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1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments
Fig. 1.4 A didgeridoo played by Ben Lange. Photograph: Kate Callas, www.phys.unsw.edu.au/
jw/didjeridu.html
The ram’s horn, also known as the shofar (Fig. 1.3b), continues to play an important
role in Jewish religious ceremonies.
The Australian didgeridoo, like the conch and the ram’s horn, is based on a
found object with dimensions suitable for a labrosone resonator. In the case of the
didgeridoo, the resonator is made by termites hollowing out the dead heartwood of
a Eucalyptus tree. In aboriginal mythology the didgeridoo has been played for many
millennia, although rock paintings in Northern Australia do not contain depictions
of the instrument until around 1000 CE. Figure 1.4 illustrates a contemporary
didgeridoo played by Ben Lange.
1.1.2 Early Metal Labrosones
The earliest known surviving metal labrosones are the two short trumpets found
in Egypt in 1922 during the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun. These
instruments, one of silver and one of gilded bronze, date from the fourteenth century
BCE. Figure 1.5a is a photograph of the silver trumpet with its accompanying solid
wooden core, taken by Harry Burton at the time of the excavation.
What sounds might a modern brass player coax from this iconic instrument,
which lay mute and entombed for more than 3000 years? Current museum conservation protocols forbid playing experiments on such unique and fragile instruments,
but standards were less strict in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1939
Bandsman James Tappern of the British regiment of 11th Hussars was invited to
play the Tutankhamun trumpet in a live BBC broadcast from the Cairo Museum
1 The Musician’s Experience of Brass Instruments
Fig. 1.4 A didgeridoo played by Ben Lange. Photograph: Kate Callas, www.phys.unsw.edu.au/
jw/didjeridu.html
The ram’s horn, also known as the shofar (Fig. 1.3b), continues to play an important
role in Jewish religious ceremonies.
The Australian didgeridoo, like the conch and the ram’s horn, is based on a
found object with dimensions suitable for a labrosone resonator. In the case of the
didgeridoo, the resonator is made by termites hollowing out the dead heartwood of
a Eucalyptus tree. In aboriginal mythology the didgeridoo has been played for many
millennia, although rock paintings in Northern Australia do not contain depictions
of the instrument until around 1000 CE. Figure 1.4 illustrates a contemporary
didgeridoo played by Ben Lange.
1.1.2 Early Metal Labrosones
The earliest known surviving metal labrosones are the two short trumpets found
in Egypt in 1922 during the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun. These
instruments, one of silver and one of gilded bronze, date from the fourteenth century
BCE. Figure 1.5a is a photograph of the silver trumpet with its accompanying solid
wooden core, taken by Harry Burton at the time of the excavation.
What sounds might a modern brass player coax from this iconic instrument,
which lay mute and entombed for more than 3000 years? Current museum conservation protocols forbid playing experiments on such unique and fragile instruments,
but standards were less strict in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1939
Bandsman James Tappern of the British regiment of 11th Hussars was invited to
play the Tutankhamun trumpet in a live BBC broadcast from the Cairo Museum