Baritone horn

History

The baritone horn found in British brass bands was derived from the French saxhorn baryton, a lower-pitched member of the family of saxhorns, although bore measurements of historical instruments show that it is closer to the baritone saxotromba. These were two families of conical-bore piston valve instruments developed in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax. Other members developed into instruments now common in bands, such as the E♭ tenor horn and the E♭ and B♭ tubas.

By the 1850s, Sax had convinced French military bands to use exclusively saxhorns in their bands, giving the instruments one of its first staples in the military field. Adolphe Sax's saxhorns became standard in bands in Britain and the United States largely due to the Distin family, who helped popularise the British brass band movement, promoting and performing widely on Sax's brass instruments. By 1850, Distin & Co. was manufacturing them in London, and in New York and Pennsylvania by the 1870s, after the London business was purchased by Boosey & Co.

In central and eastern Europe, the Baß-Tuba, patented in 1835 by the Prussian military conductor Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht and Berlin maker Johann Gottfried Moritz, inspired several related instruments. These eventually utilized rotary valves, and their characteristic oval shape was developed by Václav František Červený in the late 19th century. The equivalent of these to the baritone in bore, bell size, and sound is called the Tenorhorn in German.

Developments in North America

In the US at the start of the American Civil War, there were only a small number of military bands: the United States Marine Band, the United States Military Academy Band, several Regular Army regimental bands, and bands associated with state militias. In July 1861, the Department of War ordered a full band of at least 16 musicians be assigned to each regiment, and two field musicians per company, playing bugle, fife, or drum. These groups adopted bugles and saxhorns, including B♭ baritones and euphoniums. Over-the-shoulder varieties were frequently employed, as the backward-pointing bell of the instrument allowed troops marching behind the band to more easily hear the music.

During the course of the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, US instrument makers produced tens of thousands of brass instruments, and many have survived in museums. After the war, the bands and their music remained popular, and manufacturing demand for bugles and saxhorns remained strong. From these ensembles and musicians emerged the American drum and bugle corps tradition, which standardised on brass instruments pitched in G by the early 1890s.

By the early 1930s, the narrow bore bass bugle in G used until then had evolved into the baritone bugle (originally known as a bass baritone), with a wider bore. Also in G, it had a single piston valve that lowered the pitch a fourth, into D. Ludwig (then a subsidiary of C. G. Conn) called theirs the "Baro-tone" bugle. In the following decade, an additional semitone rotary valve was added, then replaced with a second F piston valve as permitted by a rule change in 1967. By 2000, Drum Corps International (DCI), the governing body for competitive drum and bugle corps in North America, changed the rules to permit three-valved instruments in any key, not just G. This allowed instruments common in other band movements to be used in the ensemble, including both regular and bell-forward marching versions of B♭ baritones and euphoniums.

The modern instrument

The modern British baritone horn was developed from the French saxhorn baryton. In the 1870s, a three-valve compensation system was developed by David Blaikley, the factory manager at the London-based manufacturer Boosey & Co. He developed a compensating third valve, where its tubing returns the airway through the first two valves a second time, adding smaller tubing loops to rectify intonation. Similar designs were patented earlier: by Gustave Auguste Besson in 1859 and Pierre-Louis Gautrot's système equitonique in 1864. Blaikley's compensation system was the most successful and was used on instruments by Boosey & Co. (later, Boosey & Hawkes) and Besson, after their merger in the mid-20th century. The three-valve system is still used on baritones from Besson, as well as Blaikley's four-valve compensating system found more commonly on euphoniums.

For much of the 20th century in the United States, the baritone horn referred to a wider bore instrument closer to the euphonium, with three front-action piston valves and usually a curved, forward-pointing bell. Originally made by American makers Conn and King, and later by Yamaha and Jupiter, these were popular with school marching bands and military bands. They were often used interchangeably with the euphonium by American players, band directors, and composers. Manufacturers sometimes listed instruments with identical dimensions, labeling the cheaper student instruments baritones, and reserving the name euphonium for the more expensive professional models.

Construction

The baritone horn, like the euphonium, is pitched in 9-foot (9′) B♭, an octave below the trumpet or cornet. When no valves are in use, the instrument will produce partials of the B♭ harmonic series which result from the vibrating air column within its 9 feet (2.7 metres) of tubing.

Like the euphonium, the baritone has a predominantly conical bore, but it is narrower, with less expansion of the bell flare and a consequently smaller bell diameter. It has a tighter wrap and is thus smaller and lighter overall. These characteristics favour higher frequency overtones in the sound, rendering a brighter, more trombone-like timbre than the euphonium.

As with other valved brass instruments, the valves each add lengths of tubing to lower the pitch of the instrument and produce a fully chromatic scale and range. Baritones commonly have three top-action piston valves, operated with the first three fingers of the right hand. Some have a fourth valve, generally found midway down the right side of the instrument, and played with the index or middle finger of the left hand. Some may have a fourth top-action valve placed next to the other three, played with the fourth finger of the right hand. European Tenorhorns mostly have an oval shape and three or four non-compensating rotary valves, operated together by the right hand.

Compensating valves

Many British-style three-valve baritones and some older American instruments have a compensating third valve. These route the tubing of the third valve back through the first two, which add a second set of small correcting lengths of tubing to correct the intonation of the lower notes, e.g. C₃ and B₂. On premium models, the fourth valve is a compensating valve, resolving intonation and providing range below E₂.

The fourth valve lowers the instrument a fourth, provides an alternate fingering for valves 1+3, and serves the same range-extending function as the F valve attachment on the tenor trombone. Although less common on baritones, its absence is not a defining characteristic.

