Founded in 1988, The Historic Brass Society (HBS) is an international music organization whose goal is to promote the exchange of serious ideas about the history and performance of brass instrument

Brass instrument

A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

s and music, ranging from Antiquity through the twentieth century.

Overview

The Society was created by participants in the annual Early Brass Festival, founded in 1985, in Amherst, Massachusetts. In a short time the Society grew in size and initiated an ambitious publishing program. Since 1989, it has produced an annual journal, the Historic Brass Society Journal and, from 1989 through 2005 it published the Historic Brass Society Newsletter which was then supplanted by more timely content presented on its multifaceted website, www.historicbrass.org. In addition, it publishes a series of books in conjunction with Pendragon Press, the Bucina book series. It also sponsors workshops, conferences, and symposia world-wide. The Historic Brass Society now has about 600 members from 25 countries.

Activities

The Society has become the principal forum for scholarly research in the field of historic brass instruments, their music, composers and performers. Because it draws its members from both the scholarly and performing communities, it often serves as a liaison between the early brass world and many organizations in other cultural and intellectual communities. The Society has participated in Congresses of the International Musicological Society since 1997 and has organized study sessions at annual conferences of the American Musicological Society

American Musicological Society

The American Musicological Society is a membership-based musicological organization founded in 1934 to advance scholarly research in the various fields of music as a branch of learning and scholarship; it grew out of a small contingent of the Music Teachers National Association and, more directly,...

. It has organized conferences in collaboration with the Galpin Society

Galpin Society

The Galpin Society was formed in October 1946 to further research into the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments...

, American Musical Instrument Society

American Musical Instrument Society

The American Musical Instrument Society was formed in 1971 "to promote better understanding of all aspects of the history, design, construction, restoration, and usage of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods"...

, CIMCIM, and other organizations and has presented conferences at many distinguished institutions including Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, Oxford University, Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

, Cité de la Musique

Cité de la Musique

The Cité de la Musique is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the La Villette quarter, 19th arrondissement, Paris, France. It was designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc and opened in 1995...

 (Paris), The Institute for Jazz Studies of Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

, Edinburgh University, the Horniman Museum (London), the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

 (London), Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, and Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...

, to name a few. The Society’s annual Early Brass Festival, held each summer at locations throughout the United States, offers formal lectures and performances as well as informal brass playing sessions for cornetti

Cornetto

Cornetto may refer to* Cornett, a Renaissance period musical wind instrument* Cornetto , a branded frozen ice cream cone* Cornetto Italian word for Croissant, typically to be consumed with Cappuccino....

, natural trumpet

Natural trumpet

A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series.-History:The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication ....

s, natural horn

Natural horn

The natural horn is a musical instrument that is the ancestor of the modern-day horn, and is differentiated by its lack of valves. It consists of a mouthpiece, some long coiled tubing, and a large flared bell. Pitch changes are made through a few different techniques:* Modulating the lip tension as...

s, sackbut

Sackbut

The sackbut is a trombone from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, i.e., a musical instrument in the brass family similar to the trumpet except characterised by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches, thus allowing them to obtain chromaticism, as...

s, serpents

Serpent (instrument)

A serpent is a bass wind instrument, descended from the cornett, and a distant ancestor of the tuba, with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument but side holes like a woodwind. It is usually a long cone bent into a snakelike shape, hence the name. The serpent is closely related to the cornett,...

, and a wide range of 19th-century brass instruments.

Key Officials

Some key officials of the Historic Brass Society are President and Founder, Jeffrey Nussbaum, Journal Executive Editor Stewart Carter, Co-Editor Howard Weiner, Production Editors Benny Sluchin and Bryan Proksch and webmaster Steven Lundahl. The Society’s Board of Directors also includes many leading scholars, and performers, including Keith Polk, Trevor Herbert, Jeffrey Snedeker, Charlotte Leonard, James Miller, and Tom Reicher. The members are scholars, teachers, professional performers, instrument collectors, museum curators, and enthusiastic amateurs.

Publications

The Historic Brass Society Journal is a scholarly refereed publication that has published articles ranging from Antiquity through to the twentieth century and early jazz, written by leading authorities, including Don Smithers

Don Smithers

Don Leroy Smithers , music historian and performer on natural trumpet and cornetto. He is a pioneer for the revival of the authentic, uncompromised natural trumpet.-Biography:...

, Edward H. Tarr, Reine Dahlqvist, Herbert Heyde, Keith Polk, Renato Meucci, Trevor Herbert, and many others. The Newsletter offers the Society’s members a wide range of less formal material, including interviews with performers, makers, collectors, and brass teachers. From 1989 to 2005, the HBS published a newsletter, The Historic Brass Society Newsletter. Since then, news, articles and reviews have appeared on the HBS website. These include articles on instrument collections and an ongoing series on early brass instrument makers and their work, as well as reviews of CDs, music, and books, and the extensive News of the Field section, as well as real-time discussion groups.