Welcome to St.Aloysius College Band, Mangalore

St.Aloysius College Band is one of the most famous bands in Mangalore.

St.Aloysius College Band, Mangalore in the Eucharistic Procession.

Introduction To The members of the Band

Fr.Elvis Lewis S.J. - In charge of the band.
Br.Peter - Instructor
Mr.Adolf Lobo - Band Master

Present Students In Band:
Avinash
Godfrey Pinto
Neil Rasquinha
Neil Martin
Desmond Rego
Rohan D'douza

Sharon Crasta
Lanson Pinto
Ashish

Events

Events ahead this year are,

Feast of St.Aloysius Gonzaga - 21/6/08
Feast of St.Ignatius of Loyola - 31/7/08
Independence Day - 15/8/08
Pri. Sports Day
High School Sports Day
PU Sports Day
Degree Sports Day
School Day
Christmas
Eucharistic Procession
PU Day
College Day
Founders Day

History

Moche Trumpet. 300 AD Larco Museum Collection Lima, Peru.

The oldest trumpets date back to 1500 BC and earlier. The bronze and silver trumpets from Tutankhamun's grave in Egypt, bronze lurs from Scandinavia, and metal trumpets from China date back to this period.^[2] Trumpets from the Oxus civilization (3rd millennium BC) of Central Asia have decorated swellings in the middle, yet are made out of one sheet of metal, which is considered a technical wonder.^[3] The Moche people of ancient Peru depicted trumpets in their art dating back to 300 AD ^[4] The earliest trumpets were signaling instruments used for military or religious purposes, rather than music in the modern sense. "The sound of these instruments was described as terrible, that is, producing terror, and was compared to the braying of an ass." The modern bugle continues the signaling tradition, with different tunes corresponding to different instructions, but the advent of radio made its use more ceremonial.

Reproduction Baroque trumpet by Michael Laird

In medieval times, trumpet playing was a guarded craft, its instruction occurring only within highly selective guilds. The trumpet players were often among the most heavily guarded members of a troop, as they were relied upon to relay instructions to other sections of the army. Improvements to instrument design and metal making in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance led to an increased usefulness of the trumpet as a musical instrument. The development of the upper, "clarino" register, by specialist trumpeters, would lend itself well to the Baroque era, also known as the "Golden Age of the natural trumpet." The melody-dominated homophony of the classical and romantic periods relegated the trumpet to a secondary role by most major composers. The trumpet was slow to adopt the modern valves (invented around the mid 1830s), and its cousin, the cornet would take the spotlight as solo instrument for the next hundred years. Crooks and shanks (removable tubing of various lengths) as opposed to keys or valves were standard, notably in France, into the first part of the 20th century.

The Arabic word for trumpet was naffir. The Spanish used the Arabic name al naffir and changed it into anafil, while the French gave the trumpet its own name, buisine, derived from the Latin word buccina.

Today, the trumpet is used in nearly all forms of music, including classical, jazz, rock, blues, pop, ska, polka and funk. Among the great modern trumpet players are Clifford Brown, Maurice André, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Faddis, Maynard Ferguson, Adolph "Bud" Herseth, Harry James, Charles Schlueter, Malcolm McNab, Wynton Marsalis,Allen Vizzutti, Sergei Nakariakov, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, James Morrison, Maurice Murphy, Arturo Sandoval, Doc Severinsen, and Philip Smith. See List of 20th century brass instrumentalists for a more comprehensive list.

Types of trumpets

The most common type is the B-flat trumpet, but C, D, E-flat, E, F, G and A trumpets are also available. The C trumpet is most commonly used in American orchestral playing, where its slightly smaller size gives it a brighter, more lively sound than the B-flat trumpet. Because music written for early trumpets required the use of a different trumpet for each key — they did not have valves and therefore were not chromatic — and also because a player may choose to play a particular passage on a different trumpet from the one indicated on the written music, orchestra

trumpet players are generally adept at transposing music at sight, sometimes playing music written for the B-flat trumpet on the C trumpet, and vice versa.

Each trumpet's range extends from the written F sharp immediately below Middle C up to about three octaves higher. Standard repertoire rarely calls for notes beyond this range, and the fingering tables of most method books peak at the C (high C) two octaves above middle C. Several trumpeters have achieved fame for their proficiency in the extreme high register, among them Andrea Tofanelli, Bill Chase, Roger Ingram, Maynard Ferguson, Wayne Bergeron, Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Faddis, Cat Anderson, James Morrison,and Arturo Sandoval. It is also possible to produce pedal tones below the low F sharp, although this technique is more often encountered as a sound-production exercise rather than as a written trumpet part.

