a degree of social mobility while many more encounter aggressive policing, exploitative economies, and a political infrastructure that creates insecurities in healthcare, housing, education, and criminal justice. The gripping narrative moves with the band members from back street to backstage, before and after Hurricane Katrina, always in step with the tap of the snare drum, the thud of the bass drum, and the boom of the tuba.
Call Number: ML1311.7.L8 S34 2013Publication Date: 2013 -
Wind Talk for Brass: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching Brass Instruments
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Wind Talk for Brass provides instrumental music teachers, practitioners, and students with a handy, easy-to-use pedagogical resource for brass instruments found in school instrumental programs. With thorough coverage of the most common brass instruments - trumpet, horn, trombone, baritone/euphonium, and tuba/sousaphone - the book offers the most topical and information necessary for effective teaching. This includes terminology, topics, and concepts associated with each specific instrument, along with teaching suggestions that can be applied in the classroom.
Call Number: MT418 .E49 2009Publication Date: 2009
Interlibrary Loan
Users are encouraged to search for items beyond University Libraries' catalog via RILM Abstracts of Music Literature and WorldCat. Materials not available in print or online may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Please allow up to seven days for electronic delivery and up to fourteen days for delivery of physical items.