Brass Instruments Research Articles

Arrest the Music! Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics, by Tejumola Olaniyan

Reviewed by: Arrest the Music! Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics Bode Omojola Arrest the Music! Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics By Tejumola Olaniyan Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2004. 242 pp. ISBN 0-253-21718-0 paper. Tejumola Olaniyan's book examines the aesthetic and political dimensions of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's afro-beat, a musical idiom that draws from multiple styles like highlife, jazz, and varieties of indigenous African music, and through which Fela addressed many of the challenges that beset the African postcolonial environment. Olaniyan argues that afro-beat, in its full maturity, constituted the denouement of Fela's transformation from an "apolitical hustler" to an ideologically committed artist. Musical features like multilayered ostinato patterns, corroborative punctuations of brass instruments, solo-dominated call-responsorial phrases, and the sheer force of a massive ensemble, though initially devoid of any strong political meaning in Fela's music, would later become bearers of a dissident political ideology. In spite of the clarity of Fela's political message, however, a seeming element of ambivalence pervades his music. Take, for example, Fela's persistent advocacy of an "authentic" African culture, and its negation of the quite considerable impact of European elements on his music. Olaniyan employs the figure of antinomy to engage such contradictions, and suggests that Fela's music is both a symptom and a resister of a modernism that is at once oppressive and "enchanting." The resort to an illusionary African authenticity was strategic to Fela's attempt to configure a protected space within which he could reclaim an agency that he believed had been undermined by colonization and modernity. Olaniyan ascribes symbolic and performative significance to Fela's narcissist traits and "libidinal obsession." He argues that Fela's popularizing of sex in and out of performances was discomforting for many listeners, and thus had a deconstructive tendency that matched the counterhegemonic theme of his music. Fela's employment of satire as a mode of discourse and his appropriation of the pedagogical image of a teacher in his musical performances were ego-boosting strategies that served to impose his views on audiences by closing the gap "between signification and meaning." Fela's music, though attenuating to the oppressive power of the ruling elite in Nigeria, ironically also provides symbolic evidence of his overbearing personality. It is a pity that the views of Fela's teeming admirers are evidently marginalized in Olaniyan's study. Given the populist nature of the subject of investigation, the opinions of listeners would have provided additional basis for understanding the nature of public response to Fela's music and for evaluating the effectiveness of his political crusade both within and outside Nigeria. A literary scholar, Olaniyan writes lucidly and in an entertaining manner. His passion for Fela's music, though quite palpable throughout the book, is well contained within a critical discourse that is incisive and engaging. While his descriptions of Fela's music do not rely on notation and on the sort of technical language that might be employed by ethnomusicologists or musicologists, they are nonetheless very effective in conveying important features and themes of Fela's music. Bode Omojola Mount Holyoke College Copyright © 2007 The Indiana University Press

Influence of playing wind instruments on activity of masticatory muscles

The aim of this study was to elucidate the influence of change in sound tone of playing wind instruments on activity of jaw-closing muscles and the effect of sustained playing for a long time on fatigue of jaw-closing muscles. Electromyograms (EMG) of 19 brass instrument players and 14 woodwind instrument players were measured while playing instruments in tuning tone and high tone and under other conditions. Nine brass instrument players and nine woodwind instrument players played instruments for 90 min. Before and after the exercise, power spectral analyses of EMG from masseter muscles at 50% of maximum voluntary clenching level were performed and mean power frequency (MPF) were calculated. Root mean square (RMS) of EMG in masseter and temporal muscles while playing were slightly larger than those at rest but extremely small in comparison with those during maximum clenching. Root mean square in orbicularis oris and digastric muscles were relatively large when playing instruments. In the brass instrument group, RMS in high tone was significantly higher than that in tuning tone in all muscles examined. In the woodwind instrument group, RMS in high tone was not significantly higher than that in tuning tone in those muscles. Mean power frequency was not decreased after sustained playing in both instrument groups. These findings indicate that contractive load to jaw-closing muscles when playing a wind instrument in both medium and high tone is very small and playing an instrument for a long time does not obviously induce fatigue of jaw-closing muscles.

