Starting a low brass ensemble ?

[marccromme]

Hi there, I have been playing Bass Bone in Big Band and harmony wind orchestra, and Eh tuba in Brass Band for many years, but think now time is ripe for something different.

I would like to start a low brass ensemble here in Copenhagen, something like 4 to 6 low brass players. Either Tuba Quartett, Bone Quartett, or blended mix of low brass.

Idea is to practice every second week, fun stuff, and to be th to-go-to low brass amateurs to call when your xxx band/Orchester/Project needs a scilled set of low brass used to play together for your next concert.

I need some ideas and thoughts of what would work in a mixed context.

A Quintett consisting of contra bass tuba, bass tuba, bass bone, tenor bone, frensh horn?

Sextett, above plus euphonium?

Or tuba Quartett plus trombone Quartett?

What do you think will work?

I have a nice collection of trombone quartetts sheet music, Ingo Louis and similar, and tons of renaissance faksimile prints, which may be used. Besides that, what sheet music will work?

Would be nice to play "Etude im Stil Bruckner's" Crespo, for example. Other similar suggestions?

Please let your ideas flow, I could use some inspiration from your experience...

[bone-a-phone]

I've had a trombone quartet for 6 years now. I think it's a great format. Very flexible, especially if you have at least one player with high chops and one with low chops. We are all but one former pro/semi-pro players. Sometimes I wish we had the depth of a tuba. Visually, I think the trombone ensemble is more interesting, really just due to the all the slides moving at the same time. 2 tubas and 2 euphs is also a common combination that I think works well, and there's some music already in existence. I've always been curious about a trombone family group with a contra, bass, tenor and alto, but this is a little more specialized and you'd have to be careful about the music you choose. Audiences seem intrigued by the trombone family. Showing up with different size instruments I think would be a draw.

My quartet has a book with about 200 charts. we do some of our own arrangements. A couple of the members are involved in their own churches, and not really open to playing at other churches on Sunday. So even though we could really clean up playing classical and liturgical stuff at churches, we don't do that, and wind up playing less masterful arrangements of pop styles at less ideal venues.

We wind up gravitating toward traditional jazz, ragtime, swing standards. Maybe as a secondary specialty we do a fair number of folk melody arrangements. The book has a lot of great baroque, classical and romantic charts, but we don't play these. I think the most powerful performance we ever had was Beethoven's Drei Equali at a big church funeral. Right group, right music, right situation, right venue.

Getting the right people in the right circumstances is key. We have 4 people who don't have day jobs (retired) so we can practice or play at any time of day. That really helps. The issue about playing at churches really limits us, and I sometimes wish I could have found a bunch of heathens who will play at any church for a couple of bucks.

Also, if you go with trombones, make sure you recruit a real bass bone player. In our group, we are all tenor players. One prima dona who won't play high or low but always wants the lead, two who can play high, and one who plays both high and low, but doesn't like to play low. By high, I mean more than an octave over middle c, and by low, I mean under the bass clef staff.

Also be careful, because as I've learned, not everybody reads music the same way. We have 2 people who don't read tenor clef, and only one or two who can read non-transposing treble clef (for playing out of a hymnal).

And beyond that, we all have different musical backgrounds. We have a former big band trombonist, one soloist, one orchestral player, and one high school band graduate. People have different concepts of volume, soloing, duets, background playing, bass lines, etc. It's not always easy to get these concepts to blend. We've even had people substitute in the group who weren't familiar with Beatles tunes, or Bruckner, or Catholic liturgy.

The tl;dr version is to be careful to select players that line up with the kind of playing and the kind of ensemble you want. You should find out ahead of time what their background and capabilities are. Where I live, there isn't that big a selection of people who want to play, you may have a different situation. Best of luck.

[Yadent]

I was involved with a low brass sextet for over 6 years. 2 CC tubas and 4 euphoniums. Occasionally brought in a couple of Wagner tubas for the octet pieces. Not a lot of music for sextet low brass so we ended up arranging other instrumental and vocal scores for our group. A ton of fun. Sorry when it ended. Have also played with a quintet composed of 3 tenor bones, a bass bone, and either my tuba or cimbasso. Mainly Christmas stuff. People loved the look and sound. Again, for this ensemble, we had to arrange some traditional quintet scores for the group. In my experience, arranging from other instrumental/vocal arrangements, for every one that ‘worked’ 2 would go into the ‘round’ file. Good luck with your endeavors. Low brass ensembles are a blast!!

[tylerferris1213]

I have a low brass quartet (contrabass tuba, bass tuba, 2 euphs) that has been meeting semi-frequently in my backyard during the pandemic. It's a lot of fun! We've been playing a lot of my arrangements. I find that choral works, organ pieces, and waltzes work especially well in this format. I've been toying with adding trombones to my arrangements, but the more people you have, the harder logistics get for getting the required number of players in one place at the same time. I would absolutely recommend getting a low brass group together!

[marccromme]

Thanks for the good thoughts, nice to see that it works with a low brass ensemble. Good observations on standard tuba and trombone quartetts, fortunately I love to play bass trombone, so that part is covered.

Intriguing idea with contrabass, bass, two tenor and one alto trombone, I can see the perspectives, but pretty hard to find skilled amateurs playing contra bass and alto. I think it will be a gorgeous combo, though.

I have previously encountered problems finding people which are flexible in reading different clefs and transpositions, this proves often to be a challenge which, if not fulfilled, will give major headaches and time spent to rewrite sheet music.

Good idea to focus on pop, ragtimes, jazz and swing for outdoor concerts, but I think there is much classical stuff which is nice too. I once performed Beethoven's and Bruckners equali, really beautiful.

Does anybody have experiences with mixed low brass ensembles? I think it would be easier to find people for that then a clean quartett, but then sheet music might be a challenge?

[tylerferris1213]

You could always take my format and substitute in a bass trombone instead of euph 2 or tuba 1 if that's what you're itching to play. I find anything more than a quartet a nightmare to coordinate in regards to everyone's schedules.

[bone-a-phone]

People talk a lot about blending, but I find that different voices work like actual voices in a choir. Blending is important, but you don't want the voices to be really identical. If all the voices of an ensemble sounded exactly the same, you would lose something. Each player in my quartet has a distinct voice, which I think helps the sound especially when all the instruments are roughly in the same range.

You might be able to put a baritone or tenor horn in there to give a clearer voice for solos or lead. But if you're going to do pop-ish styles, you can't substitute for the slide effects.

Another way to look at an ensemble is to take it as the low brass section of an orchestra - 3 bones and a tuba. F tuba or even cimbasso would work great with trombones. Mnozil is an orchestral brass section (minus horns).

[marccromme]

Another way to look at an ensemble is to take it as the low brass section of an orchestra - 3 bones and a tuba. F tuba or even cimbasso would work great with trombones. Mnozil is an orchestral brass section (minus horns).

Interesting thought. Never ocurred to me before, but makes sense. Seeing a low brass group from that perspective opens new possibilities. Thanks!