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Carl Wilhelm Moritz
Carl Wilhelm Moritz (1810-1855) was a German musical instrument builder. Biography Moritz was born in Berlin, the son of instrument builder Johann Gottfried Moritz, who had invented the 5 valve bass tuba together with Wilhelm Wieprecht. Carl Wilhelm took over his father's business when his father retired, 5 years before his death. Wieprecht was a musical director for the royal military bands in Berlin, and in 1835 gave C. W. Moritz the task of producing baroque kettle drums and other military drums for the reforms of military music happening at the time. Moritz was able to design numerous improvements to these drums, including using thinner kettle walls than had previously been possible, and improved tuning keys. On 8 May 1838, a concert was given to celebrate a visit to Berlin by the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, which featured over 1,000 musicians and 200 drummers, and used Moritz's drums. Original timpani and drums built by Moritz are still kept in museums today. Carl Wilhelm ...
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Johann Gottfried Moritz
Johann Gottfried Moritz (1777 - 23 July 1840) was a German musical instrument builder, best known as one of the inventors of the modern tuba. Biography Moritz was born in Berlin in 1777. From 1799 he apprenticed as an instrument builder in Leipzig, then in 1805 moved to Dresden. From 1808 he returned to Berlin and opened his own workshop. In 1819 he was appointed as instrument maker to the Prussian royal court, where he worked for most of his career. Together with Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, the director of the royal military music corps, Moritz was successful in greatly improving the valve system used on early brass instruments. These valves designed by Moritz and Wieprecht were known as “Berliner Pumpen”, and were more reliable than the previous models. Shortly after that, Moritz invented the "Bass tuba in F", the first modern tuba, which he patented in 1835. Wieprecht included the new tuba in military bands almost immediately, where its descendants remain used as the ba ...
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Bass Tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide. ''Tuba'' is Latin for "trumpet". A person who plays the tuba is called a tubaist, a tubist, or simply a tuba player. In a British brass band or military band, they are known as bass players. History Prussian Patent No. 19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Johann Gottfried Moritz (1777–1840) on September 12, 1835 for a "bass tuba" in F1. The original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern piston valve. The first tenor tuba was invented in 1838 by Carl Wilhelm Moritz (1810–1855), son of Johann Gottfried Moritz. The addition of valves made it possi ...
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Wilhelm Wieprecht
Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht (10 August 18024 August 1872) was a German musical conductor, composer and inventor. Early life Wieprecht was born at Aschersleben, where his father was a town musician. According to his autobiography, from a young age Wieprecht learned from his father to play on nearly all wind instruments. It was in violin-playing, however, that his father particularly wished him to excel; and in 1819 he went to Dresden, where he studied composition and the violin to such good purpose that a year later he was given a position in the city orchestra of Leipzig, playing also in those of the opera and the famous Gewandhaus. At this time, besides playing the violin and clarinet in the orchestra, he also gave solo performances on the trombone. In 1824 he went to Berlin, where he became a member of the royal orchestra, and was in the same year appointed chamber musician to the king. His residence at Berlin gave Wieprecht ample opportunity for the exercise of his genius for ...
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Kettle Drums
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. Thus timpani are an example of kettle drums, also known as vessel drums and semispherical drums, whose body is similar to a section of a sphere whose cut conforms the head. Most modern timpani are ''pedal timpani'' and can be tuned quickly and accurately to specific pitches by skilled players through the use of a movable foot-pedal. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a ''timpani stick'' or ''timpani mallet''. Timpani evolved from military drums to become a staple of the classical orchestra by the last third of the 18th century. Today, they are used in many types of ensembles, including concert bands, marching bands, orchestras, and even in some rock bands. ''Timpani'' is an Italian p ...
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Tsar Nicholas I
, house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire , burial_place = Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire , religion = Russian Orthodox , signature = Signatur Nikolaus I. (Russland).PNG Nicholas I , group=pron ( – ) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He was the third son of Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him. He is mainly remembered in history as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth, and massive industrialisation on the one hand, and centralisation of administrative policies and r ...
