Nineteenth-century Brasswind: Understanding the Profusion of Invention

This lecture describes the explosive creation of new brass instruments in the first half of the nineteenth century and discusses ways of understanding their important features, especially with a view to re-constructing their sound world in 'period instrument' performance. The instruments of the Cyfarthfa Band are taken as an example. The conventional division of brasswind into 'conical' and 'cylindrical' is replaced by a more nuanced technique based on measurements. This technique is used to address the question: did Sax invent the saxhorn?