Blog

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Graeco roman Greco roman Games agon

When the Romans replaced the Salpinx with the Tuba

Peter Holmes May 03, 2023

For many centuries, the salpinx held its position as announcer in the Greek games or agon.

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Mouthpieces

Download your Mouthpiece: The Open Mouthpiece designer

Peter Holmes March 19, 2023

In March, we introduced a free site that offered an online mouthpiece designer.

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Mouthpieces

Introducing: The Open Mouthpiece designer

Peter Holmes March 19, 2023

Introducing an exciting new site that allows you, as a brass instrument player, to design and 3D print a mouthpiece for your instrument, starting from one of the pre-designed models on the site.

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Sumerian Roman Romanian Ethnographic

PUKKU, pututara, putarino, bucina

Peter Holmes February 02, 2023

Throughout the ancient world, there are many names given to brass instruments which incorporate the pu/bu sound.

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Rock Gongs Why do Ringing Rocks Really Ring

Peter Holmes December 01, 2022

When a solid rock is hit by a striker, the area of concussion is compressed by the blow.

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Ringing Stones and Rock Gongs

Peter Holmes November 15, 2022

OK, this is a bit of a diversion from brass instruments but, when I was attending a conference many years ago and sat through a really boring presentation, I began thinking about a question a colleague had asked just before a session.

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Music archaeology Vikings

Vikings: Making Brass from Wood - Part 1

Peter Holmes November 15, 2022

Part 1 of 3 Despite their reputation for rape and pillage and the signs of their presence over much of Europe, the evidence for the Viking horns or trumpets comes from their heartland in the western Baltic.

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Music archaeology

Music Archaeology: the Early Days

Peter Holmes January 08, 2022

Music Archaeology: the Early Days Music archaeology didn’t burst upon the scene.

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Music archaeology

Early Music Archaeology in Ireland and the UK

Peter Holmes December 30, 2021

Early Music Archaeology in Ireland and the UK The modern story of the Irish Horns started in 1726 with a second edition of Gerard Boate’s book.

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Music archaeology

Music Archaeology in Scandinavia and the Baltic

Peter Holmes December 15, 2021

Early Music Archaeology in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region The reported modern story of the bronze lurs begins in Brudevaelte, Denmark in 1797 when a letter dated June 19th 1797, was penned to accompany the first find of lurs on their journey to the Royal Exchequer.

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Music archaeology

Music Archaeology of the Palaeolithic/Mesolithic/Neolithic

Peter Holmes October 28, 2021

Sounds from Silence: Music Archaeology of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

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Music archaeology

Music Archaeology of the Mediterranean and Middle East

Peter Holmes October 26, 2021

Music Emerging from the Texts While musical archaeology studies in the Mediterranean area and the Middle East have examined the physical evidence and iconography, written sources have always also played a key role.

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Music archaeology

Music Archaeology up to the 1960s

Peter Holmes March 30, 2021

Music Archaeology up to the 1960s Brass instruments underwent monumental changes in the mid nineteenth century with the adoption of valves and one of the workers in the field at the time was Victor-Charles Mahillon, a Belgian musician, instrument builder and writer on musical topics.

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Music Archaeology in Recent Times

Peter Holmes December 14, 2020

What we Learn from our Predecessors Each generation of music archaeologists enjoys a huge advantage over its predecessor as technological developments offer the opportunity for greater exploration of the material available.

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Animisation: Breathing Breath into Brass

Peter Holmes July 22, 2020

The term animisation is used to describe the process where inanimate objects are granted animate powers.

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When the Brass is Gender Fluid

Peter Holmes June 28, 2020

Ethnographic evidence tells us that gender was attributed to sound tools in various ways, some of these being based only obliquely on the physical characteristics of males and females.

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What is a Natural trumpet?

Peter Holmes June 03, 2020

In many ways, the term ’natural trumpet’ is a bit strange as it doesn’t refer to a trumpet which grows in the soil or is dug up from the ground but just one which has no devices on it such as valves or slides or fingerholes.

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What Instruments appear on Coins in the Ancient World?

Peter Holmes May 23, 2020

Coins are an important source of information for music archaeologists. They may be small but the skill of the ancient die maker who makes the two dies which contain the impression of the two sides of the coin was amazing.

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When is a Lur not a Lur

Peter Holmes May 14, 2020

When the great, curved Bronze-Age horns were found in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region, no-one knew how old they were or what they might have been called.

