Great video! And what an amazing instrument I've literally never heard of before. You really feel the passion of the musician for his special instrument.
I love the rough sound it gives, as opposed to the smooth, round tones of the tuba. Really adds some power to that bass register. That said, that's not an instrument. It's a frickin' fog horn.
@@markuslarjomaa3122 well, I admit, it did change my opinion. I guess it's more dependent on style and technique. That guy can really play a smooth cimbasso!
The cimbasso is able to hit those low notes without creating the excessive overtones of the tuba. Shaking the chandeliers is one of the joys of the tuba, but a cimbasso holds more to the fundamentals and combines well with the trombones.
brucekuehn, I wonder about your comment. Since a tuba has a warmer sound, that suggests fewer high harmonics in its timbre, while a trombone's brighter sound suggest more high harmonics. You refer to 'overtones', which seems to mean the same thing as harmonics. I think you may have things backwards.......?
With winds instrument, the lower the register the more air you need, so it is not that he "like" to breathe, it is more like a mandatory thiing, you kow to survive...
This particular F cimbasso is not Italian, but is a custom made instrument from Mike Johnson in England. I feel Mr. Whitener should have mentioned that. It would be ergonomically far more comfortable than any stock model you could buy someplace, and probably 'blows' better as well (less resistance).
I kinda get where this video is coming from but it's a bit superficial for me and presents some historical conjecture as if it was fact. Unless new evidence has recently emerged, it is not certain that the modern cimbasso (which is a 1960s/70s invention) is what Verdi intended to hear when he wrote for cimbasso. There is evidence that the term 'cimbasso' was used. There is evidence of a valved contrabass trombone from Verdi's time. There is seemingly no evidence though that the instrument in question was the instrument that Verdi referred to as cimbasso. It is this contrabass trombone that formed the basis for the development of the modern cimbasso - using historically informed guesswork.
Verdi of course didnt invented cimbasso. The name Cimbasso is garbled C basso. Verdis operas in original were performed with 4 valave trombones.... Cimbasso is basicly rotary basstrombone in F.
To expand on this comment: - Verdi was not in the instrument inventing business. He requested a tuba-pitch instrument with the timbre of the trombones, and the cimbasso was produced by instrument makers. - Nobody knows where the name cimbasso came from. It is merely a guess that it might have been a corruption of 'C basso'. - How were Verdi's operas performed with "4 valve trombones"? Or do you meant they were performed by a group of four valve-trombones? The facts are mixed up here. Cimbassos are normally in Eb of F for use in Italian operas, but they also come in CC and BBb, mostly for their frequent use in movie soundtracks. - While most cimbassos use rotary valves (probably because their makers stole the valve sections out of rotary valve tubas), there have been plenty of piston valved cimbassos made (depends on which instrument donated its valve section). Of course, there are 'regularly manufactured' cimbassos as well as the lash-ups. - The modern cimbasso is nothing more than a tuba-pitched valve trombone with a funny shape to make it fit into the tight confines of orchestra pits, while retaining the forward-projecting bell like the trombones is is usually placed next to. - "Cimbasso" has, over time, referred to a number of instruments, not just the modern cimbasso. At least three very different instruments have gone by this name, starting with the instrument NOW called "early cimbasso", which is a late form of upright serpent.
When brass instruments warm up, their tubing lengthens slightly due to thermal expansion, right? So a longer tube produces a lower pitch (think of a longer trombone slide position producing a lower note), so heat causes the pitch to go flat, not sharp. I'm doubting your comment was ironic (though if it was, I'm do apologise ;-)), so I'm wondering to what you'd attribute its going sharp? (...I imagine there's some idiosyncratic manufacturing peculiarity or non-standard alloy that might result in such an effect, but I can't think of anything.)
@@yfructose In reply, it's the temperature that affects brass instruments. When metal gets warmer it expands. When metal gets cooler it contracts. I'll leave it to you to decide which makes a brass instrument go flat or sharp. I'm not really bothered either way. I'm a percussionist!! 😊😊 What I do know is that the Cimbasso is dreadful instrument.
Crazy how it turns flowers to gold.
😂😂😂
Great video! And what an amazing instrument I've literally never heard of before. You really feel the passion of the musician for his special instrument.
I love the rough sound it gives, as opposed to the smooth, round tones of the tuba. Really adds some power to that bass register. That said, that's not an instrument. It's a frickin' fog horn.
A glorious fog horn.
Do check out Mattis Cederberg playing his cimbasso with the WDR Big Band. Prepare to change your opinion about the instrument…
😂
@@markuslarjomaa3122 well, I admit, it did change my opinion. I guess it's more dependent on style and technique. That guy can really play a smooth cimbasso!
The cimbasso is able to hit those low notes without creating the excessive overtones of the tuba. Shaking the chandeliers is one of the joys of the tuba, but a cimbasso holds more to the fundamentals and combines well with the trombones.
