Instruments and Instrumentation of British Brass Bands

Abstract The first all-brass bands of the r 83os departed from the centuries-old band tradition of accompanying melody played on woodwind with harmony played on brass. The common wind band instrumentation of clarinets with horns and other brass instruments was varied to produce the brass band: cornets as principal melody instruments, accompanied by a variety of brass instruments of middle and low tessituras. The widespread adoption of the new instrumentation would seem to have been a matter of taste: a preference for the sound of concerted brass instruments made possible by the inventions of the early years of the nineteenth century. The price lists of D’ Almaine and Jordan (Appendix r) show that the expense of equipping a band with cornets would have been slightly more than for providing the same number of clarinets.