Collectibles

The Oval Tenorhorn

The oval tenorhorn, a constant source of confusion for Slavic Soul Party audience members, deserves a page of its own. This instrument, little known in the US, is commonly used in Eastern Europe and German-speaking countries as a middle voice in brass bands in between the melody (trumpets or flugelhorns) and the bass (tuba or helicon). In some bands oval tenorhorns coexist with trombones and/or oval euphoniums.

My Lignatone tenorhorn (right) compared with a noname oval euphonium. Note smaller bell and width of tubing on the tenorhorn.

The oval tenorhorn is similar in bore size and identical in length of tubing to the American "baritone horn". Both instruments are in Bb and use a mouthpiece interchangable with a trombone mouthpiece.
Discussions of the names of tenor brass instruments are usually wildly confusing. There are dozens of varieties of valved brass instruments pitched in Bb, one octave below the trumpet. Different manufacturers call the same instrument by different names, and some of the different instruments are so similar that only practiced eyes can tell them apart.
Oval tenorhorns were created by the esteemed Czech brass firm Cerveny in the late 19th century. Their chief buyers were military bands, who needed an instrument suitable for marching, with a bell that wouldn't be in the way of the players sightlines. Many craftsmen apprenticed at the Cerveny factory and went on to create their own brass instrument companies throughout Europe, using Cerveny's designs. As a result, nearly all brass instrument firms in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland produce oval tenorhorns, as well as the Russian St. Petersburg company and the Czech Cerveny. All other brass firms tend to produce piston valve tenor brass instruments, if they make them at all. Strangely, Chinese firms have recently started to produce inexpensive oval tenorhorns in large numbers, presumably because rotary valve production is simpler than that of piston valves. Many players in the Balkans have these instruments, which are imported through Germany. However, the huge numbers of these things appearing on the market suggest that the Chinese know something we don't, and have in mind some untapped market of Balkan-style brass bands popping up all over the US!


German chicks dig tenor horns.

In the Balkans, these instruments are usually called “tenor truba” and “bariton truba” (flugelhorn is called “truba” and helicon is called “bass truba”) but sometimes they are called “bariton truba” and “bass truba” with the helicon called “grandbass truba” or something like that. And even worse, sometimes they just call them “tenor” or “bariton” based on which player is playing a higher part, regardless of what kind of instrument they are playing.
A typical Serbian brass band (trubaci) has two to four tenorhorns. They play in a section, playing 2 to 4 part harmony.
The bread and butter of Serbian tenorhorn playing are upbeats, in contrast to the downbeats of the helicon or tuba. Tenorhorn, helicon, and percussion make up the "rhythm section". Occasionally, tenorhorns carry the melody for a brief section, usually in an interlude, to give the melody players a chance to rest their chops. In addition the player playing the top tenorhorn part may improvise countermelodies from time to time, especially in a kolo (2/4 dance). In some Eastern European traditions, such as the Moldavian brass bands from Romania, a tenorhorn is almost constantly playing a countermelody in addition to 2 or 3 tenorhorns playing upbeats.
I know of no recordings of Serbian brass bands where a tenorhorn has a featured solo. However, in Serbia several tenorhorn players played improvised solos for us, when in the course of teaching us songs they indicated where a flugelhorn solo was supposed to begin. The style of the improvising was identical to the style that flugelhorn players typically play. When we asked them why they never played solos with the band, they replied something like, "He's the leader (the flugelhorn player), he takes the solos."

One of the world's greatest low brass sections, from the Boban Markovic Orkestrar