The Brass or ‘Brasswind’ Family

Like the woodwinds, all the brasswind instruments require the player to use their breath to make sound.  Very often they are made of brass, but even if they’re made of nickel, silver or wood, we still call them “brass instruments”.

note: Saxophones are often made of brass, but because they use a single reed attached to a mouthpiece to make sound, we consider them woodwinds.

The true distinguishing feature of the brass family is the use of the lips to make sound.  Brass players blow air through their lips to make the lips flap – this is called “buzzing”.  Here’s a video of someone alternately buzzing alone, and then into his trumpet.   Notice how the instrument makes the sound much louder and nicer?

There are 4 brass instruments commonly found in the orchestra:

The biggest difference between the brass instruments is size.  Just like the string and woodwind families, the larger the instrument, the lower the sound.  What gets a little tricky about the brass though, is that their tubing can be coiled up to make a very long instrument more compact.  Although the horn (sometimes called “french horn”) is a tube about 3.7 metres long, it is coiled up so it can fit nicely in the player’s lap.

Here’s the famous Canadian Brass playing flight of the bumble bee:

Wilkie performance update

Here, no there, no here!

Our concert in Wilkie will indeed be at its original location:  Norman Carter Elementary School on Friday, November 27th.  Sorry for the confusion!

The Woodwind family

Wood – because that’s what they were made of.

Wind – because players use their breath in the instruments to create sound.

There are 4 regular members of the woodwind family in the orchestra:

Flute: Though there still are wooden flutes around, most are made of metal now, because metal flutes are louder and match the volume of the rest of the orchestra better.

Flute players make sound by blowing over the top of a hole at one end of the instrument – just like when you blow over the top of a pop bottle.

Clarinet: They’re made of a very hard and black wood called grenadilla.

The Clarinet is a single reed instrument, which means the player attaches a reed (piece of shaped cane – like bamboo) to a plastic mouth piece to play it.  When they blow air through the mouthpiece, the thin reed flutters very fast which creates the sound.

Oboe: Oboes are usually made of the same grenadilla wood that clarinets are made from.

The oboe is a double reed instrument.  It also uses pieces of cane to make sound, but instead of vibrating against a mouthpiece, the double reed instruments have two pieces of cane which vibrate together.

You can see that the flute, clarinet and oboe are all of a similar size.

Bassoon: The bassoon is another double reed, but bigger and lower.  They’re generally made from maple wood.

Though the tube of the bassoon is bent around to make it easier to play, the full length of the tube is almost 3 metres!

Since these instruments use different techniques to make sound, they all have distinct characters, but they sound great together.  Check out this video to hear the double reeds together.  Can you tell which instrument is which?

Wilkie performance location changed!

Please note that our concert in Wilkie on Friday, November 27th has a location change. 

We will be now be performing at the St. George School at 11:00.  See you there!

Stay tuned for photos from Monday’s concerts!

Introducing the Strings!

A Symphony orchestra usually has about 80 musicians in it, playing instruments from 4 families: Strings, Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion.  Although the music for Tatterhood is written for only 10 musicians, Strings, Woodwinds and Brass are all represented.

The difference between a band and an orchestra is the presence of the string family of instruments.  Usually the strings make up over half of an orchestra.  Although guitar, banjo and electric bass are all considered string instruments, they are generally not included in orchestras.  The string instruments of the orchestra are those which use a bow to create their sound.  These are, from highest to lowest, the violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Violin, viola, cello and bass (front and side views)

All of these instruments are made out of wood, and have 4 strings.  Their bows are made from wood and metal and strung with hair from the tails of horses.  Pulling the bow across the strings of these instruments causes the strings to vibrate and create sound.

The biggest difference between the instruments is their size – the bigger they are, the lower the sound they produce.

Here’s a video of a performance (not of us) of a piece for String quintet (2 violins, viola, cello and double bass) which we particularly enjoy.  This is a string quintet by Antonin Dvorak.

Folktales and Fairytales

The story of Lurvehette, or Tatterhood, is a old folktale from Norway.  Tatterhood is a spunky, adventurous girl who kicks some troll-butt while trying to save her sister from nasty trolls!

But what is a folktale?  And what is the difference between a folktale and a fairytale anyways?

Folktales:

• Folktales are the stories of a culture or of a people passed down orally. 

Fairytales:

• Fairytales are imaginary stories about people, fairies, animals or things who have magical powers.  

The main difference between a folk tale and a fairytale is that folk tales require that people use their brains to solve their problems while fairy tales require that people have magic to help them.

Fractured Fairytales:

• A fairytale or folktale that has been changed up a bit.  The story must still be recognizable to its original but parts of the story have to be broken apart, often in crazy ways!

CLICK HERE to see if you know any of these stories!

One of the most famous examples of musical narration is the story of “Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev.  Like “Tatterhood,” this children’s story is spoken by a narrator with music played by an orchestra.  Prokofiev wrote both the music AND the text for “Peter and the Wolf” in 1936.  And it is still popular with audiences and played around the world today!

Each character in the story is represented by an musical theme.  Listen below for the bird (played by a flute), duck (oboe), cat (clarinet), Grandfather (bassoon), wolf (horns), hunters (woodwinds and percussion) and Peter (string instruments.)

The Wheatland Regional Library has several versions of “Peter and the Wolf”  available in print, video and on CD.  Check it out and enjoy the full version of this classic story!    www.wheatland.sk.ca

Have a listen to Walt Disney’s version of “Peter and the Wolf” on YouTube! 

 

Our tour dates and locations!

Monday, November 23, 2009

11:00 a.m. / Elizabeth School, Kindersley

2:00 p.m. / Eaton School, Eatonia

Friday, November 27, 2009

11:00 a.m. / Norman Carter Elementary School, Wilkie

2:00 p.m. / St. Peter’s Roman Catholic School, Unity

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

10:30 a.m. / Delisle Elementary School, Delisle

2:00 p.m. / Outlook Elementary School, Outlook

Stay tuned for details about dates in 2010!

What is the Tatterhood tour anyway?

‘Tatterhood’ is a traditional Norwegian folktale.  Jonathan Ward, a composer living in Regina, Saskatchewan has written instrumental music to make the telling of the story more exciting, and fuel your imagination!

The Saskatoon Symphony and Wheatland Regional Library have teamed up to bring performances of Tatterhood with a narrator and 10 musicians to 10 communities surrounding Saskatoon.  We will be visiting schools in Beechy, Delisle, Eatonia, Eston, Kindersley, Kyle, Lucky Lake, Outlook, Unity and Wilkie.

We’ve booked a bus, and will perform our first concerts at the end of November.  Stay tuned here on our blog for information on the composer, the instruments you’ll see in the show, the story and our rehearsals leading up to the performances.