Acoustical requirements for music in non-Western worship spaces

In this talk, an overview of different non-Western musical traditions for worship, and the particular architectural-acoustic requirements of these traditions, will be given. While the pipe organ, which plays a central role in the Christian and Jewish worship traditions, is rarely found in other religious services, the other two typical western worship instruments, choir and bells, serve in many other worship traditions as well. Brass instruments also are found in both Western and non-Western worship traditions, for example in the typical church brass ensembles with trumpets, trombones, horns, and tubas, and the long Tibetan temple trumpets. Percussion instruments, such as those in the Indonesian Gamelan Ensemble, are often an important element in non-Western rituals. However, aside from bells, they do not have a strong tradition in Western worship services, which is not surprising given the long reverberation times in most churches. The talk will focus on those worship traditions that are not addressed by other speakers in this session.

How can bell vibrations affect the sound of brass instruments?

It has recently been shown that the vibrations of the bell of a trumpet affect the spectra of the sound produced during play. The manner in which these vibrations produce this effect is still under investigation, but two possibilities have been proposed: (1) the vibrations of the bell feedback to the lips and change their motion, and (2) the bell vibrations change the radiation impedance of the instrument. The former explanation appears to be the most plausible; however, we will present results of recent experiments that indicate at least some of the effect is due to a change in radiation impedance.

Empirical Estimation of Effective Input Impedance at Blowing Stage and Its Application to the Pitch-design of the Brass Instruments

It is specially analyzed about the problem of the pitch of stationary sound in the acoustic analytic subjects of brass instruments. It is modeled as a combination of the conical horn elements for the trumpet. First, the end of mouthpiece is set as the closed end, the resonance frequency is calculated as a characteristic value of the modeled trumpet by the technique of Cavity Resonance. Next, when it is played, the effective input impedance at the end of mouthpiece and those relative angles are calculated. Based on these characteristics, quantitative examined considerations are added to the playing methods, and a blowing pattern is set up. Furthermore, it is calculated the virtual additional length for the end of mouthpiece. It is examined correspondence with the playing methods of brass players. This playing method is taken into consideration, the CAD system for the pitch design of trumpet is built, and a suitable example to the pitch design is shown, with the utility of the system. The validity of a blowing pattern is shown.

Bibliography of Writings About Historic Brass Instruments, 2006-2007

Bibliography of Writings About Historic Brass Instruments, 2006-2007

Differences between cylindrical and conical brass instruments; the nonlinear propagation point of view from experiments and simulations

The brightness of the sound generated by brass instruments is due to the essential nonlinearity of the wave propagation in the pipe. The bright instruments such as the trumpet and the trombone are different from brass instruments such as saxhorns or flugelhorns. The bright instruments have a cylindrical pipe segment just downstream of the mouthpiece. The conical bore of the saxhorns implies a faster decay of the wave, which reduces the nonlinear wave steepening. In this talk, theoretical and experimental results of brassiness associated with brass instruments having different bores, from mainly cylindrical ones to mainly conical ones, will be shown. The theoretical results come from simulations of periodic regimes using a theoretical background based on generalized Burger’s equations.

Acoustics of the Tibetan long trumpet

The Tibetan long trumpet, or dung‐chen, is a metal horn made in several telescoping conical sections. Dung‐chen range in length from around 1.3 to over 3 m; the integral mouthpiece is wide and very shallow. Identical pairs of dung‐chen are used in rituals of Tibetan Buddhism, often in combination with other instruments. This paper describes bore profile and input impedance measurements on a number of examples of the dung‐chen, and compares the acoustical and musical properties of these Asian brass instruments with those of Western European long trumpets and horns.