Piccolo trumpet in B-flat, with swappable leadpipes to tune the instrument to B-flat (shorter) or A (longer)

The smallest trumpets are referred to as piccolo trumpets. The most common of these are built to play in both B-flat and A, with separate leadpipes for each key. The tubing in the B-flat piccolo trumpet is one-half the length of that in a standard B-flat trumpet. Piccolo trumpets in G, F and even C are also manufactured, but are rarer. Many players use a smaller mouthpiece on the piccolo trumpet. Because of the smaller mouthpiece size, endurance is often limited and the sound production technique is different from that used on the B-flat trumpet. Almost all piccolo trumpets have four valves instead of the usual three: the fourth valve lowers the pitch, usually by a fourth, to facilitate the playing of lower notes. Maurice André, Håkan Hardenberger, and Wynton Marsalis are some well-known piccolo trumpet players.

Trumpets pitched in the key of G are also called sopranos, or soprano bugles, after their adaptation from military bugles. Traditionally used in drum and bugle corps, sopranos have featured both rotary valves and piston valves.

The bass trumpet is usually played by a trombone player, being at the same pitch and using a similar mouthpiece. Bass trumpet is played with a trombone or euphonium mouthpiece, and music for it is written in treble clef.

trumpet in C with rotary valves

The modern slide trumpet is a B-flat trumpet that has a slide instead of valves. It is similar to a soprano trombone. The first slide trumpets emerged during the Renaissance, predating the modern trombone, and are the first attempts to increase chromaticism on the instrument. Slide trumpets were the first trumpets allowed in the Christian church.^[1]

The historical slide trumpet probably was first developed in the late fourteenth century, for use in alta capella wind bands. Deriving from early straight trumpets, the Renaissance slide trumpet was essentially a natural trumpet with a sliding leadpipe. This single slide was rather awkward, as the entire corpus of the instrument moved; also, the range of this slide was probably no more than a major third. Originals were probably pitched in D, to fit with shawms in D and G - probably at a typical pitch standard near A=466. As no instruments from this period are known to survive, the details - and even the existence - of a Renaissance slide trumpet is a matter of some conjecture, and there continues to be some debate among scholars.^{[citation needed]}

Some slide trumpet designs saw use in England in the eighteenth century; the 'tromba da tirarsi' called for in some Bach cantatas may also have been some manner of slide trumpet.^{[citation needed]}

The pocket trumpet is a compact B-flat trumpet. The bell is usually smaller than a standard trumpet and the tubing is more tightly wound to reduce the instrument size without reducing the total tube length. Its design is not standardized, and the quality of various models varies greatly. It can have a tone quality and projection unique in the trumpet world: a warm sound and a voice-like articulation. Unfortunately, since many pocket trumpet models suffer from poor design as well as cheap and sloppy manufacturing, the intonation, tone color and dynamic range of such instruments are severely hindered. Professional-standard instruments are, however, available. While they are not a substitute for the full-sized instrument, they can be useful in certain contexts.

There are also rotary-valve, or German, trumpets, as well as alto and Baroque trumpets.

The trumpet is often confused with its close relative, the cornet, which has a more conical tubing shape compared to the trumpet's more cylindrical tube. This, along with additional bends in the cornet's tubing, gives the cornet a slightly mellower tone, but the instruments are otherwise nearly identical. They have the same length of tubing and, therefore, the same pitch, so music written for cornet and trumpet is interchangeable. Another relative, the flugelhorn, has tubing that is even more conical than that of the cornet, and an even richer tone. It is sometimes augmented with a fourth valve to improve the intonation of some lower notes.

Construction of a trumpet

The trumpet is constructed of brass tubing bent into a rough spiral. The trumpet and trombone share a roughly cylindrical bore which results in a bright, loud sound. The bore is actually a complex series of tapers, smaller at the mouthpiece receiver and larger just before the flare of the bell begins; careful design of these tapers is critical to the intonation of the instrument. By comparison, the cornet and flugelhorn have conical bores and produce a more mellow tone.

As with all brass instruments, sound is produced by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound into the mouthpiece and starting a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet. The player can select the pitch from a range of overtones or harmonics by changing the lip aperture and tension (known as the embouchure). Modern trumpets also have three piston valves, each of which increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch. The first valve lowers the instrument's pitch by a whole step (2 semitones), the second valve by a half step (1 semitone), and the third valve by one-and-a-half steps (3 semitones). When a fourth valve is present, as with some piccolo trumpets, it lowers the pitch a perfect fourth (5 semitones). Used singly and in combination these valves make the instrument fully chromatic, i.e., able to play all twelve pitches of Western music. The sound is projected outward by the bell.

The trumpet's harmonic series is closely matched to the musical scale, but there are some notes in the series which are a compromise and thus slightly off key; these are known as wolf tones. Some trumpets have a slide mechanism built in to compensate for this.