Performance

The baritone typically forms part of the tenor harmony section of a band, and it can be used to play parts written for the similarly pitched tenor trombone or euphonium. Like players of the cornet and flugelhorn, the euphonium and baritone horn are easily doubled by one player, with some adjustment of breath and embouchure, since they have essentially identical range and fingering.

Range

On the baritone, the second partial with no valves actuated is B♭₂ on the second line of the bass clef. The eighth partial with no valves is concert B♭₄ in the middle of the treble clef. The E₂ second partial with all three valves actuated is the nominal lowest note on the instrument. Higher notes are possible above B♭₄ since the upper range is limited only by the fitness of the players' embouchure, although notes above the bell cutoff frequency, around the tenth partial (D₅), are more difficult to centre.

The lowest notes obtainable depend on the valve setup of the instrument. All three-valve instruments are chromatic down to E₂, and four-valve instruments extend that down to at least C₂. Non-compensating four-valve instruments suffer from intonation problems in this range and cannot produce low B₁. These problems are solved with a compensating fourth valve. The pedals, from B♭₁ down, are the fundamentals of the instrument's harmonic series. They are more difficult to produce on the baritone than the euphonium, due to its narrower bore and smaller mouthpiece. The extent of the lower end of the pedal range depends on the player's embouchure fitness and the presence of a fourth valve.

Notation

In British brass bands, all instruments except the bass trombone are transposing instruments using the treble clef notation popularized in France by instrument maker Adolphe Sax for his families of instruments. This system allows band players to easily learn and switch between instruments, since the valve fingering is the same. Like the tenor trombone and euphonium, and also the tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, the baritone when notated in treble clef is a B♭ instrument sounding a major ninth lower than written, an octave below the B♭ trumpet or cornet.

In concert bands, the baritone, when not confused with the euphonium, can be treated as a non-transposing instrument written at concert pitch in bass clef and, like the orchestral trombone, with high passages often in tenor clef. Concert band music often provides the baritone parts in both bass and B♭ treble clef to accommodate players from either background, although professional players are usually familiar with either notation. In continental European band music, the baritone and euphonium are occasionally written as B♭ transposing instruments in bass clef, sounding a major second lower than written.

Performers

In the early 20th century in the United States, the Italian-born trombone, baritone and euphonium virtuoso Simone Mantia (1873–1951) toured with the bands of both John Philip Sousa and Arthur Pryor, made some of the first solo recordings, and helped to popularize the baritone and euphonium in the United States. Leonard Falcone (1899–1985), also Italian-born, was appointed Director of Bands at Michigan State University in 1927, and, as professor of euphonium, taught many euphonium and baritone artists until his death in 1985. The Leonard Falcone International Tuba and Euphonium Festival, a principal venue for tuba family instruments in the United States, was established in his honour.

Some artists within the wind and brass band traditions have championed the baritone horn. Katrina Marzella is a British Yamaha artist, and helped them develop their "Neo" model of baritone horn. She has recorded two albums of baritone horn music, Katrina (2009) and Spotlight (2019), both premiering newly commissioned works. She played solo baritone with Black Dyke Band until her 2024 appointment as the first woman principal conductor of Scotland's champion brass band, The Cooperation Band. Mike Cavanagh is currently principal baritone with Black Dyke Band, and professor of baritone horn at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Helen Harrelson is a British baritone horn soloist, educator, and brass band advocate based in the United States, founding the National Youth Brass Band of America in 2019 and performing with Fountain City Brass Band in Kansas City. She promotes brass band music through teaching, performance, and research. Robert Richardson is a Scottish baritone and euphonium player and held principal positions in the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland, before performing extensively with the US Brass Band of Columbus. He was one of the four baritone soloists to record the band's album Baritones to the Fore! (2008), which included several new compositions.

Jazz

In jazz, trumpet players will sometimes double on lower valved instruments, including valve trombone and baritone horn. Maynard Ferguson was known to play both, and played baritone horn on his song "Gospel John" (1974).

The soundtrack to the 2023 film Fremont by the Iranian-born Canadian composer Mahmood Schricker features Leandro Joaquim on baritone horn, accompanied by double bass and the Persian setar.

Repertoire

In orchestral music, the baritone horn's contribution is rare. The German composer Gustav Mahler, in his Symphony No. 7, scores for a Tenorhorn, but the part is often played on the euphonium.

Italian composers occasionally call for flicorni in the banda parts in Italian opera, and Ottorino Respighi's off-stage brass parts for his symphonic poem Pini di Roma (1924) include baritone parts marked flicorno tenore in Si♭ intended to be played, if possible, on replicas of the ancient Roman buccina.

In bands, the baritone is used to fill the tenor and baritone texture, and sometimes given solo lines to bridge the gap between the trombones and euphoniums. For solo performances, the lack of original repertoire written specifically for the baritone has hampered its acceptance as a serious instrument. Soloists often have to rely on concertos and other works written for the trombone or euphonium. In 1939, Leonard Falcone published an article in the Music Educators Journal advocating for more solo compositions for the baritone, stating "anyone well acquainted with the instrument cannot deny that the baritone is one of the most, if not the most, expressive of the brass instruments."

In 1948, American composer Alan Hovhaness wrote his Divan Concerto No. 3 for baritone horn and orchestra. In the 21st century, there has been renewed interest in composing works for solo baritone horn, including Philip Sparke's Rhapsody (1991), and concertos with band by Boris Diev (1997), Roger Thorne (2003), Andrew Duncan (2004), Darrol Barry (2006), and Martin Ellerby (2007). British composer Peter Graham wrote his baritone concerto Turbulence, Tide & Torque (2018), which was premiered and recorded by Katrina Marzella.