Music Received

Introduction This column presents a comprehensive list of new music publications that have been sent recently by publishers and distributors for possible review in Notes. Self-published music is listed when a source of acquisition is provided. The primary aim of this column is to provide brief listings of a broad range of new editions of music, thereby assisting in selection and ordering for libraries or personal collections. After the listing is prepared, the publications are sent selectively to Darwin Scott, the "Music Reviews" column editor. All Web sites accessed 31 May 2006. Organization and Scope Notes Scholarly & Historical Editions: Primarily volumes of collected editions and monumental series. Extensive critical apparatus is generally assumed and therefore not noted in the entries. Facsimile Editions: Limited to publications presenting a reproduction of an item that emphasizes its nature as a primary source rather than its simple intellectual content. Orchestral Music: Works for full and chamber orchestra, and chamber groups of more than nine players. Full scores of concertos are included, but reductions for solo instrument(s) with keyboard are listed in the appropriate chamber music category. Band Music: Brass and wind ensemble music intended for more than one player to a part, and wind chamber groups of more than nine players. Choral Music: Includes all types of nondramatic choral works, in full scores or vocal scores. Dramatic Music: Operas, musicals, and ballets, in full or vocal scores. Chamber Music with Strings; Chamber Music without Strings: Duets through nonets other than one instrument with keyboard. "Strings" includes harp and guitar, but excludes keyboard instruments. String Instrument with Keyboard; Woodwind Instrument with Keyboard; Brass Instrument with Keyboard: Includes reductions for one solo instrument with keyboard (including organ). Music for more than one instrument with keyboard is listed as Chamber Music. Music for solo instrument with basso continuo is listed here, however, since the bass part is often presented as optional or for a choice of instruments. Solos for Bowed or Plucked Strings, Unaccompanied; Solos for Wind Instruments, Unaccompanied: Music for single solo instrument. Studies are included here unless they are technical exercises, orchestral studies, or methods. Music for Organ: Solo organ music, duets, arrangements, and reductions. Music for Piano or Harpsichord: For any keyboard instrument other than organ. Includes solo music and like-instrument ensembles such as 4-hand piano and 2-piano duets, keyboard reductions of piano concertos, and larger keyboard ensembles. Music for Percussion: Includes percussion solos (with or without keyboard accompaniment) and ensembles. Chamber music with other instruments is listed in the appropriate category above. Music for Voice: Music for one or more solo voices (one singer per part) with any accompaniment, including chamber ensemble. Opera excerpts, such as collections of arias, are included, but complete opera vocal scores are listed under Dramatic [End Page 208] Music. Other works for solo voices with chorus are listed under Choral Music. Methods and Studies: Includes method books, technical exercises, and orchestral studies; studies that might be used in performance are listed above as solo music. Music for Children: Materials designed for study and performance by children of pre-school or elementary school age. Miscellaneous: For music which truly defies inclusion in the categories above. Citation Style Citations include publishers' numbers or plate numbers, ISBN, and ISMN, where available. In order to keep the citations brief, description of introductory notes, critical reports, etc., is not included unless the material is considered unusual for the type of publication, or an indication of languages is warranted. Abbreviations for publishers are listed at the end of the column with complete imprints, U.S. distributors, and Web sites. Some well-known collected works series titles are abbreviated according to usage in works lists of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. Most other abbreviations follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., and the Notes Style Sheet (http://www.areditions.com/mla/ notes/stylesheet.html). Scholarly & Historical Editions Bach, Johann Sebastian. Frühfassungen zur H-Moll-Messe BWV 232. Kritischer Bericht zu BA 5293 von Uwe Wolf. (NBA II/1a.) Bärenreiter, 2005. ISMN...

CALIBRATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL MOUTH FOR AUTOMATIC PERFORMANCE OF A TRUMPET USING A GENETIC ALGORITHM

The artificial mouth is a robotic device that simulates a human mouth. It consists of moveable lips and an adjustable air supply. In this study the use of a genetic algorithm to compute air pressure and lip pressure values so that the artificial mouth can correctly play five notes on a brass instrument is investigated. In order to properly play a brass instrument, a player must apply proper tension between the lips and apply proper airflow so that the lips vibrate at the proper frequency. A fast search algorithm was needed because it takes about 4 seconds to measure the frequency produced by each combination of pressure parameters. This measurement is slow because of the slow moving mechanics of the system and a delay produced while the notes are measured for pitch. The efficiency of this algorithm was compared to an exhaustive search. Experimentation was performed using various combinations of genetic parameters, including population size, crossover rate, and mutation rate. The genetic search was shown to be about 10 times faster than the exhaustive search because the genetic algorithm searches only very small portions of the search space.

