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Wagner Tuba
The Wagner tuba is a four-valve brass instrument commissioned by and named after 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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Wind Instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of some wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed; others require buzzing into a metal mouthpiece, while yet others require the player to blow into a hole at an edge, which splits the air column and creates the sound. Methods for obtaining different notes * Using different air columns for different tones, such as in the pan flute. These instruments can play several notes at once. * Changing the length of the vibrating air column by changing the length of the tube through engaging valves ''(see rotary valve, piston valve)'' which route the air through additional tubing, ...
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Leitmotif
A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial anglicization of the German '' Leitmotiv'' (), literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity". In particular, such a motif should be "clearly identified so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances" whether such modification be in terms of rhythm, harmony, orchestration or accompaniment. It may also be "combined with other leitmotifs to suggest a new dramatic condition" or development. The technique ...
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Transposing Instrument
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch (concert pitch is the pitch on a non-transposing instrument such as the piano). For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing instrument produces a pitch other than middle C; that sounding pitch identifies the interval of transposition when describing the instrument. Playing a written C on clarinet or soprano saxophone produces a concert B (i.e. B at concert pitch), so these are referred to as B instruments. Providing transposed music for these instruments is a convention of musical notation. The instruments do not transpose the music; rather, their music is written at a transposed pitch. Where chords are indicated for improvisation they are also written in the appropriate transposed form. For some instruments, a written C sounds as a C but is in a different octave; these instruments are said to transpose "at the octave". Pitches on the double bass sound an ...
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Rotary Valve
A rotary valve (also called rotary-motion valve) is a type of valve in which the rotation of a passage or passages in a transverse plug regulates the flow of liquid or gas through the attached pipes. The common stopcock is the simplest form of rotary valve. Rotary valves have been applied in numerous applications, including: * Changing the pitch of brass instruments. * Controlling the steam and exhaust ports of steam engines, most notably in the Corliss steam engine. * Periodically reversing the flow of air and fuel across the open hearth furnace. * Loading sample on chromatography columns. * Certain types of two-stroke and four-stroke engines. * Most hydraulic automotive power steering control valves. Use in brass instruments In the context of brass instruments, Brass instrument valve#Rotary valve, rotary valves are found on French horn, horns, trumpets, trombones, flugelhorns, and tubas. The cornet derived from the posthorn, by applying rotary valves to it in the 1820s in Fran ...
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Engelbert Schmid
Engelbert Schmid is a classical musician and horn maker. After playing with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, solo-horn with the Munich Radio Orchestra The Munich Radio Orchestra (German: ''Münchner Rundfunkorchester'') is a German symphony broadcast orchestra based in Munich. It is one of the two orchestras affiliated with the Bavarian Radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk), the other being the Bavaria ... for ten years, in 1980 Engelbert Schmid exhibited his Horns for the first time. In 1990 he established his own workshop. As a Master Craftsman he personally trained his present instrument makers. References Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Germany Players of the Berlin Philharmonic Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Brass instrument manufacturing companies {{Musical-instrument-company-stub ...
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Paxman Musical Instruments
Paxman Musical Instruments Ltd is a British manufacturer of French horn, horns. Paxman is the instrument of choice of a number of leading British players, including Michael Thompson (horn player), Michael Thompson. Paxman was established at the turn of the twentieth century by Harry Paxman, but did not start production of horns until 1945, when no more than twelve instruments a year were made. Robert Paxman was honoured with an Order of the British Empire for his services to music. 1950 saw the arrival in England of Richard Merewether, a professional horn player whose career had started with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As his career in England progressed, he found himself specialising more and more in the high register of the instrument. He had been working on ideas of horn design for a number of years and had researched areas of physics which he thought to be fundamental to the successful design and manufacture of such instruments. He approached Robert Paxman with these ide ...
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An Alpine Symphony
''An Alpine Symphony'' (''Eine Alpensinfonie''), Op. 64, is a tone poem for large orchestra written by German composer Richard Strauss which premiered in 1915. It is one of Strauss's largest non-operatic works; the score calls for about 125 players and a typical performance usually lasts around 50 minutes. The program of ''An Alpine Symphony'' depicts the experiences of eleven hours (from daybreak just before dawn to nightfall) spent climbing an Alpine mountain. History Strauss's ''An Alpine Symphony'' was completed in 1915, eleven years after the completion of its immediate predecessor in the genre of the tone poem, '' Symphonia Domestica''. In 1911, Strauss wrote that he was "torturing imselfwith a symphony – a job that, when all's said and done, amuses me even less than chasing cockroaches".Marc Mandel"Richard Strauss: ''An Alpine Symphony'', Op. 64" ''Boston Symphony Orchestra''; accessed 2 March 2009. One point of influence comes from Strauss's love of nature. ...
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Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early Modernism (music), modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Along with Gustav Mahler, he represents the late flowering of German Romanticism, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmony, harmonic style. Strauss's compositional output began in 1870 when he was just six years old and lasted until his death nearly eighty years later. His first tone poem to achieve wide acclaim was ''Don Juan (Strauss), Don Juan'', and this was followed by other lauded works of this kind, including ''Death and Transfiguration'', ''Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks'', ''Also sprach Zarathustra'', ''Don Quixote (Strauss), Don Quixote'', ''Ein Heldenleben'', ''Symph ...
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Symphony No
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section (violin, viola, cello, and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts (e.g., Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, or Mahler's Second Symphony). Etymology and origins The word ''symphony'' is derived from the Greek word (), meaning ...
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Anton Bruckner
Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Bruckner), Te Deum and List of motets by Anton Bruckner, motets. The symphonies are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austrian German, Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphony, polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their Consonance and dissonance, dissonances, unprepared modulation (music), modulations, and roving harmony, harmonies. Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf, Bruckner showed respect, even humility, before other famous musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his ...
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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 five-valve bass tuba together with Wilhelm Wieprecht. Carl Wilhelm took over his father's business when his father retired, five 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 ...
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Bore (wind Instruments)
In music, the bore of a wind instrument (including woodwind and brass) is its interior chamber. This defines a flow path through which air travels, which is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on the instrument's timbre. Bore shapes The cone and the cylinder are the two idealized shapes used to describe the bores of wind instruments. Other shapes are not generally used, as they tend to produce dissonant, anharmonic overtones and an unmusical sound. Instruments may consist of a primarily conical or cylindrical tube, but begin in a mouthpiece, and end in a rapidly-expanding "flare" or "bell". This flare reduces the acoustic impedance mismatch between the instrument and the air, allowing the instrument to transmit sound to the air more effectively. These shapes affect the prominence of harmonics associated with the timbre of the instrument. A bore that flares from the mouthpiece reduces resistance to the breath, while a bore that ...
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