1.2 The Musician’s Interpretation of the Brass Playing Experience
13
diameter of most orchestral brass instruments increased significantly, with musical
consequences which will be discussed in Sects. 4.6 and 6.1.
The labrosone journey has certainly not reached its terminus. After exploring
and describing the musical and scientific behaviour of today’s brass instruments,
our book concludes in Sect. 9.2 with some thoughts about the possible next steps in
that journey.
1.2 The Musician’s Interpretation of the Brass Playing
Experience
When a skilled musician plays a brass instrument, the production of a good sound
can appear to an observer to be almost effortless. A complete beginner attempting
to play a brass instrument by placing it to the lips and blowing will typically
expend great muscular effort and lung power to produce even an uncontrolled and
unmusical note. In fact, sound production in brass instruments requires skill rather
than effort. The physical aspects of playing need to be easy so that the musician can
concentrate on the artistic aspects of playing – phrasing, ensemble and expression
– with minimal attention to producing notes. The training and extensive practice
which are necessary to make the transition from complete beginner to experienced
musician allow a player to perform without concentrating on technique. In this
section, we analyse aspects of playing which musicians recognised to be important
in learning and teaching but are not always conscious of during performance.
1.2.1 Musical Pitch Notation
In describing or analysing musical performance, it is frequently necessary to identify
the pitch of a played note. This can be done graphically using musical staff notation,
but it is convenient to have a symbolic method of identifying the pitch class and
octave of a particular note. Several different systems for labelling pitches can be
found in the literature on musical instruments (Campbell et al. 2004). In this book
frequent use is made of International Pitch Notation (IPN), whose relationship to
staff notation is illustrated in Fig. 1.11. An 88-note piano keyboard has a pitch
range from A0 to C8 in IPN; ‘middle C’ is C4. The pitch standard to which
orchestral instruments tune is specified by the frequency of the note A4. The current
international standard pitch is defined as A4 = 440 Hz, although in historically
informed performances, other pitch standards including A4 = 415 Hz and A4 =
465 Hz are commonly adopted (Haynes 2002).
13
diameter of most orchestral brass instruments increased significantly, with musical
consequences which will be discussed in Sects. 4.6 and 6.1.
The labrosone journey has certainly not reached its terminus. After exploring
and describing the musical and scientific behaviour of today’s brass instruments,
our book concludes in Sect. 9.2 with some thoughts about the possible next steps in
that journey.
1.2 The Musician’s Interpretation of the Brass Playing
Experience
When a skilled musician plays a brass instrument, the production of a good sound
can appear to an observer to be almost effortless. A complete beginner attempting
to play a brass instrument by placing it to the lips and blowing will typically
expend great muscular effort and lung power to produce even an uncontrolled and
unmusical note. In fact, sound production in brass instruments requires skill rather
than effort. The physical aspects of playing need to be easy so that the musician can
concentrate on the artistic aspects of playing – phrasing, ensemble and expression
– with minimal attention to producing notes. The training and extensive practice
which are necessary to make the transition from complete beginner to experienced
musician allow a player to perform without concentrating on technique. In this
section, we analyse aspects of playing which musicians recognised to be important
in learning and teaching but are not always conscious of during performance.
1.2.1 Musical Pitch Notation
In describing or analysing musical performance, it is frequently necessary to identify
the pitch of a played note. This can be done graphically using musical staff notation,
but it is convenient to have a symbolic method of identifying the pitch class and
octave of a particular note. Several different systems for labelling pitches can be
found in the literature on musical instruments (Campbell et al. 2004). In this book
frequent use is made of International Pitch Notation (IPN), whose relationship to
staff notation is illustrated in Fig. 1.11. An 88-note piano keyboard has a pitch
range from A0 to C8 in IPN; ‘middle C’ is C4. The pitch standard to which
orchestral instruments tune is specified by the frequency of the note A4. The current
international standard pitch is defined as A4 = 440 Hz, although in historically
informed performances, other pitch standards including A4 = 415 Hz and A4 =
465 Hz are commonly adopted (Haynes 2002).