Silver or Gold: The Color of Brass Instruments in the Late Middle Ages

Silver or Gold: The Color of Brass Instruments in the Late Middle Ages

Music Received

Introduction This column presents a comprehensive list of new music publications that have been sent recently by publishers and distributors for possible review in Notes. Self-published music is listed when a source of acquisition is provided. The primary aim of this column is to provide brief listings of a broad range of new editions of music, thereby assisting in selection and ordering for libraries or personal collections. After the listing is prepared, the publications are sent selectively to Darwin F. Scott, the "Music Reviews" editor. All Web sites accessed 25 May 2005. Organization and Scope Notes Scholarly & Historical Editions: Primarily volumes of collected editions and monumental series. Extensive critical apparatus is generally assumed and therefore not noted in the entries. Facsimile Editions: Limited to publications presenting a reproduction of an item that emphasizes its nature as a primary source rather than its simple intellectual content. Orchestral Music: Works for full and chamber orchestra, and chamber groups of more than nine players. Full scores of concertos are included, but reductions for solo instrument(s) with keyboard are listed in the appropriate chamber music category. Band Music: Brass and wind ensemble music intended for more than one player to a part, and wind chamber groups of more than nine players. Choral Music: Includes all types of nondramatic choral works, in full scores or vocal scores. Dramatic Music: Includes operas, musicals, and ballets, in full or vocal scores. Chamber Music with Strings; Chamber Music without Strings: Duets through nonets other than one instrument with keyboard. "Strings" includes harp and guitar, but excludes keyboard instruments. String Instrument with Keyboard; Woodwind Instrument with Keyboard; Brass Instrument with Keyboard: Includes reductions for one solo instrument with keyboard (including organ). Music for more than one instrument with keyboard is listed as Chamber Music. Music for solo instrument with basso continuo is listed here, however, since the bass part is often presented as optional or for a choice of instruments. Solos for Bowed or Plucked Strings, Unaccompanied; Solos for Wind Instruments, Unaccompanied: Music for single solo instrument. Studies are included here unless they are technical exercises, orchestral studies, or methods. Music for Organ: Solo organ music, duets, arrangements, and reductions. Music for Piano or Harpsichord: For any keyboard instrument other than organ. Includes solo music and like-instrument ensembles such as 4-hand piano and 2-piano duets, keyboard reductions of piano concertos, and larger keyboard ensembles. Music for Percussion: Includes percussion solos (with or without keyboard accompaniment) and ensembles. Chamber music with other instruments is listed in the appropriate category above. Music for Voice: Music for one or more solo voices (one singer per part) with any accompaniment, including chamber ensemble. Opera excerpts, such as collections of arias, are included, but complete opera vocal scores are listed under Dramatic Music. Other works for solo voices with chorus are listed under Choral Music. [End Page 203] Methods and Studies: Includes method books, technical exercises, and orchestral studies; studies that might be used in performance are listed above as solo music. Music for Children: Materials designed for study and performance by children of pre-school or elementary school age. Miscellaneous: For music which truly defies inclusion in the categories above. Citation Style Citations include publishers' numbers or plate numbers, ISBN, and ISMN, where available. Paper bindings unless otherwise noted. In order to keep the citations brief, description of introductory notes, critical reports, etc., are not included unless the material is considered unusual for the type of publication, or an indication of languages is warranted. Abbreviations for publishers are listed with complete imprints and U.S. distributors at the end of the column. Some well-known collected works series titles are abbreviated according to usage in works lists of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2d ed. Most other abbreviations follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., and the Notes Style Sheet. Scholarly & Historical Editions Cannabich, Christian. Ballet Music Arranged for Chamber Ensemble. Ed. by Paul Corneilson. (Recent Reseaches in the Music of the Classical Era, 73.) A-R, 2004. ISBN 0-89579...

Input impedance of brass instruments from velocity measurement

A velocity sensor known as the Microflown measures particle velocity from a difference in temperature between two MEMS‐scale wires. With a small precision microphone in a package the size of a matchstick, simultaneous measurement of particle velocity and pressure can be accomplished in a tiny space such as the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. Traditional measurements of input impedance rely on a constant flow provided by a capillary tube or feedback loop control of the driver. This velocity sensor eliminates these technical requirements. The apparatus and calibration procedures will be described, and results of measurements of several instruments will be presented. In an easily used device, this approach could benefit instrument designers, makers, and repair technicians.

Don Juan de Austria and the Venetian music trade

A recently discovered document sheds new light on the musical patronage of the Spanish royal family in the late Renaissance, and on the international music trade based in Venice. Don Juan de Austria, Philip II's half-brother, ordered the Spanish resident ambassador in Venice to procure for him a number of musical instruments and printed music books. The ambassador in turn hired Girolamo dalla Casa, maestro de' concerti at San Marco, to help him fill the order. The receipt lists the purchased items and their prices, and includes numerous woodwinds, brass instruments from Germany, and editions by both Spanish and Italian composers. The varied nature of the purchases highlights the international scope of the music trade in Venice, as well as the previously unknown musical interests of Don Juan.

