h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wonderfull overview of the brass family. I would like to interject however, that the didgeridoo is usually considered a "vocal modifier" instead of a brass instrument.

Sorry for replying that late,

I know that the didge isn't really what could be called a standard brass instrument. Many sounds are created by humming and buzzing into the tube. But the basic concept, i.e. a tube with vibrating lips at one end make it a brass instrument.

Jeremy

Isn't this solved by calling them all "lip-reed" instruments and leaving the metal out of the definition? Otherwise one can be accused of revelling in paradox, saying e.g. that a wooden cornetto is a brass instrument.

In your tables you set out the harmonic facts excellently.

I wonder why you use the word "Prim" where musicians normally say "Unison". I haven't come across this usage of "Prim" before, the nearest being a mathematical "Prime".

Your second table has a comma where it needs a dot in the fifth row, fourth column; otherwise the equal tempered third is seriously sharp!

I was directed here by Bossel, with a brand-new badge, commenting on my entry A1057736 - Sol-fa (2): the key to temperament, at F48874?thread=279450.

The , has turned into a .

Sorry to split hairs, but there is a difference between "well-tempered" and "just intonation". The term "well-tempered" has its classic use in Bach's 48 Preludes and Fugues for the "well-tempered clavier"; for a while this was taken to mean equal-tempered, but current consensus is that Bach used some form of unequal temperament that still allowed all keys to be usable. Well-tempered is therefore a highly loaded word, and normally far from what you mean, pure intervals.

Personally I don't believe there can be any just intonation outside the natural horn and trumpet, bugle and other harmonics-only instruments like tromba marina, trump (mouth harp) . . . see A1057736 - Sol-fa (2): the key to temperament.