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When did the Trumpet and Keyboard First Get Together?

Peter Holmes May 11, 2020

We can’t say exactly when these two instruments first came to be played together but it certainly didn’t take long after Ktesibios invented the first keyboard instrument.

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Enjoying the Craic: The Irish Horns

Peter Holmes May 10, 2020

One of the highlights of the Bronze-Age brass is the Irish Horns, over one hundred instruments which were found all over Ireland.

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Spain’s Unique Iron-Age Brass

Peter Holmes April 28, 2020

Although instruments throughout the Iron-Age world differed, there was considerable similarity both in instrument form and usage.

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When did Brass first Appear in Brass Instruments?

Peter Holmes April 25, 2020

Cast Brass Reproductions of the Pompeii Cornua Support-Bar Bosses Despite their name, brass only appeared in brass instruments relatively recently.

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Who Studies Ancient Brass Instruments?

Peter Holmes April 19, 2020

Well, lots of people, really. However, it’s music archaeologists who study all aspects of music in the ancient world.

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A Night in the Museum - just me and the Lurs

Peter Holmes April 17, 2020

In June 1975, we set off for our Scandinavian/Baltic tour, my wife and I and two sons.

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Who Lived in the First Brass Instruments?

Peter Holmes April 15, 2020

The earliest brass instruments which have survived from Europe are the sea-shell trumpets which are often referred to as conch-shell trumpets - although I prefer to call them sea-shell trumpets.

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When were Musical Instruments Not Musical Instruments?

Peter Holmes April 11, 2020

The mention of the word Music will likely bring about a series of mental processes in which you relate the context of the word to your own experiences.

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When did the Cornett(o) earn its Fingerholes?

Peter Holmes April 05, 2020

There’s a couple of answers to this really, depending upon whether you stick to an instrument which had that particular name or whether you mean fingerhole instruments in general.

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What were the Main Structures of Brass in the Ancient World?

Peter Holmes April 02, 2020

It’s easy to think of ancient brass design as following that of modern instruments but that was simply not the case.

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When the Air goes Round and Round

Peter Holmes April 01, 2020

Today there are, in the main, just two brass instruments in which the air goes round in circles, the French horn and the Sousaphone although others, such as cornets have, in the past, been made in this way.

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What is the Natural Harmonic Series?

Peter Holmes March 29, 2020

This is the range of notes played on any brass instrument when no valves, slides or finger-holes are utilised.

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What did the Greeks use their Trumpets for?

Peter Holmes March 28, 2020

Strangely, the answer is simple, they used their salpinx (that’s what they called their trumpet) for pretty-well everything.

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Spreading Brass on your Toast

Peter Holmes March 26, 2020

The bronze lurs are among the most-characteristic instruments from the Late Bronze Age in northern Europe.

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Why was the letter J popular among Iron-Age Brass Players?

Peter Holmes March 25, 2020

Of course, it wasn’t the letter itself which made its claim of importance to brass players during the long, logo-ago European Iron Ages - between around 1000 BCE to sometime quite a lot later!

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What were the two Tutankhamun Trumpets?

Peter Holmes March 24, 2020

In 1922, British archaeologist, Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankamun, one of the richest ever found.

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When did the brass ensemble first appear?

Peter Holmes March 22, 2020

Brass instruments had been around for a very long time before we see different instruments used together.

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What’s in a name: Cornu?

Peter Holmes March 20, 2020

The name cornu (plural cornua) appears in Roman literature, describing their instrument which encircled the player.

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5

When Louis Met Me

Peter Holmes March 19, 2020

When I started playing the cornet, my two heroes were Louis Armstrong and Eddie Calvert.

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The Oldest Brass Instrument?

Peter Holmes March 18, 2020

There’s quite a bit of talk about which is the oldest brass instrument around but, for my money, it terms of continuous tradition, it’s the instruments of the first Australians.

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Why is iconography relevant?

Peter Holmes March 17, 2020

The term iconography refers to all manner of illustrations and we rely on these to fill in information about instruments when the physical remains are either lacking or fragmentary.

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2

What’s in a name: Lituus?

Peter Holmes March 12, 2020

The term ’lituus’ is one applied to a ‘J’-shaped instrument used by the Romans.

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1

Where did the first mouthpieces appear?

Peter Holmes March 11, 2020

In Scandinavia and the Baltic region, during the late Bronze Age mouthpieces were developed to an astonishing degree.

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