Vocal Fold Polyp in a Professional Brass/Wind Instrumentalist and Singer

Wind instrumentalists, especially brass players, and singers share common factors, including vocal tract shape, function and pressure, vocal fold opening and closure, breath vector of force and air flow rates. To understand the mechanism and function of the vocal folds with a pathological lesion, it is necessary to visualize the differing interactions of the vocal tract during wind and brass instrument playing and in singing. A school band director, singer, wind and brass instrumentalist, was referred by musician colleagues with intermittent dysphonia, aphonia, and inability to sing high notes. Simultaneous videolaryngoscopy, with and without stroboscopy, and external video examination were documented. An hourglass glottis with a sessile, cystic polyp of the left vocal fold were recorded and studied during phonation and the playing of 3 instruments. The techniques of glottic opening, closure, configuration and function varied with the type of instrument and phonatory function. Singing was adversely affected by the vocal fold polyp but no harmful interaction occurred during wind/brass instrument playing. Down-stream loading in singers is at the laryngeal level and in wind/brass instrumentalists is at the embouchure. Preoperative voice therapy, phonomicrosurgery, and postoperative voice rest followed by voice therapy, succeeded in restoring her combined wind/brass instrumental and singing career.

Invenzione Concertata for Brass Quintet, and: Keep On Keepin' On [for] Brass Quintet, and: Fanfare for Brass Quintet, and: Entertainment-Sets (Chamber Music X) for Brass Quintet, and: Hymn for Brass: pour quintette de cuivres, and: Fanfare for 2 Trumpets, 2 Horns, and Trombone (review)

MUSIC FOR BRASS INSTRUMENTS Henri Lazarof. Invenzione Concertata for Brass Quintet [1997]. Bryn Mawr, PA: Merion Music; Theodore Presser Co., sole representative, c1997. [Score (in C), 8 p.; notes on composer, back cover verso; and 5 parts. Pub. no. 144-40300. Duration, ca. 8.5 min. $15.] Tansy Davies. Keep On Keepin' On [for] Brass Quintet. London: Broadbent & Dunn (Theodore Presser), c1995. [Score, p. 1-8; and 5 parts. Pub. no. BD sole agent: European American Music Distributors Corp., c1997. [Score, 4 p.; and 5 parts. Pub. no. EA 811. $14.95.] Robert Suderburg. Entertainment-Sets (Chamber Music X) for Brass Quintet. [King of Prussia, PA]: Theodore Presser Co., c2000. [Score, p. 3-27; and 5 parts. Pub. no. 114-40650. Duration, ca. 17.5 min. $35.] Jean Baily. Hymn for Brass: pour quintette de cuivres. (Ensembles de cuivres.) Paris: Gerard Billaudot Editeur (Theodore Presser), c1994. [Score, 13 p.; and 7 parts. Pub. no. G 5647 B. Duration, 12 min. $29.50.] Shulamit Ran. Fanfare for 2 Trumpets, 2 Horns, and Trombone; arranged by Cliff Colnot. Bryn Mawr, PA: Theodore Presser Co., c1994. [Score (in C), p. 1-4; notes on composer, back cover verso; and 5 parts. Pub. no. 114-40627. Duration, ca. 4 min. $15.] The modern brass quintet (two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba/bass trombone) rose to prominence only in the mid-twentieth century, largely driven by the infectious energy and effort of a few influential brass players. The effort that finally established the brass quintet as a mainstream ensemble, however, was just one of a series of attempts to raise the profile of brass chamber music. As early as the late nineteenth century, cornet player, conductor, composer, instrument designer, and pedagogue Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889), best known today for his universally used treatise Methode complete de comet a pistons et de saxhorn (Paris, 1864; various editions and translations, including, in English, Arban's Complete Conservatory Method, ed. Edwin Franko Goldman and Richard M. Smith [New York: Carl Fischer, 1936]), encouraged Victor Ewald (1860-1935) to write four brass quintets (the first composed around 1890) that form the early staples of the brass quintet repertoire. But Ewald's quintets did not herald a movement toward brass quintet writing. For most early brass chamber music, the quartet (two trumpets, horn, trombone; or two trumpets and two trombones) was the vehicle of choice; when it was supplanted in the 1930s, it was not by the quintet but rather by the sextet of two trumpets, horn, trombone, baritone (euphonium), and tuba. It was not until modern orchestral brass sections became standardized in the mid-twentieth century, with the euphonium falling out of favor (despite its effectiveness in works like Maurice Ravel's 1922 orchestration of Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Dmitri Shostakovich's The Golden Age of 1930, and its continuing prominence in band music), that conditions were ripe for the quintet's ascendancy. Much of the credit for this rise goes to the tireless efforts of the New York Brass Quintet and the American Brass Quintet. The New York Brass Quintet, founded by Robert Nagel with the assistance of Harvey Philips, was formed with the promise of work from Young Audiences, Inc., an organization dedicated to performing for school children. During its formative years between 1954 and 1961, the quintet had two primary goals: to develop an audience for brass quintet music, and to increase the available repertoire. Thanks partly to the outreach work with Young Audiences, the quintet was immensely successful in both enterprises; by 1960 the group had an active touring schedule throughout the United States and Europe, and the ensemble made its official New York City debut in 1961. This period of touring activity coincided with a surge in brass quintet composition by prominent composers like Malcolm Arnold (b. …

