I’d say that Tommy Dorsey is the most famous jazz trombonist, though playing "I’m Getting Sentimental Over You " to a bunch of sixth graders would be a good way to make sure that none of them would pick up a trombone again. JJ Johnson is probably a better bet.
I’d second Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. You might also play a video of a dixieland band and point out the various instruments as each one takes a solo.
I’m really, really unsure about a French horn playing higher than a trumpet - in my experience it ain’t so, though the French horn has a large range; and Wikipedia agrees with me.
I’d pick Haydn’s trumpet concerto as an excellent showcase for that instrument, but there are also splendid obbligatos for trumpet in The Trumpet Shall Sound from Handel’s Messiah and Let The Bright Seraphim from his Samson. The latter pieces, incidentally, were written for natural (valveless) trumpet and illustrate perfectly the restricted range of notes available to one.
Miss Saigon’s “The Last Night of The World” features “a song played on a solo saxophone.”
For flute, I would strongly recommend Serenade to a Cuckoo, from Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “I Talk With the Spirits”. Most amazing flute-oriented album ever.
Why?
My list…
Trumpet: Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke (often attributed to Purcell)
Flute: Bourree in E Minor by J.S Bach (as performed by Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull)
French Horn: Mozart Horn Concerto in E flat major (introduced by “Ill Wind” by Flanders and Swann)
Strings: Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel
Violin: Four Seasons by Vivaldi (performed by Nigel Kennedy)
All I can think of for now
Si
For English horn (alto oboe), the classical example is Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9: From the New World, movement 2.
Thanks, ZipperJJ! Ignorance fought!
Even more tuba-like, of course, is what we call the tenor horn (but Americans call the alto horn) - the baritone’s baby brother. It is pitched in E flat, close to the F of the French horn. The French horn has a much bigger range, though, as its design allows the use of the upper end of the harmonic series to a much greater degree than any other brass instrument. Indeed, though it’s a labiaphone and made of brass, it’s often considered in a class apart from “brass” as such.
Check out the Canadian Brass versions of the Overture from Carmen and The Sabre Dance. Also Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
How about the Benny Hill Theme played on a tuba?
Got any xylophone players? Try “Silent Night” by The Music City Brass, available on iTunes.
Huh, in Marching Band, we French Horn players used Alto Horns, a kind of extra-shrunken Baritone (Alto register, duh), with trumpet fingerings.
-Cem
In most chamber groups and in most orchestras, we (French Horns) were lumped in with the woodwinds for sectional work.
Unless it was for a brass grouping, of course, in which case we were brass. My single best memory of playing the Horn was playing in a brass quintet (can’t remember the piece, dammit). Brass is SO much better than woodiwnds (shameless opinion).
-Cem
Eh, maybe not. I think that the kids around here would want something more modern or more upbeat.
If you’re looking for uses of those instruments in pop music, well…
There’s a trumpet in The Beatles’ “Penny Lane”
There’s a French horn (I think; maybe a trombone) in The Kinks’ “Dead End Street”
There are flutes in songs by Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues (e.g. “Voices in the Sky”), and Men At Work (e.g. “Down Under”)
There are saxophones in lots of songs (as I once started a thread full of examples).
Sometimes having a mind that’s stuck in the gutter is a real hindrance, and sometimes, it just adds so much color to the world.
I tried googling “labiaphone” and the only entry is someone who also claims to play the jugs.
Now THAT would catch the typical 6th grader’s attention, IIRC.
Heh…I have to admit that my first reaction was similar to Knead To Know’s, but in reality, “labiaphone” just means that the instrument’s sound is provided by someone’s lips. It’s a subset of the “aerophones” (instruments that are sounded by the vibration of a column of air).
And the wretched bassoon in “Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson.
-Cem
In the bands I’ve been in, the baritone has been the same range as a trombone (both one octave above the bass tuba). The primary difference is of course the method of play (valves vs. slide), with the trombone’s gliss ability which goes with that, but even playing a steady note, the sounds are subtly different: The trombone is a cylindrically bored instrument, meaning that for most of the length, the tubing keeps the same diameter, but the baritone is conically-bored, meaning that (except within the valve tubing) the diameter continually increases along the length of the tubing.
For tuba (and to a lesser extent, baritone), there’s a whole organization to go to: Harvey Phillips’ TubaCompany.
And others have mentioned Peter and the Wolf: It’s worth noting that it was actually composed for exactly this purpose, presenting the various instruments in an educational context.