The mouthpiece has a circular rim which provides a comfortable environment for the lips' vibration. Directly behind the rim is the cup, which channels the air into a much smaller opening (the backbore or shank) which tapers out slightly to match the diameter of the trumpet's lead pipe. The dimensions of these parts of the mouthpiece affect the timbre or quality of sound, the ease of playability, and player comfort. Generally, the wider and deeper the cup, the darker the sound and timbre.

Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument in the brass family. It has the highest register in the brass section. A musician who plays the trumpet is called a trumpet player or trumpeter. The most common trumpet by far is a transposing instrument pitched in B flat - the note read as middle C sounds as the B flat 2 semitones below - but there are many other trumpets in this family of instruments.

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular resonator. They are also called labrosones, literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" (Baines, 1993).

There are two factors in changing the pitch on a valved brass instrument: pressing the valves to change the length of the tubing, and changing the player's lip aperture or "embouchure", which determines the frequency of the vibration into the instrument.

The view of most scholars (see organology) is that the term "brass instrument" should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above, and not by whether the instrument is actually made of brass. Thus, as exceptional cases one finds brass instruments made of wood like the alphorn, the cornett, and the serpent, while many woodwind instruments are made of brass, like the saxophone.

Brass band

A brass band is a musical group generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles which include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularly in the context of New Orleans-style Brass Bands), but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, wind bands or wind ensembles.

British-style

A British brass band marching

A brass band in the British tradition with a full complement of players generally comprises 8-10 cornets (usually including a soprano and repiano cornet), 1 flugelhorn, 3 tenor horns, 2 baritones, 2 euphoniums, 3 trombones (2 tenors and 1 bass), 4 tubas (2 E♭ and 2 B♭) and percussion. There is a long tradition of competition between brass bands, often based around local industry and communities. This form of brass band is widespread throughout Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand and is also commonly found in North America and continental Europe.

The Salvation Army, part of the Christian church, has deployed brass bands since 1878 and they continue to be an integral part of that organisation. The most well-known Salvation Army brass band is The International Staff Band which is based in London.

New Orleans

The tradition of brass bands in New Orleans, Louisiana dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Traditionally, New Orleans brass bands could feature various instrumentations, often including trumpets, trombones, saxophones, sousaphones and percussion. The music played by these groups was often a fusion between European-styled military band music and African folk music brought to the Americas by west African slaves and the idiom played a significant role in the development of traditional Jazz.

A well-known use of these bands is for the New Orleans jazz funeral.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the New Orleans brass band tradition experienced a renaissance, with bands breaking away from traditional stylings and adding elements of funk, hip hop, and bop to their repertoires. Some notable exponents of this style of brass band include the Rebirth Brass Band, the Soul Rebels Brass Band, Youngblood Brass Band and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, though a number of groups outside the United States have begun playing this style of music. The style has moved beyond New Orleans and now brass bands can be found in such far flung places as Japan with the Black Bottom Brass Band, The Netherlands with the Happy Feet Brassband and the Hurricane Brass Band, Boston, Massachusetts with the Hot Tamale Brass Band and Madison, Wisconsin with Mama Digdown's Brass Band and Youngblood Brass Band.

Polynesia

Founded in 1836 by King Kamahameha III, the Royal Hawaiian Band is the second oldest and only full-time municipal band in the United States. In recent generations, unique brass band traditions have also developed in Tonga, Samoa, and other parts of Polynesia, as well as among the Māori of New Zealand. Some recordings are now available and these styles are beginning to be researched and promoted abroad through band tours.

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music. In each musical style or genre, different norms have developed for the sizes and composition of different ensembles, and for the repertoire of songs or musical works that these ensembles perform.

In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of instrument families (e.g., piano, strings, and winds) or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. In jazz ensembles, the instruments typically include soloing instruments (one or more saxophones, trumpets, etc.) one or two chordal instruments (electric guitar, piano, or organ), a bass instrument (electric bass guitar or double bass), and a drummer or percussionist. In rock ensembles, there are usually several guitars (one or two electric guitars, a bass guitar, and in some cases, one or more acoustic guitars), a keyboard player (either a Hammond organ, a piano, an electric piano, or an electronic synthesizer), and a drummer.

About

St. Aloysius College is one of the best colleges in and Mangalore, so is its band group. Its stays on the top from years together. We had Fr. A.S. Rodrigues was the band master who is retired now. All of us are very greatful to his work. His contribution to the college band is unimaginable. After him we had Fr. Walter Albuquerque as the band master. As he is old now he is not able to come, but we can't forget his service. Presently we have Fr. Elvis Lewis as our new band master along with Br. Peter.