Liturgical Expressions of Episcopal Power: Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and Tridentine Reform in Colonial Mexico

When the Minister of Culture for the State of Puebla, Hector Azar, organized the 350th anniversary festivities for the Biblioteca Palafoxiana in 1996, he included a concert of epigraphs and sonnets set to classical music in the city's cathedral. Employing an ancient form of the Church's liturgical psalmody,1 Azar replaced scriptural psalms with several lines taken from poetry written by the seventeenth-century bishop of Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, whose donation of books to the city in 1646 established the first public library in colonial Mexico. With a full accompaniment of string, percussion, woodwind, and brass instruments to provide music for the Salmodia Palafoxiana, Azar and the Coro del Benemerito Institute Normal del Estado transformed a few lines of the bishop's poetry into quasi-liturgy. Perhaps Bishop Palafox would have disapproved of substituting his poetic metaphors for biblical verse, but this probably never crossed the minds of the city's residents and visitors who gathered around the bishop's cenotaph to attend the concert. The first antiphon, however, evokes quite nicely Palafox's liturgical sensibilities: Today the sun of wounded love, the new shepherd comes to be.2 The new shepherd is the resurrected, triumphant Christ who gives light to his flock. And, to the shepherd of Puebla and his seventeenth-century flock, Christ's real presence in the bread and wine was instituted each time a priest celebrated the Mass. Liturgy as a sacramental rite imbued with cultural meaning has escaped the scholarly purview of most historians of colonial Latin America. Deciphering discrete portions of ecclesiastical texts in Latin or italicized scriptural citations located in the margins of ceremonials appears more suited to the canon lawyer or liturgist. Moreover, despite the historical centrality of the Mass, as well as of the seven sacraments, to Catholic culture, historians have examined almost every other dimension of the colonial Catholic experience except liturgy and prayer.3 Perhaps scholars view the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, or Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum4 as officiai prayers of the institutional Church, whose significance remained hidden behind complicated Latin syntax that parishioners (and not a few clergymen too) failed to grasp. Even Bishop Palafox might have agreed in part with this view. Moreover, the mundane features of the Mass, rosary, and other liturgical rites and rituals, with their scripted formulas and responses, seem to demonstrate, on the surface, something less spectacular, less ideological than the extravagant religious and civic processions of Corpus Christi or Holy Week, for example, that so marked urban society in colonial Mexico. Recent contributions to the new cultural history of Mexico provide theoretical and conceptual frameworks that interpret rituals and ceremonies within the context of power relations, popular culture, and resistance.5 Some historians have demonstrated how Spaniards used rituals to help establish their authority and legitimize colonial rule through language and ceremony. Ritual is seen as the medium for rulers to act out the drama of their power, while daily life itself is suffused with ritual performances that reinforce social hierarchies.6 The festival of Corpus Christi in seventeenth-century Mexico City has received some scholarly attention in recent years, and illustrates this turn to cultural history in Mexican studies. Indians and Spaniards, guilds and cofradias (confraternities), parishioners and priests, participated in festivities that expressed political as well as religious sentiment. The principal focus of such studies, however, tends to emphasize procession-as-spectacle and its uses as a tool of hegemonic control and institutional legitimization.7 The centrality of the Blessed Sacrament in Catholic worship and the liturgical dimensions of the procession are less evident. When, in 1692, the celebrations turned riotous, two Franciscan friars hoisted the Blessed Sacrament in the air, presumably in its sacred container, the monstrance, in an effort to calm passions and return tranquility to the city. …

