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
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...
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 peer-reviewed journal, the Historic Brass Society Journal and in 2021 began publishing a twice-annual e-zine, Historic Brass Today. Additional news and other content can be found on its website, www.historicbrass.org. In addition to these current publications, from 1989 through 2005 it published the Historic Brass Society Newsletter and has published a series of books in conjunction with Pendragon Press, the Bucina book series.
The Historic Brass Society also sponsors workshops, conferences, and symposia world-wide. The Historic Brass Society now has about 300 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
The American Musicological Society (AMS) is a musicological organization which researches, promotes and produces publications on music. Founded in 1934, the AMS was begun by leading American musicologists of the time, and was crucial in legiti ...
. It has organized conferences in collaboration with the
Galpin Society
The Galpin Society was formed in October 1946 to further research into the branch of musicology known as organology, that is the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments. Based in the United Kingdom, it is named after the B ...
,
American Musical Instrument Society
The American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS) was formed in 1971 "to promote study of the history, design, and use of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods" (the branch of musicology known as organology). Based in the United Sta ...
, CIMCIM, and other organizations and has presented conferences at many distinguished institutions including
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
,
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
,
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
,
Cité de la Musique
The Cité de la Musique (, "City of Music"), also known as Philharmonie 2, is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the Parc de la Villette, 19th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was designed with the nearby Conservatoi ...
(Paris), The Institute for Jazz Studies of
Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
,
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...
, the
Horniman Museum
The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in Forest Hill, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Modern Style. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and music ...
(London), the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...
(London),
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
, and
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...
, to name a few.
Key Officials
Founder Jeffrey Nussbaum served as the Society's president from 1989 through 2021. In 2020 the Society's by laws were rewritten and annual elections with term limits for all elected offices except for secretary were implemented to promote greater participation by the Society's Membership. The vice president is elected and serves for two years as president-elect before becoming president for an additional two years. The secretary serves for a three year term and members of the board are elected to serve three year terms with a limit of two consecutive terms.
The Society's Board of Directors also includes many leading scholars and performers. Members of the Society include scholars, teachers, professional and amateur performers, students, instrument collectors, museum curators, and others.
Publications
The Historic Brass Journal is a scholarly peer-reviewed publication that has published articles ranging from Antiquity through to the twentieth century and early jazz, written by leading authorities, including
Don Smithers,
Edward H. Tarr, Reine Dahlqvist, Herbert Heyde, Keith Polk, Renato Meucci, Trevor Herbert, and many others. The Historic Brass Journal is overseen by its own editorial board consisting of internationally known scholars with further oversight by the Society's board of directors.
The e-zine Historic Brass Today offers the Society's members a wide range of less formal material, including interviews with performers, makers, collectors, and brass teachers including articles in languages other than English. Its international staff and contributors consists of scholars, performer-scholars, collectors and amateurs from the full range of the Society's Membership.
From 1989 to 2005, the HBS published a newsletter, The Historic Brass Society Newsletter.
The Society's website contains additional news items, articles, reviews and interviews 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.
The Society has a YouTube channel where Society events including concerts and scholarly presentations from past events can be viewed.
External links
The Historic Brass Society official site
Brass instrument organizations