Because the cimbasso has a cylindrical bore as opposed to a tuba's conical bore. It really is more like a valved bass or contrabass trombone.
brucekuehn, I wonder about your comment. Since a tuba has a warmer sound, that suggests fewer high harmonics in its timbre, while a trombone's brighter sound suggest more high harmonics. You refer to 'overtones', which seems to mean the same thing as harmonics. I think you may have things backwards.......?
@@youtuuba You are correct!
This guy really likes to breathe
With winds instrument, the lower the register the more air you need, so it is not that he "like" to breathe, it is more like a mandatory thiing, you kow to survive...
You have to but he also breathes through the instrument, which amplifies it. Mic probably picking it up extra too.
This particular F cimbasso is not Italian, but is a custom made instrument from Mike Johnson in England. I feel Mr. Whitener should have mentioned that. It would be ergonomically far more comfortable than any stock model you could buy someplace, and probably 'blows' better as well (less resistance).
A great transplanted musical instrument! 🇬🇧🙂👍🇺🇸
Them: "What do you play?"
Me: "I play the Cimbasso."
Them: "What is that?"
Me: "I play the space heater."
Wow! I’m gonna return the Ophicleide that I just bought on Ebay and get me one of these instead 😮!
Ophicleides are the real fog horns of the orchestra (when they're used at all - I'm glad they stopped using them!).
its like a tuba trough a fulltone OCD pedal
I assume that the film composer Elliot Goldenthal, also a successor of Aaron Copland, uses also this instrument for his soundscapes.
It’s the Mukkinese Battle Horn!
Nosregni, well, no, it is not. The "Mukkinese Battle Horn" was a serpent in disguise, quite a different instrument.
I kinda get where this video is coming from but it's a bit superficial for me and presents some historical conjecture as if it was fact.
Unless new evidence has recently emerged, it is not certain that the modern cimbasso (which is a 1960s/70s invention) is what Verdi intended to hear when he wrote for cimbasso.
There is evidence that the term 'cimbasso' was used.
There is evidence of a valved contrabass trombone from Verdi's time. There is seemingly no evidence though that the instrument in question was the instrument that Verdi referred to as cimbasso. It is this contrabass trombone that formed the basis for the development of the modern cimbasso - using historically informed guesswork.
Bro I some oxygen, too.
Curious...
❤
Alla fine di Nessun Dorma il tenore ha fatto cilecca!!!!
Verdi of course didnt invented cimbasso. The name Cimbasso is garbled C basso. Verdis operas in original were performed with 4 valave trombones.... Cimbasso is basicly rotary basstrombone in F.
To expand on this comment:
- Verdi was not in the instrument inventing business. He requested a tuba-pitch instrument with the timbre of the trombones, and the cimbasso was produced by instrument makers.
- Nobody knows where the name cimbasso came from. It is merely a guess that it might have been a corruption of 'C basso'.
- How were Verdi's operas performed with "4 valve trombones"? Or do you meant they were performed by a group of four valve-trombones? The facts are mixed up here. Cimbassos are normally in Eb of F for use in Italian operas, but they also come in CC and BBb, mostly for their frequent use in movie soundtracks.
- While most cimbassos use rotary valves (probably because their makers stole the valve sections out of rotary valve tubas), there have been plenty of piston valved cimbassos made (depends on which instrument donated its valve section). Of course, there are 'regularly manufactured' cimbassos as well as the lash-ups.
- The modern cimbasso is nothing more than a tuba-pitched valve trombone with a funny shape to make it fit into the tight confines of orchestra pits, while retaining the forward-projecting bell like the trombones is is usually placed next to.
- "Cimbasso" has, over time, referred to a number of instruments, not just the modern cimbasso. At least three very different instruments have gone by this name, starting with the instrument NOW called "early cimbasso", which is a late form of upright serpent.
@@youtuubaI ment group of four trombones of course...
Hmm, looks like there are positions for Americans in Scottish ensembles.
The horror!
@@JonFrumTheFirst hey now
Ghastly thing. I believe it tended to go sharp under concert hall lights.
When brass instruments warm up, their tubing lengthens slightly due to thermal expansion, right? So a longer tube produces a lower pitch (think of a longer trombone slide position producing a lower note), so heat causes the pitch to go flat, not sharp. I'm doubting your comment was ironic (though if it was, I'm do apologise ;-)), so I'm wondering to what you'd attribute its going sharp? (...I imagine there's some idiosyncratic manufacturing peculiarity or non-standard alloy that might result in such an effect, but I can't think of anything.)
@@yfructose In reply, it's the temperature that affects brass instruments. When metal gets warmer it expands. When metal gets cooler it contracts. I'll leave it to you to decide which makes a brass instrument go flat or sharp. I'm not really bothered either way. I'm a percussionist!! 😊😊 What I do know is that the Cimbasso is dreadful instrument.
@@DavidA-ps1qr If you reread my post, you’ll see I’ve already “decided”.
Its awful
Then you should not look on youtube for the Los Angeles Cimbasso Ensemble. A real thing.