Mnozil Brass is an Austrian brass

septet A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry. ...

. They play classical, jazz and other styles of music using traditional brass instruments and more unusual instruments such as the customized rotary valved trumpet and

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 sixt ...

. Music is presented with a typical Austrian style of humour, which can be approximately characterized as "jet black" and "here and there" absurd. Elements of

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

exist next to virtuosic brass playing. They are often popularly referred to as "The

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

of the musical world". Austrian and German schlager songs of the 20th century are often caricatured.

History

All the founding members are graduates of the renowned

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College of Music, who met while playing at the Mnozil pub in Vienna's first inner-city district. The band was founded in 1992 although its first official outing was in 1993. Former member Sebastian Fuchsberger was a great talent in imitating, for example,

Johannes Heesters Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters (5 December 1903 – 24 December 2011), known professionally as Johannes Heesters, was a Dutch actor of stage, television and film, as well as a vocalist of numerous recordings and performer on the concert stag ...

and

Udo Jürgens Udo Jürgens (born Jürgen Udo Bockelmann; 30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014) was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, composed close ...

. Mnozil Brass is able to convince the audience that playing music is not just serious business. The septet cooperates with freelance director Bernd Jeschek who developed the stage programs "Smoke", "Ragazzi" and "Seven" and the "first operetta of the 21st century" titled "Das Trojanische Boot" ("The Trojan Boat"), whose world premiere was in 2005 during the German art festival

RuhrTriennale The Ruhrtriennale (compound of ''Ruhr'' and ''triennale'' "lasting 3 years"), also known as Ruhr Triennale, was founded in 2002 and is a music and arts festival in the Ruhr-area of Germany which runs between mid-August and mid-October, and happens ...

. The group has toured internationally and won praise from artists such as

Barry Tuckwell Barry Emmanuel Tuckwell, (5 March 1931 – 16 January 2020) was an Australian French horn player who spent most of his professional life in the UK and the United States. He is generally considered to have been one of the world's leading horn p ...

, Chuck Findley, Jeff Nelson and

Wycliffe Gordon Wycliffe A. Gordon (born May 29, 1967) is an American jazz trombonist, arranger, composer, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. Gordon also sings and plays didgeridoo, trumpet, soprano trombone, tuba, and piano. ...

Members

Thomas Gansch Thomas Gansch (born 31 December 1975 in St. Pölten) is a well-known Vienna-based Austrian trumpet player. In 1992 the brass septet Mnozil Brass was founded in which he has since played first trumpet. In 1999 he was invited to the Vienna Art O ...

(

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

) * Robert Rother (

) * Roman Rindberger (

) (since 2004) * Leonhard Paul (

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

) * Gerhard Füßl (

) * Zoltan Kiss (

) (since 2005) * Wilfried Brandstötter (

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 ne ...

)

Former members

* Wolfgang Sohm (trumpet) until 2004 *

Sebastian Fuchsberger Sebastian Fuchsberger (born 1971, in Salzburg) is an Austrian musician. He is a trombonist, tenor and yodeller, and a founding member of the Austrian jazz-folk band Global Kryner. Originally from a musical family from Koppl near Salzburg, Fuchsb ...

(trombone) until 2004 * Ed Partyka (trombone) until 2005 * Albert Wieder (tuba) (Temporary replacement for Brandstötter in 2015-2016)

Members Timeline

Repertoire from Seven Show

Mnozil has a wide repertoire. Their two-hour-long concerts feature the group playing all manners of music, always without sheet music, along with comedic antics and sketchlike parts. While the majority of items feature the band playing their brass instruments, they incorporate other instruments such as the

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

, as well as singing ("

Bohemian Rhapsody "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen, released as the lead single from their fourth album, '' A Night at the Opera'' (1975). Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack ...

" being a key example). Genres include Austrian drinking and folk songs, jazz, pop, rearrangements of classical pieces, movie soundtracks and schlager.

References

External links

*
Homepage of stage director Bernd Jeschek
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1992 Austrian jazz ensembles Austrian comedy musical groups Septets Brass bands