The acoustical engineering of brasswind instruments 1779–1929

At the start of this 150-year period, brass musical instruments were made to traditional designs, which were developed by trial and error, the fittest surviving. Mechanical inventions (most importantly the valve) greatly widened the possibilities for bore engineering. Increasingly through this period, instrument designers were influenced by the developing science of acoustics. By 1929 most of the range of instruments in use today had been developed and acoustical tools were in use in optimizing the design of instruments. Considering the factors of greatest importance in determining the acoustical response of a brass instrument to be bore profile, bell flare (cutoff frequency), and mouthpiece geometry, landmarks in the development of existing instrumental types and the creation of new models are surveyed. The contributions of Stoelzel, C.M. Pace, Sax, Bayley, Blaikley, Webster, and Couturier are discussed. This paper is based on research involving direct examination of several hundred instruments from 1779–1929 located in museums worldwide.

Suite for Horn and Piano, and: Suite (Twelve Duets) for Horn and Tuba, and: Horn Sonata, and: Horn! for Horn in F and Piano, and: Sonata for Horn and Piano (review)

Alec Wilder. Suite for Horn and Piano [1956]. Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, c1964. [About the composer, 1 p.; score, p. 3-20; and part. Pub. no. MM111. Duration, 11 min. $16.] Alec Wilder. Suite (Twelve Duets) for Horn and Tuba [1978]. Newton Centre, MA: Margun Music, c1996. [About the composer, 1 p.; score, p. 2-25; and 2d score. Pub. no. MM113. Duration, 10 min. $15.] Robert Baksa. Horn Sonata [1983; rev. 1993]. Bryn Mawr, PA: Composers Library Editions; sole agent: Theodore Presser Co., c1996. [Score, 30 p.; and part. Pub. no. CLE-26; 494-02045. $21.65.] Thomas Benjamin. Horn! for Horn in F and Piano. San Antonio, TX: Southern Music Co., c1997. [Performance notes, composer biography, 1 p.; score, p. 3-20; and part. Pub. no. SU343. $10.] Margaret Brouwer. Sonata for Horn and Piano. New York: Pembroke Music Co., c2000. [Performance notes, 1 p.; score, p. 3-21; composer biography, p. 22; music of M. Brouwer, p. 23; and part. ISBN 0-8258-0767-0; pub. no. PCB139. Duration, 15 min. $19.95.] The French horn holds an important place in orchestral and chamber music, where composers consistently exploit its particular expressive qualities to great effect. The solo repertoire for the horn, however, remains small and of generally un-even quality, with only a few works (notably by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Paul Hindemith) that engage musicians and audiences at large. In an aggressive attempt to increase the quality and quantity of solo horn writing, the International Horn Society (IHS) commissions works, maintains an assistance fund to help hornists fund their own commissions, and holds composition competitions. These initiatives, along with the more personal endeavors of a few enterprising composers, have greatly increased the number of high-quality works written for the horn in recent years, including the five works collected in this review. The American composer and songwriter Alec Wilder (1907-1980) has become a favorite among brass players for his melodic gifts and eccentric syntheses of jazz, classical, and popular elements. Until recently, the extent and variety of Wilder's output was underappreciated, largely because many of his manuscripts were dispersed among friends and acquaintances. Today, however, the Alec Wilder Archive at the Sibley Music Library (Rochester, NY) and books by Desmond Stone (Alec Wilder in Spite of Himself: A Life of the Composer [New York: Oxford University Press, 1996]) and David Demsey and Ronald Prather (Alec Wilder: A Bit-Bibliography, Bit-Bibliographies in Music, 45 [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993]) afford new insights into Wilder's personality, compositional process, and influences. In addition, his friend and advocate Gunther Schuller, who founded Margun Music (now under the auspices of the Music Sales Group), has made much of Wilder's work commercially available. Wilder willingly embraced what Schuller calls underdog instruments (Stone, 112), producing a large and interesting corpus of works for brass instruments that still has parallel. His great reputation among horn players largely stems from his close friendship with renowned hornist John R. Barrows (1913-1974), a distinguished performer and teacher who held posts with the Minneapolis Symphony, the Army Air Forces Band, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the Casals Festival Orchestra, as well as teaching positions at Yale University, New York University, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Barrows, who championed both classical and jazz horn, pressed Wilder to produce new works for his instrument--a demand to which Wilder, of course, acquiesced. Over the ensuing years, Barrows received many new horn works, including three large sonatas and a wide variety of shorter pieces that have become standard repertoire for the horn, and essential to any serious horn performance collection. For his part, Wilder was also profoundly influenced by the partnership, noting no matter what the circumstances or for whom I was ostensibly composing, everything I've ever written since I met John Barrows was written for him (In Memoriam: John R. …

