Brass Instruments

The Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments

Ed: Trevor Herbert, John Wallace

Pub: Cambridge University Press, 1997

ISBN: 0521565227

$26.00, 325 pages

            Several specialists in various fields wrote this book.  There are articles on each of the Brasses, as well as on the use of Brass instruments throughout the ages, in non-western music, and the rise of jazz.  There are two articles on the Horn in the book, one on the natural Horn and the other on the modern instrument.  There is also a history of the valve, a glossary, and a bibliography.

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Complete Guide to Brass: Instruments and Technique

By: Scott Whitener

Pub: Simon & Schuster, 1997

ISBN: 0028645979

$52.95, 380 pages

            This is an extensive spiral-bound volume with very in-depth sections on each of the instruments and the history of brasses in general.  It has a very comprehensive discussion on the Vienna Horn and the Vienna valve, as well as a very thorough overview of the different types of Horns that are played today.  The book would be an excellent textbook for Brass methods classes.

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Brass Instruments: Their History and Development

By: Anthony Baines

Pub: Dover Publications, Inc., 1993

ISBN: 0486275744

$12.95, 300 pages

            This is a must-have book for all Brass players.  It is a well-researched book that traces the evolution of all the Brasses and the music written for them.  It is an all-around great reference book to have sitting on your bookshelf and the price is very affordable.  The text is also supplemented by many illustrations and musical examples.

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Antique Brass Wind Instruments: Identification and Value Guide

By: Peter Adams

Pub: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1998

ISBN: 076430027X

$29.95, 160 pages

            This book is written more for an antique collector than for a musician.  It is interesting in the variety of instruments it shows, all of them before 1920, although it concentrates mostly on your odd band instruments.  It also addresses the musical, political, industrial, and aesthetic happenings at the time the instruments were made, which gives a view not normally seen when looking at an instrument.  The value guide in the book really doesn’t mean much, but it does have a glossary, bibliography, list of makers with dates, as well as original drawings and photos from many company catalogs.

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Twentieth Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States

By: Richard J. Dundas

Pub: Queen City Brass Publications, 1986, 1989

            This is a very interesting book that gives a history of each of the manufacturers of Brass instruments in the U.S. that were active in the 20^th century.  Actually, the author only lists the factories.  There are some glaring absences, such as Carl Geyer, Steve Lewis, and Cliff Blackburn to name a few.  He does, however, include Alexander, which does not make instruments in the U.S.  Anyway, the book is still a nice little reference and has a lot of information that is not common knowledge. 

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Brass Bibliography

By: Mark J. Fasman

Pub: Indiana University Press, 1990

            This book is a truly amazing reference for all Brass players.  It has a listing of books, articles and dissertations about brass instruments and their history, literature, pedagogy, performance, and acoustics.  It is divided into four parts: Reference and Research Materials; History and Music Literature; Pedagogy, Study, and Technique; Acoustics and Construction.  It is a bit out-of-date now, but most of the sources should still be available.  The book is out-of-print, but can be found at a reasonable price at most used book sites.

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Brass Performance and Pedagogy

By: Keith Johnson

Pub: Pearson Education, 2001

ISBN: 0130914835

$22.80, 97 pages

            This book was written for Brass teachers and band directors.  Its emphasis is on developing technique through musical development rather than mechanical development.  The chapters cover all aspects of Brass playing from a musical perspective to help the student develop to his/her full potential.  Of special interest are the chapters on teaching posture, playing with braces, preparing pieces, and taking auditions.

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Teaching Brass: A Resource Manual

Ed: Wayne Bailey

Pub: McGraw-Hill, 1991

ISBN: 0070032661

$50.75, 192 pages

            This is a textbook for Music Education majors for their Brass methods class.  It combines exercises, instruction, and reference material for classroom and future use.  It is written by five professional players and teachers and addresses the problems of learning and teaching each instrument.  There are sections on acoustics and breath control in addition to the chapters on each instrument.

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Guide to Teaching Brass

By: Norman J. Hunt

Pub: Brown & Benchmark, 1993

ISBN: 0697125742

$48.75, 176 pages

            This is another resource for Brass teachers and band directors.  It is broken up into two parts, the first dealing with general Brass instrument information, including acoustics, care and maintenance, breathing, the embouchure, the mouthpiece, and vibrato, and the second part dealing with the history and specific quirks of the individual instruments.  There is also a formidable bibliography of literature and listening lists.

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Twentieth-Century Brass Soloists

By: Michael Meckna and Allen P. Britton

Pub: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1994

ISBN: 0313264686

$89.95, 344 pages

            This book gives biographical information on nearly one hundred jazz and classical brass soloists, who have performed and recorded widely, from Louis Armstrong to Barry Tuckwell.  The price is quite high for the average person and it is probably meant as a reference for music libraries.

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The Art of the Trumpet Maker

By: Robert Barclay

Pub: Oxford University Press, 1996

ISBN: 0198166052

$35.00, 186 pages

            This is an excellent book by a well-respected maker of period Trumpets.  It is subtitled, “The Materials, Tools, and Techniques of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Nuremberg.”  Nuremberg was the center of instrument making in Europe at that time and this book offers a fantastic window into that world.  The book mainly concentrates on makers and the various designs and techniques they used, but also covers metallurgical practice of the day and the availability and composition of the alloys used.  The bibliography of this book is valuable in that it lists sources not normally found in other music books.

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Essentials of Brass Playing

By: Fred Fox

Pub: Warner Bros. Publications, 1974

ISBN: 091365003X

$10.95, 93 pages

            Fred Fox was a professor at California State University in Los Angeles and a former principal Horn in the National Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic among others.  This book contains all of his thoughts on the various aspects of Brass playing.  He was a proponent of forcing the air with the abdominal muscles and letting them do the work rather than the lips.  There are many exercises given in the book.  However, none of them are written out as musical notation which makes it somewhat awkward to decipher them.  There are only two illustrations in the book.  They show the position of the tongue with relation to the teeth and the air pressure being released upon articulation.  The drawings are incredibly crude and look as though they were drawn into the manuscript with pencil.  While my opinion of the book and the ideas expressed in it is high, I just thought it was funny that more care wasn't taken in preparing adequate illustrations and musical examples.