[Dixielandjazz] Sousaphone (and other low pitch musical instruments)

[david richoux]

There are interesting articles on this subject at the Library of 
Congress site
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmhome.html
and http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwmhtml/cwmpres01.html (and follow the 
other internal links  - lots of information!)

and keeping OT, remember that a lot of these old instruments fell into 
the hands of those young proto-jazz musicians in New Orleans (if you 
believe that particular mythology of the development of jazz... ;-)

(not the OTS horns, but later surplus instruments.)

Dave Richoux

On Monday, Nov 17, 2003, at 11:45 US/Pacific, Mike Durham wrote:

> From all my reading on the subject, it seems that the 
> over-the-shoulder (or OTS) style was predominantly American and 
> intended mainly for military bands. The original such instruments were 
> Saxhorns. In catalogs from the 1880's many instruments are offered in 
> two or even three different styles: OTS, bell up or bell front. I 
> guess the switch after the civil war from primarily military to 
> primarily concert use caused the demise of OTS horns, though why 
> bell-front tubas, baritones, euphoniums and alto/tenor horns became 
> increasingly rare (in favour of bell-up models) is harder to 
> understand. OTS horns had effectively disappeared by the early years 
> of the 20th century. And by the way there are great recordings of 
> civil war era music on authentic instruments played by a band called 
> Heritage Americana. I picked mine up at the Gettysburg Battlefield 
> Park Visitor Center a couple of years ago.
>
> Yours, more belly-up than bell-up,
>
> Mike D.
>