Fiscorn

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Fiscorn is a Catalan translation of bugle. While the term also designates the modern flugelhorn, the term today in Catalonia commonly refers to a conical bell forward rotary valved brass instrument (bass-flugelhorn) in C played in the cobla (Catalan wind orchestra) to accompany the sardana (Catalan folk dance).

Background

Originally played in polka bands throughout Germany and the former Czechoslovakia, as well as in military bands in Italy, the instrument has migrated to find its home today in Catalonia. Favored over other valved low brass for its haunting mellow tone and bell front projection, the fiscorn quickly became an emblatic instrument of the cobla, along with the tenora and the tible. While the instrument has been dropped from most music ensembles for intonational concerns, the instrument's powerful baritone voice has no counterpart, (save perhaps the piston-valved marching baritone), in the organology. Instruments such as the British euphonium or the French saxhorn cannot compete with the directional metal-belled Catalan shawms (tenoras and tibles), trumpets and trombone in the outdoor village-square setting where the sardana is danced.

Musicians

While the instrument is often played by trombonists, its conical nature is easily mastered by tubists or euphoniumnists. There is currently a shortage of qualified fiscorn players in Catalonia, despite the efforts of a young generation of aspiring concert artists. Several instrument manufacturers have attempted to solve the intonational discrepancies of the instrument in recent years, with a varied success. The instrument is taught throughout Catalonia, most notably in the traditional music departements of the ESMUC in Barcelona and at the CRR in Perpignan, France.