Il rame nella musica e per la musica, in particolare per gli ottoni: la presentazione è stata tenuta all'Italian Brass Week del 2019 Presentation has been held during the 2019 Italian Brass week during the seminar DO RA ME.

1. DO RA ME
Brass and music
Marco Crespi, Istituto Europeo del Rame
Florence, July 25th 2018,
Italian Brass Week

2. Do RA ME Fa Sol La Si …
Marco Crespi – Istituto Europeo del Rame
Francisco Pacho Flores - Stonvi
Katzushi Sakaino – ED.Krispe & Curia Brass
Angelo Pinciroli - G.&P: Wind .,,yInstruments

3. At the beginning…
• Buccina (ancestor of trumpet and horn)
• Tuba romana
• Lituus
• Shofar (made of ram’s horn)
• Salpinx
• …..
Ancestor of brass instruments: not made of brass!
Signalling devices for military or religious purposes
Very simples, just a (bent) tube

4. The Renaissance
• first folded trumpets
• first slide trumpets (sackbut) → trombone
1400s:
1597: Sonate Pian’forte, by G. Gabrieli (trombones)
1808 and 1824: 5th and 9th symphonies by Beethoven
(trombones)

5. The evolution: here come crooks and valves!
1600s: crooks inserted in trumpets
1820s: valves inserted in trumpet (H.Stoelzel), then in trombone
1826: Les frans-juges by H. Berlioz, with valve trumpets
1835: the first tuba, by Wieprecht and Moritz
1843: the first euphonium, by Sommer
At 1890s: trumpets accepted at orchestras

6. Why brass? Some hints
Properties we need
• Workability and malleability: we have to shape it
• Ease of bending: neither flattening nor cracking (it must stand the mechanical
stress of fabrication)
• Strenght
• Joinability for its parts (soldering)
• Long lasting / resistance to corrosion

7. What kind of brass in the brasses?
- 1
Designation Content Where
C26000
(cartridge
brass)
CuZn30 Bell of trumpets, cornets, trombones and
saxophone.
Many other parts are also made with this alloy.
(often sold in sheets and easy to be formed and
worked into desired shape)
C23000 CuZn15 Optional bell for trumpers cornets, and
trombones
C26800 CuZn33 for slide tubing for all brass instruments, except
for saxophones, and valve casing for trumpets
and hornets
(used in tubing it is workable and machinable)
Phase α (up to 37%): good ductility and cold shaping.

8. What kind of brass in the brasses?
- 2
Designation Content Where
C35300 CuZn37Pb2 For stamping saxophone key components and
a variety of small parts on other instruments
C36000
(free-machining
brass)
CuZn36Pb3 Mouthpieces, brace rods, valves cap and finger
buttons
(easy to cut and shape)
With Pb: excellent workability at lathe

9. What kind of brass in the brasses?
- 3
Designation Content Where
C75200 CuZn20Ni18 For slide tubing of some brass instruments
Silvery look

10. Brass and music, an humble example…

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