The Distin family was an ensemble of British musicians in the 19th century who performed on brass instruments, and from 1845 promoted the saxhorn. One of them, Henry Distin, later became a noted brass instrument manufacturer in the United Kingdom and United States.
John Distin (1798–1863) was born in Plympton, and began his musical career with the South Devon Militia, and from 1814 in the Grenadier Guards. [1] [2] [3] [4] He was known as a soloist in his early teens: the melodrama The Miller and his Men by Henry Bishop, which contained a trumpet obbligato based on Distin's style, dates from 1813. [5] [6] In the Guards, he was taken to be a virtuoso of the keyed bugle, and came to notice in Paris after the battle of Waterloo. [7] The development by Halary of the ophicleides is put down to a request from Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia, who had there heard Distin play the keyed bugle for the Grenadier Guards. [5]
Distin in 1821 joined the band of George IV, in which he played the slide trumpet as well as the keyed bugle. On the king's death in 1830, the band was dissolved, and he spent a number of years in Scotland, at Taymouth as bandmaster to John Campbell, 1st Marquess of Breadalbane, then formed a brass quintet with his four sons. [2] [3]
The debut of the Distin family quintet took place in 1837, at the Adelphi Theatre, Edinburgh. The initial instrumentation was John Distin on slide trumpet, and his four teenage sons on three horns and a trombone. [8] John and his four sons then toured internationally as a brass ensemble, into the late 1840s. Their repertoire included a fantasia on the opera Robert le diable by Meyerbeer. [9]
The brass instruments used by the early Quintet were from the Pace family of instrument makers, founded in 18th-century Dublin by Matthew Pace. The players combined the keyed bugle, natural horns, slide trumpet, trombone and cornopean (i.e. cornet). [10] [11]
Ann Matilda Distin (née Loder) (1786–1848) in 1829 married John Distin as her second husband. She had previously been married to Thomas Edmund Ridgway (1780–1829). [12]
Ann Matilda was from a noted family of musicians in Bath, Somerset, the elder sister of John David Loder. [12] She went onto the stage, mostly as dancer, in Bristol and Bath in 1803, and married Ridgway in 1804; this marriage had broken down soon after 1815. [3]
Ridgway had a career in pantomime, first appearing as Harlequin in 1807, with Joseph Grimaldi. [13] By 1813 it could be said of pantomime at Sadler's Wells that "its chief asset was the talent of Tom Ridgway and John Bologna, its Harlequins, James Barnes, its Pantaloon, and Grimaldi [...]" [14]
Ann Matilda composed the Windsor Quadrilles for Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham. [15] She was mother, by her first marriage, to the Ridgway family of pantomime artists. At London's Olympic Theatre, the Christmas pantomimes "were supported by the Ridgway family, and proved very attractive" in the 1820s. [16] She had a second family of performers, her four sons by Distin who were the supporting players in the Quintet, all of them born out of wedlock. She herself became the pianist accompanying the Distin Quintet. [12]
Adolph Sax introduced his saxhorns in 1844, and that year the Distin family encountered him in Paris, and adopted the new range of brass instruments. [8] This was a fundamental change to valved brass, from keyed and slide mechanisms. [10] The Distins influenced the further evolution of brass instruments. [17]
In January 1845 the Distins performed on silver saxhorns for Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort at Stowe House. [18] That year, John Distin and his second son Henry set up a business, Distin & Sons, in London, dealing in sheet music and musical instruments. [19] The instrument business also stocked saxhorns; and the quintet publicised the saxhorn range. [20] [21] In that same year, 1845, the first ever brass band competition formally organised took place at Burton Constable, as part of a celebration run by Thomas Clifford-Constable, with instruments supplied by the Distins. [22]
The eldest of the sons, George (born 1818), died in 1848, and the touring group then became a quartet. [19] His mother also died the same year. The family business Distin & Sons was then dissolved. [23]
The Distin brass quartet accepted a 40 concert booking in New York for the 1849 season, but the venue burned to the ground while they were crossing the Atlantic. While the tour was critically hailed, a cholera epidemic and riots scared away audiences. A brief tour of Canada went no better. [21]
Some time after the American tour of 1849, Henry John Distin (1819–1903), the second son of John and Ann Matilda. established his own instrument manufacturing and sales concern, Distin & Co., in London. [24] [25] He sold Adolph Sax's instruments alongside his own traditional brass instruments. He was awarded a prize medal for the superiority of his instruments over European competitors at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867. [24]
Henry Distin then in 1868 sold Distin & Co., including its shop on Cranbourn Street, to what would become the Boosey family business, precursor of Boosey & Hawkes formed in 1930. Originally a bookshop from the 1790s, Boosey by the mid-19th century was using specialist wind instrument makers. The acquisition of Distin's business positioned Boosey to become a leading brass and band instrument company. [17] [26] [27] The original company name was retained to 1874; the works manager David Jamed Blaikley (1846–1936) was an innovator in instrument design. [28]
Henry Distin subsequently lost most of his money on concert schemes and other ventures, within a few years. [24]
In 1876 Distin moved to the United States and set up a small business manufacturing cornets in New York. In 1882 he relocated to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to produce instruments in partnership. The company took on his name in 1885, [24] [29] becoming the Henry Distin Manufacturing Company, and making a full line of brass instruments. [30] [24]
Distin remained a performer and marketer of brass instruments. At the age of 70, he was still performing, playing The Last Rose of Summer on an E-flat tuba with the Gilmore Band in 1889, at the concert for the purpose of presenting one of his company's horns to Patrick Gilmore. [24] He died in Philadelphia, in 1903. [25]
Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the flute and clarinet.
