07-27-2019, 06:07 PM
(07-26-2019, 01:20 AM)Samulis Wrote: What makes the horn and trombone sound so different is simply down to mouthpieces, bore ratio and shape, and bell size/flare. If you put a horn mouthpiece on a trombone (with an adapter), you can get a tone out of the trombone somewhat closer to that of a horn, albeit with the bell facing forward. This, aside from right-handed vs. left-handedness, is what distinguishes a wagner tuba from a 'kaiser baritone' or saxhorn-family instrument, or a trumpet from a cornet. In a sense, all brass instruments exist somewhere on a spectrum of bore ratio, bell size/flare, and mouthpiece shape. What survives today are simply what managed to win out commercially in a 200-year evolutionary struggle.
This is a very interesting anecdote. I seem to remember reading that there were at some point also bass trumpets -- or was it piccolo trombones (or maybe both) -- that feel out of fashion due to sounding so similar to their larger/smaller cousins that there was little point in ever using them.