Robert Arnott (ed.), The archaeology of medicine. Papers given at a session of the annual conference of the Theoretical Archaeology Group held at the University of Birmingham on 20 December 1998, BAR International series 1046, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2002, pp. v, 128, illus., £25.00 (paperback 1-84171-427-5).

Collaboration between medical historians and archaeologists, which was a feature of the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference held in Birmingham University in 1998, is vital. A concern that emerges from many of the papers in this collection is the difficulty of interpreting historic, textual information: enlightenment comes when it is analysed in conjunction with the examination of archaeological evidence. The papers encompass almost 4000 years of history from the Hittites of Asia Minor, ancient Egyptians, Greek and Roman medicine, Anglo-Saxon and Tudor periods until the near present. An overview of palaeopathology by Charlotte Roberts explores sources such as skeletal and mummified remains and historical documented evidence, and discusses the importance of archaeologists having some medical knowledge and interested clinicians receiving archaeological training. She cautions against damage to skeletal material with no clearly defined aim as it is a non-renewable resource. Macroscopic and radiographic examinations are of fundamental importance. The CT scanning of the mummies illustrated by Joyce Filer provides maximum information without destruction of the specimens. Chrissie Freeth notes the universality of dental disease. From Babylonian times until the eighteenth century, toothache was believed to be caused by the “tooth worm”. There were many weird suggestions for curing toothache and for the spontaneous exfoliation of a tooth. One example is a prescription by Pliny to touch the offending tooth with the frontal bone of a lizard during a full moon. Despite evidence of dental therapeutics in papyri and other texts, it is surprising that there is so little archaeological verification. Robert Arnott, the editor, describes written evidence concerning magical medicine in the Hittite Empire and in contemporaneous correspondence which indicates that treatments were imported from Mesopotamia and Egypt. He advises the instigation of the study of skeletal material as the next step. Caution is advocated by Niall Mckeown in the reading of literary evidence. The Hippocratics considered that invasive medical intervention of the body was likely to result in death. The most common procedures were draining of pus and amputations. Most treatments were based on exercise, diet and pharmacology. In her paper about Roman military valetudinaria, Patricia Baker writes about the problematic identification of buildings as hospitals and warns against comparison with the layout of modern hospitals. Sites previously believed to be hospitals may have been used for storage. Ralph Jackson finds that instruments identified as surgical were finely crafted, and the more common “quasi medical implements” might have had a cosmetic use. From the first century AD there was consistency in form of the mainly bronze or brass instruments. However, Roman blacksmiths could produce steel instruments and in some regions ore yielded natural steel. Several papers deal with pharmacology. Marina Ciaraldi warns that the “use of modern knowledge of medicinal plants to interpret archaeological assemblages can lead to erroneous conclusions”. Plant remains in dolia in the Villa Vesuvio were compared and were consistent with preparations found in writings by Pliny and Dioscorides. Debby Banham uses a compilation of four collections of recipes for her investigation of Anglo-Saxon materia medica. However, this is complicated by botanical name changes throughout history. Sally Crawford and Tony Randall also examine an Anglo-Saxon text, Bald's Leechbook, and are of the opinion that, although the described medicine was highly developed, archaeological resources are necessary to confirm the recipes. In his paper about the Mary Rose medical chest, Brendan Derham describes how he examined the contents of the forty-four artefacts found in the barber-surgeon's cabin by various analytical techniques and found medicaments still in use today. The final papers deal with more recent discoveries. Mouli Start writes about the burials at the Newcastle Infirmary between 1753 and 1845. The majority of skeletons are disarticulated and she speculates that some of the bodies were dissected while this was illegal before the Anatomy Act of 1832. The paper by Megan Brickley concerns the recognition of osteoporosis-related fractures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries using historical sources. These papers, edited by Robert Arnott, emphasize the importance of co-operation between medical historians and archaeologists in revealing everything possible about medical archaeology.