Offstage Brass and Percussion

Offstage Brass And Percussion

An offstage brass and percussion part is a sound effect used in classical music, which is created by having one or more trumpet players (also called an offstage trumpet call), horn players, or percussionists from a symphony orchestra or opera orchestra play a note, melody, or rhythm from behind the stage. This creates a distant, muted effect which composers use to suggest "celestial voices", melancholy, or nostalgia, or to create a haunting effect.

Read more about Offstage Brass And Percussion:  History, Performance Challenges, List of Pieces That Call For Offstage Instruments

Famous quotes containing the words brass and/or percussion:

    Thee for my recitative,
    Thee in the driving storm even as now, the snow, the winter-day
    declining,
    Thee in thy panoply, thy measur’d dual throbbing and thy beat
    convulsive,
    Thy black cylindric body, golden brass and silvery steel,
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    We got our new rifled muskets this morning. They are mostly old muskets, many of them used, altered from flint-lock to percussion ... but the power of the gun was fully as great as represented. The ball at one-fourth mile passed through the largest rails; at one-half mile almost the same.... I think it an excellent arm.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)