Instrument of the Week! The Euphonium!

The Euphonium is an instrument in the brass family. The appearance resembles a small tuba. It is often confused with the baritone. The baritone as a more cylindrical bore, while the Euphonium is more of a conical and wider bore. The Euphonium is a valved instrument like the tuba, trumpet, and baritone. It can have three or four valves. The professional model of the Euphonium is called a Compensating Euphonium most of which have a three plus one valve configuration to proper intonation in the lower range. Euphoniums are most often seen in military and brass bands, although they are now becoming popular solo and ensemble instruments. The name comes from the Greek word euphonos meaning sweet-voiced or of good sound. The instrument evolved from the serpent along with the tuba and other brass instruments. It seems to have been invited between 1838-1843 A.D. The British Compensating Euphonium was developed by David Blaikley in 1874. There are many models and styles of the Euphoniums I have included some pictures below. There are several famous euphonists today, among them are Steven Mead, Arthur W. Lehman, Brian Bowman, and Demondrae Thurman. Below the pictures are a couple of YouTube Videos to give you a feel for the instrument.

Welcome to Chamber Dissonace!

Welcome to my new blog Chamber Dissonance! If this catches on in anyway, I will be vastly surprised. A quick glossary look up from http://www.classicalworks.com/ will tell us that, “Chamber music is written for 2 to 10 solo parts featuring one instrument to a part. Each part bears the same importance.” No doubt many of you will associate this what is commonly called classical music in the street vernacular. The same web site would inform us that, “Dissonance is harsh, discordant, and lack of harmony. Also a chord that sounds incomplete until it resolves itself on a harmonious chord.” These words together may help explain my endeavor here on this blog. I attend to write about music…you know that art form built with sound and silence. Not just any won kind of music mind you. Music in the broadest sort of sense. Professional and amateur instrumental, folk, rock, goth, world, ska, electronic, and sorts of other disjointed genres will be discussed here. As I wish to write about the musicians, software, and instruments used. The chamber is but one of the many venues and types of music. On top of that, a chamber is a room, most of us listen to music in rooms. Dissonance is about how well all of this should fit together. I probably wouldn’t want to read a blog as diverse as I hope to make it. So it seems like all I can tell you is that what comes should be in some way related to an art form composed of sound and silence.