The cornet is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B♭. There is also a soprano cornet in E♭ and cornets in A and C. All are unrelated to the Renaissance and early Baroque cornett.
The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word εὔφωνος euphōnos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced". The euphonium is a valved instrument. Nearly all current models have piston valves, though some models with rotary valves do exist.
The flugelhorn, also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though some are in C. It is a type of valved bugle, developed in Germany in the early 19th century from a traditional English valveless bugle. The first version of a valved bugle was sold by Heinrich Stölzel in Berlin in 1828. The valved bugle provided Adolphe Sax with the inspiration for his B♭ soprano (contralto) saxhorns, on which the modern-day flugelhorn is modeled.
The saxhorn is a family of valved brass instruments that have conical bores and deep cup-shaped mouthpieces. The saxhorn family was developed by Adolphe Sax, who is also known for creating the saxophone family. The sound of the saxhorn has a characteristic mellow tone quality and blends well with other brass.
The tuba is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration – a buzz – into a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for "trumpet".
The baritone horn, sometimes called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family. It is a piston-valve brass instrument with a bore that is mostly conical, like the higher pitched flugelhorn and alto (tenor) horn, but it has a narrower bore compared to the similarly pitched euphonium. It uses a wide-rimmed cup mouthpiece like that of its peers, the trombone and euphonium. Like the trombone and the euphonium, the baritone horn can be considered either a transposing or non-transposing instrument.
The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the embouchure.
The tenor horn is a brass instrument in the saxhorn family and is usually pitched in E♭. It has a bore that is mostly conical, like the flugelhorn and euphonium, and normally uses a deep, cornet-like mouthpiece.
The mellophone is a brass instrument typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E♭, D, C, and G have also historically existed. It has a conical bore, like that of the euphonium and flugelhorn. The mellophone is used as the middle-voiced brass instrument in marching bands and drum and bugle corps in place of French horns, and can also be used to play French horn parts in concert bands and orchestras.
A brass quintet is a five-piece musical ensemble composed of brass instruments. The instrumentation for a brass quintet typically includes two trumpets or cornets, one French horn, one trombone or euphonium/baritone horn, and one tuba or bass trombone. Musicians in a brass quintet may often play multiple instruments. Trumpet players for instance may double on piccolo trumpets and flugelhorns. There can be variation in instrumentation depending on the type of quintet. In some quintets, the horn is replaced by an additional trombone. Euphonium may also be substituted for the trombone part. While the tuba is considered a standard, the range and style of many pieces lend themselves to being played with bass trombone as the lowest-pitched instrument. Additionally, some pieces call for the use of percussion instruments, particularly the snare drum, tambourine, or timpani.
The ophicleide is a family of conical-bore keyed brass instruments invented in early 19th-century France to extend the keyed bugle into the alto, bass and contrabass ranges. Of these, the bass ophicleide in C or B♭ took root over the course of the 19th century in military bands and as the bass of orchestral brass sections throughout Western Europe, replacing the serpent and its later upright derivatives. By the end of the 19th century however, it had been largely superseded by early forms of the modern tuba, developed from valved ophicleides.
The Grammy winning Chestnut Brass Company is a Philadelphia brass quintet founded in 1977. Since beginning as a street band in Philadelphia in 1977, they have performed in North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia.
Besson is a manufacturer of brass musical instruments. It is owned by Buffet Crampon, which bought Besson in 2006 from The Music Group.
The subcontrabass tuba is a rare instrument of the tuba family built an octave or more below the modern contrabass tuba. Only a very small number of these giant novelty instruments have ever been built. Most are pitched in 36’ BBB♭ an octave lower than the BB♭ contrabass tuba, its fundamental B♭-1 corresponding to a practically inaudible 15 Hz.
The saxotromba is a valved brass instrument invented by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1844. It was designed for the mounted bands of the French military, probably as a substitute for the French horn. The saxotrombas comprised a family of half-tube instruments of different pitches. By about 1867 the saxotromba was no longer being used by the French military, but specimens of various sizes continued to be manufactured until the early decades of the twentieth century, during which time the instrument made sporadic appearances in the opera house, both in the pit and on stage. The instrument is often confused with the closely related saxhorn.
Alfred James Phasey was a British bandsman and tenor brass artist in the mid-nineteenth century. As a euphonium player, he was cited as the master of the instrument in his time.
British Bandsman was a magazine published weekly devoted to British brass band music. It was founded in 1887 by Sam Cope (1856–1948) and acquired by The Salvation Army in 2004, before being sold in April 2015 to KGC Media Ltd., a company formed by the publication's then managing editor. In August 2014, it was confirmed by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest weekly music magazine.
A horn is any of a family of musical instruments made of a tube, usually made of metal and often curved in various ways, with one narrow end into which the musician blows, and a wide end from which sound emerges. In horns, unlike some other brass instruments such as the trumpet, the bore gradually increases in width through most of its length—that is to say, it is conical rather than cylindrical. In jazz and popular-music contexts, the word may be used loosely to refer to any wind instrument, and a section of brass or woodwind instruments, or a mixture of the two, is called a horn section in these contexts.
The keyed bugle is a wide conical bore brass instrument with tone holes operated by keys to alter the pitch and provide a full chromatic scale. It was developed from the bugle around 1800 and was popular in military bands in Europe and the United States in the early 19th century, and in Britain as late as the 1850s.
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