Chestnut Brass Bringing Sackbut Back From The Ashes
April 01, 1990|by BRYAN HAY, The Morning Call
In 16th-century Verona, if you asked someone to examine your sackbut, it would be deemed a logical request. Today, you'd most likely be locked up for lewd behavior.

But the Chestnut Brass Company of Philadelphia has been exposing its sackbuts and various other obsolete ancestors of the brass family for 13 years before audiences around the world. The sackbut, by the way, is the forerunner of the modern trombone.

The ensemble-in-residence at Boyer College of Music, Temple University, will present a concert containing the splendour of authentic Renaissance works, American brass band music, contemporary quintet literature and other suites by American composers at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Northampton Community College Theatre.

It won't be a typical brass-quintet performance, because the Chestnut Brass has a period instrument to match every era of music, bringing a historical perspective to every note it plays. In all, the company has collected 150 brass instruments over the years, ranging from reproductions of Renaissance cornetti and sackbuts, to authentic keyed instruments from the 19th century.

"We offer something different from what people come to expect from brass-quintet performances," trombonist David Vining said in a recent interview. "People expect to hear a bunch of transcriptions or see a bunch of clowns on stage. We preserve the integrity by playing original instruments and commissioning new works. We offer a little something for everybody."

The quintet had a humble beginning as an informal street band on Philadelphia's Chestnut Street. "They put out a trumpet case and people threw money in it," said Vining, who joined the company about five years ago.

By coincidence, trumpeter Bruce Barrie, one of the company's charter members, stopped in an antiques store on Pine Street and bought an E flat bass saxhorn and their destiny was fulfilled.

"Soon enough, people threw in more money," Vining said.

The saxhorn, which vaguely resembles the modern tuba if you have an active imagination, is worn over the shoulder when played, its bell pointing backwards. They were used in British brass bands during the 19th century and came in many shapes and sizes.

Although many of their instruments came from pawn shops and inheritence sales, word spread about the new group's interest in original instruments, and people from across the country began searching their attics, garages and basements for buried brasses.

Their most rare piece, a quintaclave, an alto member of the keyed bugle family, was discovered this way.

"It was always a joke with us about finding one, but someone called us after finding one in their basement, behind a washing machine," Vining said. "The mouthpiece was soldered shut. That says a lot about the instrument. It sounds like a cow."

Their oldest is an 1830 B flat keyed bugle.

"The key system was sort of the bridge between the prehistoric instruments and the invention of the valve," he said, noting that the keyed brasses lasted roughly from 1810 to 1870.

The group has researched every bit of its repertory, the brass band music of the 19th century being the most difficult to locate.

Because much of it never appeared in print, the group's members had to spend countless hours in historical societies, museums and the Library of Congress, looking for scores and examining old photographs of brass bands to confirm details on instrumentation.