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Tenor Tuba
The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word ''euphōnos'', meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ( ''eu'' means "well" or "good" and ''phōnē'' means "sound", hence "of good sound"). The euphonium is a valved instrument. Nearly all current models have piston valves, though some models with rotary valves do exist. Euphonium music may be notated in the bass clef as a non-transposing instrument or in the treble clef as a transposing instrument in B. In British brass bands, it is typically treated as a treble-clef instrument, while in American band music, parts may be written in either treble clef or bass clef, or both. Name The euphonium is in the family of brass instruments, more particularly low-brass instruments with many relatives. It is extremely similar to a baritone horn. The difference is that the bore size of the baritone horn is typically small ...
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Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity. It is a non-transposing instrument and typically its music is written in the bass and tenor clefs, and sometimes in the treble. There are two forms of modern bassoon: the Buffet (or French) and Heckel (or German) systems. It is typically played while sitting using a seat strap, but can be played while standing if the player has a harness to hold the instrument. Sound is produced by rolling both lips over the reed and blowing direct air pressure to cause the reed to vibrate. Its fingering system can be quite complex when compared to those of other instruments. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature, and is occasionally heard in pop, ro ...
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Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the '' Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textur ...
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Bass Trumpet
The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B today, but is sometimes built in E and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the pitch of the instrument. Having valves and the same tubing length, the bass trumpet is quite similar to the valve trombone, although the bass trumpet has a harder, more metallic tone. Certain modern manufacturers offering 'valve trombones' and 'bass trumpets' use the same tubing, valves, and bell, in different configurations - in these cases the bass trumpet is virtually identical to the valve trombone. History The earliest mention of the bass trumpet is in the 1821 ''Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung'', in which Heinrich Stölzel's ''Chromatische Tenor-trompetenbaß'' and Griesling & Schlott's ''Chromatische Trompetenbaß'' are described. Several other variants were produced through the 1 ...
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Bass Trombone
The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and usually two valves to fill in the missing range immediately above the pedal tones. History The earliest bass trombones were the bass sackbuts, usually pitched in G, F, or E♭ below the B♭ tenor. They had a smaller bore and less flared bell than modern instruments, and a longer slide with an attached handle to allow slide positions otherwise beyond the reach of a fully outstretched arm. The earliest known surviving specimen is an instrument in G built in Germany in 1593. This instrument matches descriptions and illustrations by Praetorius from his 1614–20 '' Syntagma Musicum''. These bass sackbuts were sometimes called , , and (Old German, , referring to intervals below B♭), though somet ...
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Wagner Tuba
The Wagner tuba is a four-valve brass instrument named after and commissioned by Richard Wagner. It combines technical features of both standard tubas and French horns, though despite its name, the Wagner tuba is more similar to the latter, and usually played by horn players. Wagner commissioned the instrument for his four-part opera cycle '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'', where its purpose was to bridge the acoustical and textural gap between the French horn and trombone. The sound produced by this instrument has been variously described as "smoky," "metallic," "unearthly" and "majestic." Wagner tubas (or ''Tenortuben'' and ''Basstuben'') are also referred to as Wagnertuben, Waldhorntuben, Bayreuth-tuben, Ring-tuben, or Horn-tuben by German writers, but it is most common to refer to them in English as Wagner tubas. Wagner's published scores usually refer to these instruments in the plural, ''Tuben'', but sometimes in the singular, ''Tuba''.Keays, James Harvey. "An investigation in ...
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Ring Des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelungenlied''. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel" (stage festival play), structured in three days preceded by a ("preliminary evening"). It is often referred to as the ''Ring'' cycle, Wagner's ''Ring'', or simply ''The Ring''. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the ''Ring'' cycle are, in sequence: * ''Das Rheingold'' (''The Rhinegold'') * ''Die Walküre'' (''The Valkyrie'') * ''Siegfried'' * ''Götterdämmerung'' (''Twilight of the Gods'') Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas contain dialogues that mention events in the previous operas, so that a viewer could watch any of them without ha ...
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