David Harbin writes:

>To what extent do the brass sections of modern orchestras reflect what
>Bruckner would have expected in his day?

It is true, that a modern orchestra is completely differently balanced from
what Bruckner would have expected.

The brass instruments in our orchestras use a much wider bore than they
used to in Bruckners time, which favours a bigger sound projection and
better blending.

In Bruckners time, the sound of an orchestra and its interior balance
was nowhere nearly as standardised as in our days.  German orchestras for
example favoured wider bores in their orchestral brass, with a warmer sound
and bigger volume, whereas french orchestras favoured narrow bores with
a distinct sound for every instrumental group and greater flexibility.
These differences go for every instrument, of course, and originate in the
different national schools of playing and instrument making and ultimately,
much earlier, in the different national languages and articulations.  But
even so the german instruments used to be wider in the 19th century, they
were nowhere near the ones we use nowadays.

Brass instruments have developed through the 20th century significantly,
whereas string instruments have stayed basically the same as in Bruckners
time.  And indeed, it is one of the biggest problems of our orchestral
balance to accomodate a trombone section capable of more than 110db in fff.
For performances on historic instruments look at Norringtons Bruckner 3 (or
Wagner orchestral works).  For more information the various articles in the
Groves or in Koury, Orchestral Performance Practises in the 19th century
(orchestra sizes a.s.o.).

Baldur Bronnimann <[log in to unmask]>