Hélicon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The hélicon is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family.
It is the predecessor of the sousaphone, and the two have a similar shape and are both typically worn around the upperbody. A distinguishing characteristic of the hélicon is a smaller diameter in the coiled chamber which forms the body of the instrument.
The instrument is very popular in central and eastern Europe and is a common choice for military fanfare.
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[edit] History
The coiled brass instruments exist from the dawn of our civilization, known to Westerners under the names as lur, cornu or buccina. They were part of ritual ceremonies, military triumphal parades and circus games. Playing them was also a respected job in a mighty army of a Roman Empire. Restored in the beginning of the 19th Century under the name of helicon, they were made as a marching variation of then newborn Bass Tuba. In the following decades they developed into an entire family of a coiled brass winds used as a part of a splendid appearance of a mounted Military Bands of Empires on the zenith of Imperialistic Era. By the end of 20th Century they fell into oblivion as the objects which represented the times now gone forever. Helicons so far fascinated with their magnificent appearance, however they’ve never provoked an artistic curiosity, a perfection of musicality and genuine inquiring musical creativity.
[edit] Hélicon family
After the feverish century of inventing and constructing the whole families of new conical brass instruments, one might ask why someone should try to invent another family of such kind. There is a heritage of almost forgotten and obsolete instrument families of valve bugles such as: Sudrophones, Cornophones, Helicons, Sousaphones, Herculesophones, Pellitones, Imperial Cornets, Saxtubas, Saxotrombas, Saxhorns, Flicornis, Mellophones, Baroxytones, Antoniophones, Swanhorns, Ballad Horns, Vocal Horns or Lyrophones.
After many attempts to create a uniform family of gentle brass instruments, the only globally recognized remnants of these noble intentions are Bass and Contrabass concert Tubas, firmly holding that one seat in the last row of the symphony orchestra and some two in the modern band. Beside that one, we can also find Euphonium in the all kinds of band music and what is left of Saxhorns in British style Brass Bands. It’s similar as if one had only double basses, some rare cellos but no violins and violas.
Searching for the answers of such a situation, one finds areas of irrational prejudices as well as justified reasons against the use of most the above mentioned instruments. It’s said that existing B-flat Baritone, E-flat Alto horns a B-flat Soprano Flugelhorns have a lot of disadvantages in their sound projection, dynamic range etc. They are often described as "weak" instruments either comparing them to low conical brasses (Euphoniums and Tubas) or to Trombones, French horns and Trumpets. Even their timbre is not so special that it would make them clearly different or a better choice from Trombone, Trumpet or French horn. The case with those rare existing contemporary Sopranino E-flat Flugelhorns is identical – they have a beautiful middle register while playing them not too loud or not too soft, but terrible higher and low registers with lots of intonational problems. The biggest disadvantage of these "petite bugles" is their sound or "timbre", which is very close to one of a Soprano E-flat Cornet. But almost the same sound could be obtained by playing the small E-flat trumpets in a soft manner. It should be pointed out that all these small valve bugles were designed to be the violins, violas and violoncelli of brass but observing the actual situation they will be extinct within the next 50 years!
[edit] Employment
The gist of the problems connected with the high or middle conical brass instruments is closely connected with their employ. Since the Flugelhorn, Alto horn, Baritone or Small flugelhorn is usually the brass player’s second or even third instrument, the manufacturers (in the way to sell them) then try to adopt the bore, mouthpieces and the whole instrument as much as possible to the players first choice (Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone). These instruments have a few or none true top artists or specialists to play them and they are extremely rarely taught at conservatoires.
[edit] Instruments
To obtain the sonority with the volume of an organ combined with the living sensibility and expressiveness of a human voice, eminent German label Melton developed them out of the acoustical proportions of the mighty Červený Imperial BB-flat Contrabass Helicon. Led by the three essential ideas: to preserve, to renew and to create the entire new family of helicons is introduced:
- Soprano in E-flat
- Alto in B-flat
- Tenor in E-flat
- Baritone in B-flat
- Bass in F (or EE-flat)
- Contrabass in BB-flat (or CC)
